Ch, Ch, Changes ... turn and face the strain

The Parkers Nurseries’ stand won the best plant display award at the National Plant Show, for its vibrant, well-coordinated detail and incorporation of a bar area that gave it a fun, exciting and youthful look and feel.

The National Plant Show has been organized by the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) for the past four years and has already established itself as the essential event in the UK plant retailers’ calendar, providing an ideally timed opportunity for the industry to come together and consider the future. Despite the challenges of the current climate (both economic and meteorological) the vast majority of traders appear to be in a bullish mood and viewing the future will a level of optimism.

Indeed, the HTA’s own hospitality stand was entitled “The Future is Growing.” This theme was chosen because a) the majority of the sponsors are growers; b) It has a level of optimism to it, but most importantly; c) we need to attract the younger families into our businesses.

Along with many countries around the world, the average age of our customers is gradually creeping up, and the arrival of supermarkets such as Waitrose and Morrisons in the plant arena, not to mention the UK’s most successful fashion retailer Next, is providing an attractive alternative for the younger gardener.

Garden centres have done a great deal to expand their appeal with the inclusion of cafes, restaurants, farm shops, cook shops and many other attractions, though this does not yet appear to translate into plant area sales. The mood at the show though appeared to indicate that a revolution is about to rise up.

Retailers understand that traditional methods of merchandising, which are often organized to benefit the retailer rather than the customer, must be swept aside and a whole new approach taken to their presentation on the shop floor. The days of arranging plants by department, in grossly misunderstood and meaningless groupings such as herbaceous perennials, alpines and conifers, need to become a thing of the past in the modern plant retail outlet.

Our new generation of customer are not interested in what they are buying or, indeed, the often over emphasized how-to’s. What they are demanding is a reason why they should buy a plant. In the same way that Next (along with many other fashion retailers) will sell a shirt and tie combination rather than a collection of shirts at one end of the store and a shelf of ties at the other, they are using plants to sell a ‘look’. Equally the plants are not sold in isolation, away from other products in the store. In fact a Next look will cover everything from the garden shed, paving, gravel pots and plants that all match to convey a personality, a statement, a style to which a particular customer may relate themselves.

Along with this movement, the grow-your-own market has moved too. There are of course hardcore gardeners who will continue in the allotment vein of double digging, mulching etc, but the younger market again must focus on why. The why is not self-sufficiency, economics or saving the planet but engaging themselves, their families and their friends in something that is fun, exciting and successful.

James Wong, author of “Grow Your Own Drugs” and “Homegrown Revolution,” gave a presentation at the show outlining his thoughts for improving the image of gardening amongst the younger generation. He believes that garden centres of the future need to become more like plant food halls than factory outlets in the near future.

This is a sentiment I can relate to from personal experience while running a customer focus evening recently. The invited audience that evening was unanimous in viewing the garden centre as a delicatessen rather than a supermarket, which is an interesting observation. Another surprising piece of information that came out of that evening was that to the younger members of the group a plant dying after one year was an advantage.

This gave them the opportunity to change colour schemes from one year to the next and any mistakes they make will only be short-term.

Great examples of broadening the appeal of plants to a younger audience could be seen on Parkers Nurseries’ stand at the National Plant Show, the winners of the best plant display award.

Vibrant, well-coordinated colours, great attention to detail and the incorporation of a bar area really gave the stand a fun, exciting and youthful aura.

In conclusion, we need to seriously review our whole approach to stock range, our merchandising system, the messages we convey and,

I suspect, the capacity of our teams to undertake the journey that lies ahead. It

will be a fascinating, enlightening but without a doubt, bumpy ride!

Kevin has worked as an independent garden center consultant to retailers, suppliers, DIY stores and trade organizations across the UK, Ireland, Europe, U.S. and Japan since 1995 and founded The Garden Works in 2001. Kevin can be reached at kevinwatersconsultancy@gmail.com