Marshall Home and Garden

Some years you’re lucky to be in one hot category, but it’s amazing when you get to be in the top three.

David Schemenauer, president of Marshall Home and Garden, says it has been their best year in 27 years as they have been able to ride the crest of the hottest trends in garden.

We all know that succulents are this season’s must have category; what Marshall has brought to the market is the most realistic permanent succulents in the market. “We have even watched retailers who grow succulents become huge advocates of the permanents (artificial) as they find it serves an entirely different customer base from the buyers who love the live goods. Pieces range from a $1 to $3 for most goods and are available in low minimums of 10 pieces per style. What’s fun for me is to have a customer pick one up and still have to ask if it is real or artificial; the quality of these has become almost indistinguishable from the real plants.”

“Fairy gardening and our Woodland Knoll collection continues to be a surprise to us as to how popular it has become. When we first got into this category, we thought it was going to be just a hot, quick trend — now six years into it we are still seeing strong growth. This season we have added over 50 new designs just for spring alone,” Schemenauer says. “Because most of our retailers are now treating it as a permanent category in their stores, it’s our job to keep it fresh — and we do. We will pull back on adding new designs if we see it slow down — but we certainly haven’t seen a sign of it yet and are bringing out our biggest introduction ever.”

Rounding out the hot list for Marshall is their line of wind sculptures. “Our strength is that our pieces are designed to handle windier environments. It’s not just the quality that’s built into the pieces,” Schemenauer says. “But it’s our designs themselves that make the difference. We try to avoid the big flat faces designs that are all over the market, as they can break in higher winds. Ours are designed to work with the wind instead of fighting it — and it makes all the difference.”

For more information, visit http://www.marshallhomeandgarden.com