Brand aid: Fairview Garden Center and PDSI

In 1974, Jo Ann Dewar started Fairview Garden Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her granddaughter-in-law (and Fairview marketing director) Heather Rollins describes the initial offerings of the business as “poinsettias and geraniums in tin coffee cans.” They were well-grown, though, and demand built a business from the humble beginnings. Three generations later, the passion remains, but the coffee cans have been replaced, in part with plants in Southern Living Plant Collection and Encore Azalea branded containers from Plant Development Services, Inc. (PDSI).

“As soon as branded plants started coming out, we started carrying them,” Rollins explains. “But whenever there is a plant that we can buy in or grow that has a lot of marketing dollars behind it that the consumer recognizes, we try to carry that plant.”

That’s what makes the Encore Azalea and Southern Living Plant Collection branded plants essential merchandise for Fairview. They rely on the rich selection of printed and digital marketing materials, and in the case of Southern Living Plant Collection, the strength of a long-standing brand recognized for quality across their Southeastern region.

Rollins notes that PDSI’s investment in promoting its plants means that Fairview does not need to use its own marketing dollars to tell the story of the plants. In fact, consumers are primed to buy prior to even entering the garden center. Therefore, Rollins and the Fairview staff can focus on merchandising the plants in a way that makes them easy for consumers to find and shop.

“There’s a Southern Living Purple Pixie dwarf weeping Loropetalum that is always paired with ‘Sunshine’ Ligustrum in Southern Living Plant Collection marketing materials,” notes Rollins. “So, we put those together the way they look on the POP [point of purchase] to show people how you can put those things together. And of course, it’s the source of upsells because customers say, oh, I need both.”

The exceptional marketing isn’t the only benefit that Fairview sees in carrying branded products from PDSI. Rollins says that there’s a huge benefit in the curated grower network that PDSI uses. She knows that the plants she receives have been grown with the same care that her husband’s grandmother gave the geraniums and poinsettias way back in 1974. That’s important when selling perishable items.

“It’s essential that the plant survives in the customer’s yard, with a healthy root system, tested and bred to grow in our area specifically,” Rollins says. “It’s not just about the pretty picture.”

The marketing and quality have made PDSI’s Southern Living Plant Collection and Encore Azaleas top-sellers at Fairview. Both contribute to the garden center’s $3 million in annual sales.

The branded pots have replaced the coffee cans, but the passion for providing high-quality plants continues to drive Fairview, thanks to some help from PDSI.

“The fact that it comes in, looks good, has the right POP, people know about it, and then it sells quickly, is all part of the process for us to be able to make a profit,” says Rollins.