Day One of GCA Summer Tour produces several great merchandising ideas

Two busses toting 100 horticulture pros made the rounds through the Orlando and Tampa regions of Florida Monday during the first day of the Garden Centers of America Summer Tour. Stops included Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Kerby’s Nursery & Landscaping, Earthscape Garden Room and the Harry P. Leu Gardens. Here are some “quick hit” highlight ideas the touring garden center operators were noting to take home to their own stores:

*** As might be expected, the emphasis at the Animal Kingdom wasn’t on the park’s residents as much as their habitats. Disney takes painstaking care to ensure that the plantlife on display at the famed park is as enthralling as the animals. The vast amusement area is divided into seven sectors: Oasis, Discovery Island, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafki’s Planet Watch, Asia and Dinoland, U.S.A. Each section is marked by plants indigenous to the areas represented – or, at least, sporting traits with which animals in the wild are familiar.

Disney employs more than 450 horticulture specialists to tend to plant upkeep, and they faced one of the biggest challenges in park history during the past winter when unseasonably cold weather harmed and killed a number of varieties not used to the cold. Monday showed the experts were up to the task; everything was green, colorful and hardy – and up to the highest touring standards.

But the real “find” for the garden center operators milling about sections of the park took place behind the scenes, where they got and up close and personal look at some of the topiaries that have lent personality to various Disney events through this season and seasons past. Disney has used these living portraits of some of its more famous characters to draw “oohs” and “ahs” from guests of the park, and many of the garden center operators on the tour were taking notes and pictures to see if they could mimic what Disney does at their own stores to create characters that might enhance their own marketing efforts.

*** Kerby’s Nursery & Landscaping in Seffner, Fla., is one of the more profitable garden centers in the Garden Center Group, said group Managing Director Robert Hendrickson. It features a meandering wooden walkway that leads store visitors to displays (lots of plants, minimal hard goods). Hendrickson said while the walkway garners a lot of attention, it was the result more of “have to” than “want to.” City zoning laws forced the store’s management team of Kimberly Kerby Bokor, Joey Bokor and Mark Kerby to come up with some sort of workable pathway that met city code standards. The team got the idea for a Southern Pine walkway after attending the GCA tour themselves and seeing a similar setup at The Garden Corner in Tualatin, Ore., which was named an Innovator of the Year by Garden Center magazine last year.

The store also features excellent signage – each plant is marked by a big sign that has a picture of the “finished product,” pertinent growing information and the store logo (translation: branding) in the lower right-hand corner. And in each featured plant area, the store inserted clever, staff-clever signs that drew more than a few chuckles from the GCA Tour visitors.

*** Earthscapes Garden Room in Palm Harbor, Fla., features an interesting merchandising concept -- think of an outdoor “Rooms To Go” that depicts vignettes customers can implement in their own landscapes. Originally set up to sell the entire packages of furniture, fountains, statuary and plants, the store now lets customers purchase items a la carte. Either way, Earthscapes Garden Room is great at inspiration, and it saves the perspiration for its staff, which will install the various scenes, or derivatives, if the customer so chooses.

Another feature the store made prominent in its merchandising push was tropical music that played through speakers placed (usually hidden) in almost every vignette. The sounds meshed with the sights to create a mood that is easily translatable from store to home.