Tips for selling shrubs and trees

Challenge

Solutions

How do you decide what to stock?

Hough: We always carry the basics that sell well. Within the past couple of years, we’ve started carrying a lot of Australian plants because they’re drought tolerant and do very well in our climate, and they have interesting foliage and flowers. We carry a lot of drought tolerant and waterwise plants.

Patterson: We grow all of our trees and shrubs; we also own a landscape company as well as supply other landscapers. I analyze the type and size of houses and lots in the area as well as the plants we use, and look at the microclimates on each lot. Then we select trees that work in the types of situations that we’re dealing with. We also produce larger trees for parks and commercial buildings. We try to introduce new trees and shrubs that are less messy, more compact, disease resistant and have less need of pruning.

Papoosha: We do a lot of landscaping, and we have a list of staples. But trends change, and we try to add some new things each year and maintain a good variety. We also carry a lot of specimen trees and shrubs.

How do you control your inventory?

Hough: I go out the first part of every week and do an inventory to see what’s not there, and what I need to order to fill in the gaps. I get together with my growers every week to order what I need.

Patterson: We take inventory and keep it on the computer. We also meet with growers to find out what’s moving, and with our designers from our landscaping company to see what they’re using.

Papoosha: We have a POS system, and the nursery manager walks the nursery every day. If we’ve sold out half of something and it’s early in the season, we order more to fill in. If it’s later, we don’t, because we want to sell out.

How do you keep trees and shrubs selling?

Hough: We get great material in, but they key is keeping it looking great until it sells. We have an injector system so that everything gets a small amount of fertilizer every time it’s watered. We have a fabulous staff that grooms and trims things every day. It’s a lot of attention to detail. We try to turn everything very quickly.

Patterson: First, I try not to over-produce. And we promote trees heavily. Plus, having our own landscape company helps keep trees moving. We shift them up to bigger sizes if we need to, because we do use the bigger sizes in our landscape jobs, and other landscapers buy them from us.

Papoosha: We have a big sale in April, with a flyer in the paper that we send out to surrounding towns. At the end of April we have an open house and pick several shrubs as in-nursery specials. Last year we did TV advertising. And our landscaping business takes out about fifty percent of our inventory.

How do you keep bigger trees standing upright?

Hough: We’re very close to the ocean, so we get an afternoon breeze that can be a wind sometimes. We have a strap we wrap around the trunks of the trees and secure each one to a post. Patterson: It’s not easy. We have guide wires, and we keep the canopy of the trees thinned out a little bit so they don’t catch the wind so much. Papoosha: The containers have rods going through them. We heel the bigger ones into mulch, so they’re almost growing into the ground.

How do you keep trees and shrubs accessible to customers?

Hough: The nursery is laid out so that everything is accessible to customers—there’s nothing that’s beyond their reach. However, some of them are too heavy for customers to handle. So most customers are attended by a sales person who will get a plant for them; we also have a delivery system seven days a week.

Patterson: We have a retail area where we stock 20 to 30 of everything. They’re laid out in such a way that they’re easily accessible to customers, and customers can walk through them.

Papoosha: Some of our shrubs are displayed in the front of the store. Others are in the back, but we have front to back entrance so customers walk in the front door and walk all the way through the garden center, and they can see all our shrubs displayed. We have a drive customers go down to get to the back to load their purchases.