If you have been stocking thesame trees and shrubs for 5-10years or more, you are probablymissing out on sales. Recentbreeding advancements and
renewed customer interest have made theback lot, where most people relegate thiscategory, a much larger profit center thanit was even last year.
The new trees and shrubs are hard to miss.With a combination of brightblooms, unique shapes and bet-ter marketing support, theybring to the stores vibrancy thatconsumers want in their homes.Growers say recent sales make itclear: If customers can’t have abig plant, they want one thatmakes a bold statement.
The old favorites — magno-lias, Japanese maples andcamellias — will stick around,but the demand has increasedfor a plant that is a little moredynamic and a lot moreaccommodating.
Going SmallerIf people’s houses aren’t shrinking, the
lots they are on are, said Tim Wood, prod-uct development manager for SpringMeadow Nursery, Inc., Grand Haven,Mich. They don’t want to angle for spacewith a plant that looms too close to thehouse or pushes up against the windows.
“No one really wants a 12-ft. forsythia anylonger,” Wood said. And, fortunately, with alot of the plant breeding that’s done, thereare three or four choices of dwarf forsythiathat aren’t going to get any bigger than yourwindow in your house. So, you can put themaround your deck or close to your house,and you’re not going to be fighting it.”
Katie Bloome, public relations coachfor Monrovia Growers, Azusa, Calif.,noticed customers’ attraction to smallervarieties of old favorites. A dwarf Japanesemaple can bring the same amount ofbeauty into a smaller space as the largerversion. They can even provide the focusof a container garden. Now that space is soimportant, these compact gardens canmaintain their look in a smaller area. �
G R E E N G O O D S
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Bright color and small stature are the most prominent trends with this season’s trees and shrubs.
By Jen Hubert
Top: Make sure you have a variety of trees and shrubs at your store so you can cater to all of the latesttrends your customers are looking for. Bottom: As people move onto smaller lots, they have less room forelaborate gardens. Plants like this dwarf Japanese barberry can add beauty to a garden while savingspace. (Photo: Monrovia Growers)
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Hagen Laguna 1/12/06 4:39 PM Page 1
Seeing ColorSome people want to intensify the standard shrub look. They want a
plant’s foliage to have a little bit of flair, said Bloome. The foliage should beeye-catching — yellow, purple and black leaves are popular — because thefoliage provides color even when the plant is not in bloom. Therefore, thelack of flowers will not keep the customer from enjoying the plant.
“If a plant’s not in bloom, it’s pretty difficult for consumers to figure out whatit is they’re buying,” said Wood. “It’s not like a lot of sales people are alwaysaround to answer people’s questions and tell them what it’s going to look likeand to convince them to buy something. The plant has to really sell itself.”
Wood keeps an eye on his company’s sales and watches for changes. Healso checks the Internet to see which trees and shrubs people are talkingabout. Gardenweb.com keeps him up to date. The Web site has forumswhere anyone who is interested in gardening can find like-minded people.They can post questions, give advice or just talk about the weather. Lately,Wood said, post after post deals with a prospective plant’s color.
Another way to get color all year is through the plant’s flowers. The mosttime and energy being put into new varieties of trees and shrubs is dedicat-ed to cultivating plants that rebloom, said Jonathan Pedersen, marketingmanager for Bailey Nurseries, Newport, Minn. Hydrangeas and azaleas thatcan keep flowers longer are more attractive to consumers.
“In the consumer’s eyes, they don’t want something that just looks goodfor 2-3 weeks. They want that color and that flower. Reblooming abilitygives that customer longer time with the reason they bought that plant in thefirst place,” Pedersen said.
Seeking SimplicitySimplicity would also rank high on customers’ list of reasons if, in fact, they
had time to make a list of reasons. Homeowners now have more obligationsthan free time and appreciate a plant that does not need much attention. If aplant is easy to take care of, a customer can take it home, stick it in the gardenand go about his or her busy life.
“You’ve got new home owners who spend less time in their yards than theBaby Boom generation did,” Pedersen said. “They’ve got less time, and there’salso more choice for their time, too.”
But just because these homeowners are busy does not mean they are pre-pared to sacrifice the pleasures of the garden they want. They just expect theresults in less time. And because they don’t have the time, someone can goahead and create the look for them.
“These people want information,” explained Pedersen, “but they want it quick,they want it easy, they want it efficient. So, the other trend we’re certainly seeingis a lot of these people looking for maintenance and installation — because theylike it, like the color, like what it does for the front of their home. But they’re notall that excited about doing it themselves.” Pedersen points to the deluge ofhome improvement programming as a cause for “spoiled” gardeners.
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This sambucus’s black and purple foliage makes it a popular plant now that consumers are looking for bold colors.An eye-catching plant will hold a customer’s attention at the garden center. (Photo: Proven Winners/ColorChoice)
*72_GreenGoods.qxd 3/24/06 11:41 AM Page 74
Creating A ThemeMaintenance and installation
crews can take care of the labor,but gardeners provide the cre-ative juices; they decide what willcomplement their property andincrease its beauty. Many times,they find that a central theme willweave disparate plants into a uni-f ied garden. Colorful foliage,dwarf plants and reblooming abil-ity all have their roles in creatingnew garden themes. A gardenerstarts with a design theme inmind and then chooses fromavailable offerings. Thoughshade, fragrant and tropicalthemes remain popular, thesenew plants may spark new ideas.
“Now you’re seeing a lot moreAsian and architectural themescoming up,” Bloome said. “Yuccas— anything that has a lot of struc-ture and form to it…really dis-tinct form.”
Monrovia is in the process ofgrowing more of these types ofplants, such as phormiums, cordy-lines and agaves, to meet thisdemand. Although Monrovia hasalways grown some kinds of basicyucca, they are expanding intomore exclusive and patented vari-eties. Some of those varieties incor-porate the yellow and purplefoliage colors that are popular now.
Bloome isn’t sure why suchstructured plants are in demand,but she said changing lifestyles isone possibility. “They complement,possibly, [a gardener’s] homestyle,” Bloome said. “They’re really
cool plants, and they’re low mainte-nance. They’re very simplistic. Theycan complement a modern décoror a craftsmen’s décor.”
The Invasive DebateBut there are other factors to
consider besides what plant fitswhere. If Gardenweb.com is agood way to judge public garden-ing sentiment, then quite a fewpeople are concerned about theirplants’ invasiveness. Will theirshrub’s seeds spread by the wind?
Will birds scatter a plant’s seedsinto a neighbor’s yard?
One forum poster expressedconcern about the invasiveness of amimosa tree in upstate New York.Yes, it is invasive, many replied, butmore so in the South. �
G R E E N G O O D S
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The foliage
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Therefore, the
lack of flowers
will not keep
the customer
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the plant.
*72_GreenGoods.qxd 3/24/06 11:21 AM Page 75
Georgia is one state where mimosa has become a pest. The Georgia InvasiveSpecies Task Force warns the public of planting silk trees because their seedscan be spread by water or animals and are hard to remove once established.
As state agriculture departments continue to update their lists of prob-lem plants, gardeners have turned to sterile and seedless trees and shrubsand plants familiar to the area, Pedersen said.
“People are saying, ‘Do we needthese new cultivars? Maybe we shouldbe looking at natural, native stuff,’”he said. “You are seeing somewhat ofa resurgence in some natives —although native plants tend not tohave what the consumer is lookingfor generally, in appeal,” he said.
Getting The Word OutTo promote a new plant takes
some effort. Building trust in a line ofproducts helps a customer decide totake a risk with a new plant, andbranding has been an important vehi-cle to build that trust. It is one of themost well known promotional tech-niques. Growers may put their stampon a product by dressing up the potor adding a recognizable label.
“Branding is the latest catchphrasein our industry,” Pedersen said. “Ithink we’ve certainly come to the real-ization that we have a commodityproduct and that the mass merchantstores play a fairly large role withwhere our product gets sold. If we, asgrowers, don’t add value to our prod-uct, they’re not going to do it for us.”
Branding has been slow to come tothe horticulture industry, Pedersensaid, because growers “are really farm-ers at heart.” They rely on the productinstead of the packaging. The industry as a whole is playing catch up in themarketplace, and tree and shrub branding efforts are newer than those forother sectors of the industry.
“Brands aren’t created overnight — not unless there’s an awful lot ofmoney to throw behind them,” Pedersen said. “And when we look at plantproducts within our industry, really there are very few names that, unaided,you could have the consumer recall. And that’s what a brand does. You ask aconsumer, give me two manufacturers of soda, and they’ll come up with thempretty quick. Those are true brands. They’re legacy brands. They have namerecall. We’re still trying to build that.”
Building a brand takes a lot of promotion. It takes research, in-store point-of-purchase posters, special marketing for new releases and exclusive varieties.Growers hope that the trees and shrubs being cultivated now will soon becomepart of a more widespread branding effort. They hope that soon, people maylook not only for color or stature but also image. Because branding communi-cates the values of a company and helps consumers buy products on an emo-tional level, manufacturers hope there will be no need to shop around. Aspeople get busier and busier, this becomes more important. It makes the buy-ing of a new plant quick and easy, which will keep the consumer coming backto the garden center for any new trendy plants on the market.
Jen Hubert is assistant editor of Lawn & Garden Retailer. She can be reached at (847) 391-1008 or [email protected].
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Architectural and Asian themes call for plantsthat have a little more structure. Phormiumsallow texture to be a focus of the garden.
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