Open Register

From AmericasMart: ‘Girlfriend gifts’ lead trends

ATLANTA – If you’re not stocking up on ‘girlfriend gifts,” you’re missing a hot category.

Several vendors at AmericasMart’s July market told us that this category sprung up almost overnight, and shows no signs of slowing.

Just what is a girlfriend gift? “It’s something a woman would give to another woman who she’s close to,” explained Midwest of Cannon Falls’ Shelli Lissick. The most obvious exchanges are for birthdays and anniversaries, or just to celebrate a special friendship.

“But then there are times in life, like when someone is going through a divorce or has been diagnosed with cancer, and you want to give a little gift that shows you’re thinking about them,” Shelli said.

Midwest introduced several lines in Atlanta geared toward the girlfriend market:

After the Rain are porcelain angel figures that combine inspiration and aromatherapy with scented oil that can be added to the angels. The angels have inspirational text such as “Believe in Yourself.” Suggested retail: $20.

Whispering Wings are elegant porcelain, hinged butterfly ornaments with words like “Faith,” “Dream,” “Hope” and “Remember.” Suggested retail: $15 for small, $20 for larger.

New designs in the Serenity collection include pewter angel ornaments in two sizes, a magnet set and a token set featuring quotes and text to touch women’s lives. Suggested retail: $5-$18.

-- Kevin

Carrying the brand heavyweights

During GCA’s Summer Tour last month, a retailer posed the following questions on the bus: Do you carry the national fertilizer/pest control brands? Are your prices similar to what the big boxes offer?

The responses fell into one of three camps:
* Yes we carry them, and prices are comparable to big boxes.
* Yes we carry them, but price according to our own standards.
* No, we don’t offer them.

Garden centers on my bus that ditched the big brands expressed no regrets. Several retailers said this move helped them differentiate themselves.

I’m glad the strategy is working for them. But it’s a risky move, in my book. The big boys have invested millions of dollars in high visibility marketing campaigns and their products are instantly recognizable.

For novice gardeners, these brands are probably the only lawn and garden products they’ve ever heard of -- and the only ones they feel comfortable asking for. Before coming into your store, they may even have visited the company’s Web site to do some research. At the very least, they’ve already been thoroughly influenced by the thousands of ads they’ve been peppered with.

These folks are coming into your store expecting you to have the latest and greatest formulation of this national product. It’s what everybody is talking about, after all. Tell them you’re not carrying it, and you’ll find a lot of customers heading to the big box down the street.

I say, stock the stuff and price it however you want. If a consumer is intent on purchasing that one product, chances are they’ll buy it and be on their way. You don’t lose a sale, and you’ve solidified your reputation as a gardening resource.

If you get really lucky, the customer will run into your top salesperson who will show them the national brands and also direct them to your other quality products (that offer much better margins for you).

Hey, we can dream, can’t we?

-- Sarah

From AmericasMart: 2 suppliers gain big-name partners

ATLANTA -- Two of the product introductions here at AmericasMart’s July market that are creating the greatest buzz involve heavy-hitter collaborators: National Geographic and Colonial Williamsburg.

Outdoor products company New Creative, in collaboration with National Geographic, developed a line of birding products that debuted at the Atlanta market. The line, which includes houses, feeders and baths, furthers the National Geographic Society’s core endeavors of wildlife education and conservation. Net proceeds support conservation, research and education programs.

Inspired by the best-selling book “National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America,” the products have blue and green hues of glass and ceramic, reflecting the colors of nature. Included with each item is educational information, with feeding tips by ornithologist George Watson.

Meanwhile, Campania International rolled out a striking collection of hand-crafted garden containers and sculptures inspired by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. This classic collection, which was displayed in Campania’s 14th floor showroom in The Gardens, features an extensive range of garden containers, including cast-stone copies of dramatic urns in the Governors Palace gardens, birdbaths and an elegant Chippendale fretwork window box.

Both of these lines are worth your time to check out.

-- Kevin

Workplace bullies cause problems

Bullying at work prompted some spirited discussion on RetailWire recently. John Challenger, CEO of HR consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, said bullying is more prevalent than sexual harassment, workplace violence or racial discrimination. The Workplace Bullying Institute defines bullying as verbal abuse, threatening, humiliating or offensive behavior/actions, and work interference.

-- Sarah

Organic lawns turn into battlefront

The organic gardening movement is spurring neighborhood and even community battles, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Homeowners who have successfully converted their lawns to pesticide-free zones are raising concerns about neighbors. The argument is similar to the one made against secondhand smoke from cigarettes and has reached community-level campaigns. Is this the first sign that U.S. cities and towns will soon be passing Canadian-style pesticide bans?

-- Carol

ANLA executive v.p. summits Mt. Kilimanjaro in support of HRI

The Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) announced yesterday that ANLA executive vice president, Bob Dolibois, and his wife, Susie, reached the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.

“We did it!” Bob said in a message sent to the ANLA offices. “Tougher than we thought by a measure of ten, but we made it to the top!”

Bob and Susie made the trip in honor of the green industry and in recognition of Gordie Bailey’s Tour de Hort, a cross-country bicycle trip spanning the years 1999-2003. Gordie’s efforts raised $1.25 million for green industry research.

HRI is accepting donations in honor of Bob and Susie’s journey, dubbed Trek de Hort. Donations can be made in the name of a business, friend or family member.

-- Sarah

My garden crush

I’ve got a gardening crush on the Washington Post’s Adrian Higgins. It’s not the same as a crush crush, like the one I have on country singer Keith Urban. But I have to admit the feelings of admiration and comfort I feel when I read one of Adrian Higgins articles aren’t too far removed from the traditional amore.

Higgins first came to my attention with his Budding Gardener features. In this ongoing series, Higgins has adopted a first-time gardener. Gen Xer Lauren Wiseman and her husband recently moved in to their first house and are expecting their first child later this year. When Wiseman agreed to the project, her first purchase were snazzy leopard-print Wellies.

Higgins guides Wiseman in learning the quirks of her yard, takes her on field trips to gardens and nurseries, and assigns home garden projects. Each week, I check in to see how she and her home fares and to analyze Higgins’ suggestions. He’s patient, encouraging and inspiring.

In another Washington Post series, Higgins narrates a how-to slideshow. In these, he breaks gardening down to easy steps. The last one I listened to was how to buy healthy shrubs and trees at a garden center. He gently and simply explained how to examine a B&B root ball for proportion to the rest of the plant. He showed how much a healthy, if a trifle overgrown root system differs from a root-bound one.

Even after almost 10 years in the industry, I still feel rather insecure in my gardening knowledge. I inwardly wince when friends and family ask for garden advice. Now, if they asked about running a garden center, I could rattle off a long list of ideas gleaned from what I’ve seen other retailers do. But actual gardening? All I know is what works or doesn’t work in the gardens I’ve had over the years.

I urge you to take a few moments to click through on the above links to check out some of Higgins’ latest efforts. And I bet you’ll get a little crush on him, too.

-- Carol

Bamboo makes headlines

The New York Times recently reported on the challenges of bamboo cultivation. The plant is being hailed for its resilience, versatility and environment-cleansing capabilities.

Jackie Heinricher of Boo-Shoot Gardens, a nursery and research lab, said advances in tissue culture have made bamboo more readily available. You can read more about one outstanding bamboo selection, Fargesia robusta, here.

-- Sarah

Who’s your garden coach?

Our friends over at Garden Rant have an interesting discussion going about garden coaches -- people helping novice gardeners learn the ropes. (Not folks doing the work for them.)

Susan asks why garden centers and nurseries aren’t providing this service. Here’s some of what she had to say:

Nurseries are INTIMIDATING places for beginners. Imagine if there were someone to lead them through the process of not just choosing plants but going home with them to show these poor folks where and how to plant them. Then tell them the part they're always shocked to hear -- that they have to water the damn things or they'll up and die. After which, the customer returns to the nursery for their guaranteed replacement plant, of course. (Man, that's gotta gall nurserypeople!)

So, what say you retail people? Would you consider providing coaching services? Are you already doing it?

-- Sarah

In a drawing held on 7-7-07 …

Lady Luck smiled on Carrie Wolfe of Heard Gardens Ltd. in West Des Moines, Iowa, whose name was randomly drawn to receive a copy of “Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The Hidden Language of Flowers,” a new book from Cool Springs Press.

-- Kevin