I love garden mums in the landscape. Especially when they’re done up right, with lots of fall colors and in sizes that are seemingly as big as a Volkswagen. Complementary plantings of pansies, ornamental cabbage and kale and other fall fare really get me in the mood for Indian summer days.
Ball Hort’s Bill Calkins, who’s charged with boosting independent garden center business, presented an excellent interview with Ball’s go-to chrysanthemum guy, Ed Higgins, in his August Simply Beautiful Retail Report. (If you’re not receiving it in your e-mail in-box, you should.) Here are some take-home points:
Give people ideas on how to use garden mums. Have an area with decorated mums on display. Display individual plants in a deco pot, maybe with a scarecrow in it.
Garden mums can dry out fairly rapidly in outdoor displays. So if you take good care of your garden mums, you’ll have a leg up on the mass-market stores in terms of healthy displays.
Sell in multiples. It’s easier to decorate with multiple units, so encourage this with a volume discount.
Have plenty of price points, which is usually accomplished by having many container sizes. Don't limit consumers to two or three container sizes.
Don’t forget tie-in items like bales of straw, decorated plants, figurines, ornamental gourds, scarecrows and goblins.
-- Kevin
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