Pack It Up and Head West
One of the biggest problems in our industry right now is something you may not even be aware of but could very well be perpetuating. Are you waiting until the last minute to place your orders with growers for your spring bedding plants, fall mums and pansies, or poinsettias? If you are, your actions could be affecting not only your ability to obtain the plants you want, but that of your growers; they, too, have deadlines to meet when placing their orders. If a grower waits too long to order from his brokers or other suppliers because you have waited too long to give him your order, the seeds or vegetative cuttings that will become your end product may not be available to him. If he tries to be proactive by predicting which and how many plants you’re going to want, he may end up with either an insubstantial amount of product or excess that he’ll have to sit on because he can’t sell it, causing problems throughout the supply chain.
If your order placement procrastination stems from the fact that you don’t yet know what the new varieties are, don’t wait for growers to let you know or for breeding company catalogs to arrive in the mail. You can find out for yourself at the very event growers look forward to attending themselves every year the California Pack Trials. Up and down the coast from April 5-17, attendees stop at breeding companies’ trial sites to view existing and new plant varieties; breeders often wait until the Pack Trials to unveil at least some of their novelties for the first time.
All you need to do is contact the companies listed below to make appointments for your visits, and you’re all set. The investment you’ll be making by getting a leg up on your competition will pay your way when your garden center becomes known to customers as the source for the newest and most innovative plants. And besides all that, your growers will thank you when you go to them with an early order.
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