Present, Past and Future
This month, at long last, I go on my Garden Getaway Tour. I’ll fly to Scotland and meet up with a big group of Master Gardeners (plus some friends and family) from Orange County, Calif., and for nine days, we’ll travel from Edinburgh down to London and end up at the Chelsea Flower Show, one of the world’s premier annual horticultural events. I hope you’ll follow me during this trip. In April, I blogged on lawnandgardenretailer.wordpress.com about all the steps leading up to a group’s actual travel date: the final group meeting, the safeguards Travel & Company puts in place for mishaps along the way, meeting up with the tour leader and ensuring an overall safe and successful journey. I may not be able to “live-tweet” my travels, but I’ll be blogging and posting pictures from my hotel room throughout. Check out the full-page ad across from my letter for more details on how to access all that.
I’m hoping this is just the beginning of your journey. I know the frenzy of spring in a garden center makes it hard to think about what’s for dinner, let alone taking a group of 50 customers overseas for 10 days. But if you can allow yourself to dream for a moment, I’ll tell you that if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the experience, it’s that this is a painless, nearly brainless process for the organizer (the garden center) that ends in nothing but great memories and lasting, endlessly positive customer relationships.
These tours are definitely intended for consumers, but you can find inspiration anywhere. So, in upcoming issues, I’ll share photos, ideas and stories from this exclusive trip and offer you, at the very least, a little food for thought to take back to your stores.
Going Back to California…
Last month, Tim and Jasmina flew out to southern California for the annual pilgrimage up the Pacific Coast Highway for floriculture’s fashion week, the California Spring Trials. Along with the coverage you’ve come to expect every year in Lawn & Garden Retailer coming next month in our June issue we introduced a new web resource for our readers.
CaliforniaSpringTrials.com is your source for all things spring trials, and the site doesn’t go dark just because this year’s event is over. Some of the exhibitors now have special information posted on their pages about what they displayed during trials, and there’s loads of rich content from us as well. If you were too busy selling new varieties to make it out to California and see all the new new varieties this year, let us be your eyes and ears! We’ve uploaded photos from the road to our Flickr, and they’re all up on the site. You can use it as your social media hub, too there are links to our Facebook, Twitter and blog pages, where Tim and Jasmina posted all their daily updates from the road. They even took video while they were there, which will also be up on the website for your reference and enrichment.
If you’re on Facebook, we also created a fan page for CaliforniaSpringTrials.com, so when we get rolling for next year’s event, you’ll be the first to know. We understand how busy you are, and automatic notifications keep things simple for you! Go to www.facebook.com and search for www.CaliforniaSpringTrials.com to become a fan. You can also get to us from the Lawn & Garden Retailer fan page.
… and Looking Ahead
If you aren’t registered for this year’s GCA Summer Tour in Orlando, Fla., there’s still time. There’s more information on page 8, in the news section. Sign up for the tour at www.gardencentersofamerica.com.
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