Holiday Musings and Tour Time
Working in magazine publishing means working months — and often a season or two — ahead. Take this issue, for example. I started reaching out for Christmas holiday content back in May, when I asked our columnist Stan Pohmer if he’d be inspired to write about the “Holiday Inspiration” topic listed in the August editorial calendar. Spoiler alert: he was! Check out his column on how garden centers can stay top of mind between seasons here.
On the flip side of holiday inspiration is holiday burnout. When the holiday season is upon us, it can be hard to take a moment and enjoy it. We’ve got some tips and ideas from four independent garden centers on how they beat the holiday burnout. Click here for their ideas — and get ready to go multimedia because Rockledge Gardens’ Liz Lark-Riley generously shared a downloadable file detailing the store scavenger hunt she uses with her staff to beat the day-after-Christmas blues.
Hittin’ the Road
Travel season is currently in full swing. I recently hit the road to visit two garden centers in central Pennsylvania and bring back visual merchandising ideas. Find them in “Pennsylvania Perspectives.”
Our editorial director Abby McGarry attended Bailey Nurseries’ media event centered around the newest Endless Summer hydrangea, ‘Pop Star’, which will hit garden centers in spring 2023. She says that being surrounded by the gardens and gorgeous flower arrangements from Bailey sparked discussion of one of the most versatile and on-trend uses for hydrangea: cut flowers. She caught up with Mary Eccher, Bailey’s cut flower extraordinaire, to get tips on how independent garden centers can host cut flower workshops. Find the story here.
Next on our calendars as I write this is Cultivate’22, and, after that, I’ll be traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for The Garden Center Show and then Kansas City, Missouri, for the Garden Center Group Fall Event.
We’re proud to again be a media sponsor of the Fall Event, and delighted to be the exclusive media sponsor for the brand-new Garden Center Show, where my fellow L&GR editors and I will be hosting a networking lounge each day. Keynote speakers will come to the lounge after their presentations and spend an hour with event attendees in “Ask Me Anything” sessions. I hope you’ll come visit the lounge and interact with the speakers and your fellow garden center industry people.
And, speaking of tours, I’ll be taking part in the garden center tours at all three of these events. I can’t wait to visit these garden retailers — and then share what I see with you!
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