Management
Tips for Educating Your Garden Center Customers
Imagine your garden center on a busy weekend next spring. It’s buzzing with life again as gardeners — new or experienced — are anxious to get their hands back into the soil after a drab... more »
Engaging Plant Purchasers
Plant customers are changing. Years ago, when I first started my graduate work, it was immediately after the Great Recession, and horticulture customers indicated that plants were luxury goods. Given the economic environment, this is... more »
Don’t Let Commodities Ruin Your Season
As I write this in mid-September, the economic climate is tense and uncertain and, as a result, retailers are having trouble planning for the fall/winter 2022 holiday and spring 2023 seasons. As Wayne Gretzky would... more »American Home & Garden Case Study
{Sponsored} American Home & Garden is an Ace Hardware retailer offering hardware and garden products to residents in Manitowoc, Little Chute and Green Bay, Wisconsin. This family-owned... more »
Seed Your Future Creates Green Career Week
Seed Your Future has created Green Career Week to take place Oct. 3-7 as a national campaign led by industry professionals to increase awareness about green industry careers (aka in your garden center) and help... more »
The Power of Engagement
Engagement…the act or process of creating emotional involvement or commitment. What a powerful word, one that we use all the time in many different situations. There’s a couple’s engagement, making an emotional commitment and agreement... more »Armstrong Gardens Case Study
{Sponsored} Implementing an Integrated System Pike Nurseries had been operating its locations using two separate, older computer systems — one for point of sale and one for... more »
How Long is a Customer’s Memory?
What’s the scientific response to the question of how long a customer’s memory is? It depends! And the answer will become more critically important as it’s forecasted that inflation, stagflation and recession will all play... more »
IGCs Get Creative to Avoid Holiday Burnout
When the holiday season is in full swing it can be hard to take a moment and enjoy it. Here, four independent garden centers share their tips and advice for avoiding holiday burnout themselves and... more »
The Secret to Keeping Promises
I was at a restaurant with a friend and she mentioned that she had never waited tables. She said, “When you first start working it seems like you either go the restaurant route or the... more »
Your Destiny Depends on Your People
Back in August 2020, I wrote the column “Krulak’s Law of Leadership,” based on a leadership/management theory presented by retired U.S. Marines Gen. Charles C. Krulak. The crux of his theory was that, though the... more »
Happy Hiring
The Great Resignation that’s taken place over the last two years has made employers re-evaluate how they hire and retain workers. A new study from recruiting software company Lever, “2022 Great Resignation: The State of... more »
Videos
News
April 26, 2024
Monrovia releases Weekend Project Guide for home gardeners
April 24, 2024
Teachers to take field trip to explore horticulture
April 23, 2024
