HRI's New Wertheim, van der Ploeg & Klemeyer Fund

by Danny Summers


There will be a new named fund announced on Saturday, July 14th, during the Annual HRI Reception, held in conjunction with Cultivate'18. This one will honor someone who has been very close to many of you and very supportive of The Garden Center Group - Ernest Wertheim. Several of our Group have served on the HRI boards and committees. Currently, Steve Mostardi is on the HRI Executive Committee. The fund will honor both Ernest and his long-time partner Jack Klemeyer. HRI has received initial seed monies, reportedly close to $20,000 currently, in order to establish the fund and make the official announcement. The fund will be called the Wertheim, van der Ploeg & Klemeyer Fund and will support general HRI Research efforts. HRI's Administrator, Jennifer Gray, shared the following with us:

"We are excited about the establishment of this fund to honor both Ernest and Jack. We have several ways to give:

Reeling in the Non-Gardeners


An excerpt from Ball Publishing's GreenProfit
(With comments by Danny Summers)

This past week GreenProfit published an article as titled above. They posed the question: "How can you attract non-gardeners as new customers" to the three finalists in the 2018 Green Profit/Dümmen Orange Young Retailer Award competition, sponsored by Dümmen Orange and AmericanHort!

Preview - The Fall Event 2018

Yes You Can! - Retire Sooner Then You Think!

by Wes Moss

Leveraging Spring Fever!

Shared by Waldoch Farm's Andrew and Doug Joyer

This past week I saw a video (actually 2) Andrew and Doug Joyer of Waldoch Farm made. Keep in mind Waldoch Farm is about 20 miles northeast of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's a fun video showing how to plant pansies in the snow! The video, that pokes fun at having spring fever, has received lots of views. I asked Andrew how they got the idea. Here's their story:

"Spring has been off to a less than ideal start this year.  With the cool to cold temperatures with still frequent snows folks have become a little stir crazy. We haven't uncovered our perennials and shrubs we winter over because we haven't had a warm enough stretch to melt all the ice and snow from our coverings.

New Low-Cost Sign and Tag Printing Options

By GrowTech Solutions

Are you printing signage for your Garden Center?

Garden Centers that have teamed up with GrowTech Solutions have realized the benefits of having more informed customers in their stores which results in increased sales! If you have not yet jumped on board with signage for your plants and hard goods there is no better time than now to team up with GrowTech Solutions. New improvements in technology have resulted in better, faster, and cheaper printers to perform the task of on demand sign, tag, and label printing. Entry level printers such as the Phaser 6510 can be acquired for as low as $249 and production model printers like the VersaLink C600 can be had as low as $1129.

These are the lowest prices in the history of printing for the horticulture industry! These low prices, however, do not sacrifice speed or quality. These new printers allow for extra tweaking to the printing settings which allow the end user to perfectly match the printer to the exact LaserTag™ or LaserLabel™ material they are using. The Versalink C600 boasts the best print quality at the lowest ever cost per page on heavy coverage for outdoor signage at 14-15 cents per page and comes with an intuitive touch screen display.

Learning - following your passion!

by Danny Summers

Last week you may recall I shared some ideas on learning being a life-long experience. Learning is a process we all are participants in. Whether you describe it as a class, a moving sidewalk, or even journey, each of us are responsible for making the decision if and when to stop learning. As I gave several famous quotes last week, the one from Albert Einstein said, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” I believe we should awake every morning with the goal or passion to learn something new today.

The Fall Event 2017

The Best of Times Captured in Pictures!

Let's Review and It's Time to Focus on Fall Customer Service!

by Danny Summers

Now is the BEST TIME to make sure your customer service will be the best it can be in the coming weeks. Each year a larger percentage of Mystery Shops are performed in the spring and summer weeks. While we still have four and a half months to go, we can take a look at YTD performance compared to Group Averages. Now is also a great time to order shops at your center for preparing for the Fall Season (if you don't already have them scheduled). So, first, let's take a look at how we did so far this year.

The following chart shows us The Group Total Score YTD for each major area of shop reporting compared to the same period in 2016 and the 15 year average (2002-2016). This includes shops performed through August 11th in both 2016 and 2017.

GrowIt! - Growth & NWF Effort

by Danny Summers

This week GrowIt! guru, Seth Reed shared details of their app usage growth last month. Here's the details on the app user growth.

April was our best month EVER!
We saw over 90,000 people log in to GrowIt! to find great plants, have plants identified, ask questions, and connect with other people that love plants. That brings our total member base to over 340,000. Engagement is high right now, this is the best time join our Garden Shop Program on GrowIt!. Spending as little as 15 minutes a week adding plants or answering questions can keep your content fresh and help you connect with the next generation of gardeners.
 
Crushing the Google Play Store
This week we became the 5th most popular app on Google Play's "House and Home" list. We even beat out Houzz! This is where people are going to find gardening help. Isn't it exciting that the only gardening app representing IGC's is this popular?

We are the only gardening app garnering this level of attention from consumers. Your customers and community are looking for apps like GrowIt! to find great plants to buy and grow. Join our Garden Shop Program and let GrowIt! promote you.

Who is SynRG™

SynRG™ is the founding organization behind the Handpicked for You® program and created by the following producers:
 

Retailers are invited to participate in the Retailers' Choice Awards™ again this year as we search for the best new plants and products at both Cultivate'17 and Farwest 2017.

Join Sid Raisch and Danny Summers at Cultivate'17 and Danny at Farwest 2017 for a great way to find new products for your store. Here's why it is a great experience. You meet at the beginning of the show's first day to receive instructions and then work the show at your own pace. Then participants meet at the end of the first day to share finds. You share yours and then you hear what everyone else found (this is the great benefit for you). Sid and Danny take care of the rest, but this gives you a chance to see all the things you missed (and others found) the next day!

Bailey Nurseries Adds Digital Help

Here is a brief update on some of what our three consumers brands are up to from a digital perspective recently! These contain some great tools the retailer can use when developing customer interaction and providing educational content.

A Sneak-Peak into 2018

from Hort Couture's Kelly Staats