HOMEGROWN

ROSEANNE HARPER

When gardening season begins, retailers let it all hang out in the open -- and sales bloom.

Retailers, particularly independents, continue to sharpen a competitive edge with starter plants, mulch and other gardening aids that bring the planting public back to them year after year.

Wal-Mart Stores, Lowe's and The Home Depot may be banking their entrances with more racks of starter pansies and higher stacks of mulch at impressive prices, but it's plant care and customer care that have nurtured independents' sales in this category, industry sources told SN.

"We buy from local growers, and that makes a big difference. First of all, we've been dealing with these growers for years, and they know what we want," said Gail Wiley, floral director at Paul's Markets, a seven-unit, regional independent based in Homedale, Idaho. "We're confident of the quality of the plants, and they've been climatized for our area. That means you can be sure they'll grow well in this climate because the seedlings were raised right around here. By contrast, the big chains bring bedding plants in from all over."

Most of the national chains are prevented from buying locally because they're plugged into central buying systems. Besides the buying power they have, the big chains operate the category on a small margin, no more than 25% or 30%, and rely on moving high-maintenance starter plants out very fast, industry experts said.

"In that kind of business [starter plants], they have to have very high volume. Go to Home Depot or Lowe's early on a Saturday morning and you'll see truckloads being unloaded, but the next day, they'll all be gone," said Dick Spezzano, principal, Spezzano Consulting Services, Monrovia, Calif.

If they're not gone the next day, they're soon a sad sight because there's usually nobody tending the baby plants.

"Sometimes they have somebody at those stores, but generally not, and they're not taking care of the plants. Here, we give them good care, and I'm happy to say all my people are knowledgeable about floral. One of my managers is a Master Gardener, meaning he has taken courses and tests [to qualify for that title]. His store does great with the category. He knows so much about gardening, and customers ask his advice," said Esther Beltran, floral specialist at four-unit Metropolitan Market, Seattle.

It's an absolute must for the smaller retail chains to have associates who know about floral and planting because that's their trump card against the lower prices that might be offered at big-box stores, Beltran and others told SN.

Retailers also said they try to set themselves apart, during some of the growing season anyway, with eye-catchers the big chains don't carry -- like Oriental lilies or a different variety of marigold.

"You see yellow marigolds everywhere: at Costco, all the supermarkets, Home Depot. We'll have those, too, but we'll also have a burgundy and maybe a cream-colored one. Something they won't have," said one independent's floral director.

More and more retailers are getting into the category because they realize their customers want these things, said Marc Mulcahy, principal, Organic Options, a Glen Ellen, Calif.-based educational and marketing firm. So in some cases, it's a matter of offering plants and related items for customers' convenience, not because the profits are so attractive.

For Paul's Markets, however, the story is different.

"It's become a big money-maker for us. And sales do keep growing each year. In fact, we do half of our entire floral volume for the year in just three months, from [the first week in April] until the end of June. There has been increased interest in gardening, and we've had an influx of people moving into our valley. This used to be nearly all farmland," said Wiley.

In spite of Wal-Marts and club stores moving in, the gardening category at Paul's continues to grow, partly because Paul's takes its customer service so seriously, Wiley said.

"We certainly consider them competition. I never want to let my guard down, but we do so much more than they do. We stay as competitively priced as we can, but we also have knowledgeable salespeople who can help customers design their vegetable and flower gardens, even their yards. Since this area has become more developed, people have small lots and there's a demand for flowering trees and shrubs. We've added more ornamentals. We even deliver. We've delivered aspen trees, and we would deliver flats of plants."

It all began 18 years ago, when officials at the family-owned company, which is a member of Salt Lake City-based Associated Grocers, decided to put up a temporary greenhouse in one of its parking lots to house starter plants, shrubs, rose bushes and other items gardeners would want. In the next few years, five more greenhouses were added in other units' parking lots.

The business at Paul's, however, is seasonal. The 20-foot-by-35-foot plastic greenhouses are dismantled at the end of June because the weather gets too hot for the plants.

"They wouldn't survive in the greenhouse, and neither would the customers. It gets to be 100 degrees in there," Wiley said.

All Paul's Markets units are within a 20-to-50-mile range of Boise, Albertsons' home base. Wal-Mart moved into the area about four years ago. Now, there are Wal-Mart units within two miles of one Paul's unit and within four miles of others.

"When we heard Wal-Mart was coming, we were really nervous about that. But our stores have done very well through it all. We have a very loyal customer base. I think as long as you offer a great product and have a friendly staff that answers people's questions, they come back."

Some of the company's sales success with gardening items could be attributed to Wiley herself. Her obvious enthusiasm undoubtedly filters down to the front lines. With the company for 19 years, first as one of the floral managers, she was there for the birth of the parking lot greenhouses. Not only that, but of all the facets of floral, Wiley's first love is nurturing seedlings and caring for starter plants.

"Before I came to work here 19 years ago, I had a job one season with a nursery and I loved that. It was the hardest job I ever loved. Later, I worked in a local floral shop," Wiley said.

Over the years, she has helped Paul's Markets carve a niche with its greenhouse items. Inventory in the three months of spring now includes at least 100 varieties of perennials, a like number of annuals, and 50 or so each of shrubs and flowering trees. Then there's lots of mulch, fertilizer and other soil builders.

Paul's variety in the category tops that at other retailers in the market, and its retail prices beat those of area nurseries, she said.