| Join Our List |
Eileen Nelson
UW-Madison Department of Horticulture
608-265-5283 |
|
|
|
BFG Supply Company 4th Annual Grower Seminar | | |
BFG Supply Co. is sponsoring an educatoinal seminar on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at the West Madison Agricultural Research Station, 8502 Mineral Point Road, Verona, WI 53593.
For complete details, see the announcement.
Map |
|
Weed Management in Greenhouses | | |
Source: Greenhouse Grower
Weeds are an aesthetic problem in themselves, but they can also harbor pests and diseases. In this Floricast episode, Ray Cloyd of Kansas State shares photos of weeds to look out for and four solutions to manage them. |
| Integrated Pest Management for Bedding Plants: A Scouting and Pest Management Guide - Cornell University IPM | | |
Here is a guide that looks like it could be quite valuable. It is downloadable if you want to have a complete copy, or you can look at just the chapters and entries that interest you. http://www.nysipm.cornell.edu/publications/bpguide99/ |
| Managing Your Fertilizer Dollars | | |
Greenhouse Management invites you to build your business this year with the 2011 NAHSA webinar series. These one-hour, live-multimedia webinars are geared toward discussing industry trends, challenges and innovations in several areas throughout 2011.
Managing Your Fertilizer Dollars During Challenging Economic Times
Presented By: Dr. Charles J. Elstrodt
Date: Monday, June 27, 2011
2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) (1 p.m. Central)
Register Here |
| Plant Disease Clinic Samples | |
|
PLANT/SAMPLE
TYPE |
DISEASE/DISORDER |
PATHOGEN |
COUNTY | |
HERBACEOUS ORNAMENTALS | |
Clematis |
Viral Disease |
Unidentified virus |
Dane | |
Hops |
Viral Disease |
Unidentified virus |
Jefferson | |
Miscellaneous |
Ethylene Injury
Root Rot |
None
Pythium sp. |
Florence
Florence | |
Orchid Cactus |
Septoria Leaf Blight |
Septoria sp. |
Outagamie | |
Peony |
Bacterial Leaf Spot |
Pseudomonas sp. |
Rock |
|
| Greenhouse Energy Publications | | |
Scott Sanford of UW's Biological Systems Engineering Department has four publications devoted to alternative energy for greenhouses available.
They can be accessed at the following links:
Biomass Heating of Greenhouses
Case Study
Unit Heaters (newly revised)
Greenhouse Energy EfficiencyGreenhouse Shade/Energy Curtains
Individual pdf copies can be downloaded through the link. |
|
Wired and Dangerous | | |
Source: Garden Center Magazine
The age of technology has changed your customers.
There was a time when garden center customers' needs were simpler. If you provided a good product at a fair price with solid service and convenient access, you could effectively compete in the garden center business. And, that occasional upset customer at most told a few friends about a service hiccup. Those good old days are gone.
Today, the customer is king. Enabled and equipped by the Internet, with its capacity to instantly reach a gazillion fellow customers with the click of a mouse, customers can quickly bring any retailer to its knees. And, wired customers with a bone to pick and an ax to grind are ready, willing and able to wield that power at any garden center merchant that shackles them with poor product quality or an inferior service experience.
Plentiful product and service information has created a more mature customer. Access to the views of countless other customers, not just those they personally know, has made them a lot smarter. With maturity, wisdom and access, customers today are wired and potentially dangerous.
Post-recession customers are Picky-more cautious in their choices and interested only in getting obvious value for their money. They are Fickle-quicker to exit upon getting plain old, indifferent service. They are Vocal-more apt to assertively tell others their views of service; they also listen to fellow customers' reviews. And, they are Vain-meaning they expect "all about me" treatment that telegraphs they are unique and valued.
Post-recession customers are picky
Organizations have taught customers to be picky. Customers expect to get good value for their hard-earned, ever declining dollar.
So, what do picky customers want? As always, they want a variety of quality products at a fair price. But, more and more their experience is what they remember. "We are not a high-end store," said Jenny Gunderson, co-owner of My Garden Nursery in Mill Creek, Wash., "We are a FUN store. When staff connects with customers, price is not an issue."
Post-recession customers are fickle
What is the impact of a bad customer experience? Forty four percent of customers stop doing business immediately! Some give warning before departing. According to recent customer research 57 percent of customers have had a bad experience in the last year, and 66 percent have told someone. When the pocketbook gets squeezed, customers are more assertive about letting someone know when they fail to receive value.
Smart garden centers beg for candor-they make a big deal about getting customer feedback. Customer complaints are gifts. Research shows customers who have had a problem and complain when solicited spend twice as much with a company as customers who have a problem and don't complain. Win back the customers you regret losing. Research also shows that with an effective win-back strategy, the likelihood of turning a lost customer into a returned customer is four times greater than turning a prospect into a customer.
Post-recession customers are vocal
The internet has increased customers' assertiveness in voicing their views. Social media is changing the landscape of communication. Over 60 percent of customers who read about a bad experience on social media stop doing business with or avoid doing business with the offending company. This "secondary smoke" phenomenon will grow as the use of social media increases with more and more garden center customers fast becoming digital natives, not digital immigrants.
Smart garden centers provide lots of vehicles and channels for customers to easily register their feedback, offer suggestions, and get information. Blake and Bonnie Stotts, owners of Beier's Greenhouse in Grand Rapids, Minn., put it this way: "The Internet has opened the doors to a whole new audience of customers. With our ability to make instant contact we can now advertise in ways never before available to us. We are utilizing this new avenue with zest! We believe our customers will use the Internet more and more to find their best deals and helpful information."
Post-recession customers are vain
All customers are unique. Businesses have taught them, "You can have it your way." Anything less has becomes ho-hum. One might think that tough economic times would lead to a stronger focus on the customer's experience. However, many say the "voice of the customer" has not been heard by most organizations. According to the Convergys research, over three-fourths of the customers surveyed recently stated that the quality of service provided over the past year has either remained the same or gotten worse.
And what do employees and owners/leaders think? Fifty percent of the 1500+ employees and 120+ leaders surveyed believe service has improved!
Customers emerging from a time of layoffs, cutbacks and all types of subtractions are picky about what they buy, fickle with their brand affinity, vocal in communicating their needs, and "local" in their expectation of personalized treatment. In this new era of the customer it is time to return to the core of what serving another should be-imaginative, valuable and handmade.
Learn more coping strategies in Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson's newest book, "Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About it." www.wiredanddangerous.com.
|
| Regional Trends in Horticulture |
| |
Source: Greenhouse Grower
Three professors at Texas A&M University recently published an updated study of U.S. nursery industry sales and marketing practices, which shows an industry heavy on small businesses.
More than 3,000 firms answered questions from professors Charlie Hall, Alan Hodges and Marco Palma about their green industry businesses. The results show more than 50 percent of those who responded were firms with less than $250,000 in annual sales. Only 17 percent had sales of $1 million or greater, including 2.2 percent of firms with sales totaling between $10 million and $49 million.
All told, respondents reported a collective total of $4.45 billion in sales for 2008, or an average of $1.73 million per firm. They collectively employed more than 48,800 permanent and temporary workers.
Based on an adjusted population of validated active firms, total U.S. nursery industry sales (representing all facets of nursery from supplier to retail) was estimated at $27 billion.
Other interesting statistics from the study:
· The average number of employees per nursery firm was 11.5 permanent and nine temporary.
· The Pacific ($1.11 billion) and Southeast ($1.06 billion) regions reported the highest annual sales of nursery products, led by California ($841 million) and Florida ($698 million).
· The leading plant type produced by U.S. nurseries was deciduous and flowering trees, representing 11.8 percent of total industry sales. Flowering annual bedding plants came in at 9.8 percent, flowering potted plants was at 7 percent and herbaceous perennials accounted for 5.3 percent of total industry sales.
· Native plants represented 13.4 percent of sales reported across all plant types.
· And while the majority of plants sold are sold through the mass merchants, the numbers change when you look at where the majority of wholesale growers sell their plants. The most popular outlet as a share of total wholesale sales was landscape firms, with 30.8 percent of sales nationally. Single location retail garden centers came in next at 21.9 percent, and re-wholesalers followed closely at 21.3 percent. Only 9.3 percent of wholesalers sold to mass merchants.
Click here to read the complete study, including regional breakdowns on topics like sales, employment and interregional trade. The study was published in the March 2011 issue of Journal of Environmental Horticulture, published by the Horticultural Research Institute. |
|
|
