IGC is a wonderful place to see color, products, exciting new ideas or twists on old ideas. It is also an excellent place to listen to "experts" in all areas Independent as well as talk to people in the industry to hear their stories. 

As I walked the floor I wondered at how garden center owners could pick from the array of vendors and products available!  One could feel like a kid in a candy store! 

One trend I saw was the variety of items available for vertical gardening and/or wall gardening. There were a number of choices for those garden centers who serve customers with balconies, patios or otherwise limited space.

IGC Vertical Planters

Other colorful items on the floor

Independent Garden Center Show

There were a number of good speakers on subjects ranging from merchandising, to marketing.  I chose to spend my time listening to Kyle Lacy, a social media marketing effort.  While he is all about social media, and I learned a lot, he is also very quick to point out that before you invest any time in social media of any sort, you NEED TO KNOW what your customers use, if anything.  If they don't use any sort of social media, it doesn't matter how much time you put in to it, it won't work for your customer base.  That being said, his room was packed for each session as people learned and asked questions about the hows and whys of Facebook and Twitter.  It definitely is an area I want to explore with the independents in our area.

You Didn't Get to IGC . . .  or you want more. . . . 

Two Opportunities

Two excellent opportunities for continued education and product review happen in October and January in our area.

CFGW Fall Conference - October 12, 2011

This year's conference will feature: 

• Dr. Allan Armitage talking about  New Perennials and New Annuals
• Mike Gooder of the Plant Peddler talking about Alternative Greenhouse Crops

The conference is held at Floral Plant Growers in Denmark, Wisconsin.  Watch for complete details in the next newsletter.

Garden Center Symposium, January 11-12, 2012

 Speakers this year will include:

• Ian Baldwin providing ideas on "Making it easy for customers to Spend Money"
• Bob Negen discussing how to train your staff to become "Retail Superstars"
• Chris Beytes of Ball Publishing discussing gardening trends as he sees them

Link to additional Garden Center Symposium information here.

UW-Extension/Madison Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic (PDDC) Update

Brian Hudelson, Ann Joy, Amanda Zimmerman, Adam Greene, and Erin Schmid,
Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic

The PDDC receives samples of many plant samples from around the state.

The following diseases/disorders have been identified at the PDDC from

August 10, 2011 through August 16, 2011:

For additional information on plant diseases and their control, visit the PDDC

website at pddc.wisc.edu.

Source: Today's Garden Center 

If mass merchandisers, home improvement chains and grocery stores can retail poinsettias for less than independent garden centers can buy them at wholesale, then why should independen retailers continue to carry them?

Read On. . . 

Source: Garden Center Magazine

As the summer season draws to a close, the Garden Center staff has polled hundreds of retailers to see what product and plant trends have emerged.  What they discovered was that while the year as a whole wasn't hot, some items definitely were. For example