16 Higher prices, change


coming for nurseries New challenges require an innovative industry


by DAVID SCHMIDT


ABBOTSFORD – Prices in the nursery industry will go up, a panel of local growers and retailers told the BC Landscape and Nursery Association’s season-ending growers meeting in Abbotsford, June 6.


What the panelists did not


agree on is whether that will be enough to keep the industry afloat. “I’m not optimistic. I think the economy will tank and I don’t think my children will be able to follow me in the business,” said grower Tim Loewen of Pine Meadows Tree Farm in Chilliwack. Retailer Miles Hunter of Hunters Garden Centres in Vancouver and Surrey took the opposite view, saying he’s optimistic about the industry. Retailer John Cowie of


Art’s Nursery in Surrey took


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the middle view, believing a price increase at the retail level will cause a short-term drop in sales but the industry will ultimately survive. Hunter urged growers to


“try some innovative products” but Loewen responded that innovative products “don’t pay the bills.” Big box stores are posing


more and more of a challenge for smaller independent garden centres, says Michael Mills of Sunshine Coast Nursery in Sechelt. “It’s price versus service. We have to be better than them by having the best products, clean facilities and knowledgeable staff.” Hunter agreed, saying a


recent survey of his customers showed price is only a minor consideration. The three most important things for his customers are his selection, service and quality – in that order. Although the long, cold winter set everyone back, Mills said product quality didn’t suffer, noting “the quality of material this year is as good as I’ve ever seen.” All three retailers encouraged growers to focus on smaller plants, narrower trees and taller hedging materials.


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2017


Debbie Morris tends to a colourful and healthy assortment of bedding plants at Blue Mountain Nursery Company, an independent garden centre near Armstrong. CATHY GLOVER PHOTO


Mills, whose wife is a landscaper, said government ordinances are forcing landscapers to “plant trees where they don’t belong,” such as native trees in a townhouse complex. “We need large plantings of small trees. This is not going away,” he said. Loewen said growers are


trying to grow more narrow conifers but can’t get enough seed stock to meet the demand.


Problem solvers Before convening the


grower panel, the meeting heard from Jamie Aiello, senior robotics and


automation technician at Ontario’s Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. He told growers the main purpose of his trip to BC was to “see what problems you’re having and how common they are.” “Our focus is to engage


growers and manufacturers to determine a problem and find a solution,” he said, adding those solutions must be cost-effective for everyone involved.


The lack of a cost-effective solution can sometimes shelve a project. As an example, Aiello said Vineland looked at using robots to move containers in poly


houses but found the layout of poly houses was not conducive to robotic use. Vineland not only uses


innovation to solve problems but also to identify them. Sometimes identification is enough to understand a solution. Aiello recently mounted


GoPro cameras on 21-foot tripods in a nursery loading dock. Using time-lapse photography, he was able to watch five hours of activity in just two minutes, easily identifying how long it took to fill a truck and determining how to improve product flow with little change or expense for the operation.


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