COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2018


Nurseries change up offerings to


stay relevant Retirees, Millennials seek the right plant-life balance


by RONDA PAYNE ABBOTSFORD – Shifting


demographics, smartphones and new styles of living are shaking up the customer base of garden centres and retail nurseries. Speaking at the Canwest


Hort Expo in Abbotsford at the end of September, Green Profit editor-at-large Ellen Wells highlighted the trends retailers need to know to stay relevant. Wells says garden centre customers in North America are typically 45 to 64 years old and have more disposable income than other age groups. There are more phones in people’s hands, more visible minorities and more people wanting to age in place. Additionally, tribefacturing


– a buzzword used by Trendwatching.com to describe groups with similar interests and tastes as opposed to the same age range – is a phenomenon horticulture can leverage to its advantage. “We could fill that basic


need for people who are in our tribe,” Wells notes. Langley’s Cedar Rim


Nursery Ltd. general manager Amanda Bruce (who won Green Profit’s 2018 Young Retailer award), is already seeing different age groups come together around a common interest in plants. “We’ve had a lot more


younger people coming in and younger families,” Bruce says. “I think the reason for that is the huge houseplant trend. Plants are becoming part of the décor. Even students are coming in for houseplants for their dorms.”


Houseplant resurgence It ties into Wells’ discovery


of the Plant Life Balance app out of Australia. “Take a picture of the space


you want to fill with plants and see how it looks in the space,” she says. “They actually have a group of nurseries involved that supply the product.”


Houseplant sales took off


in North America two years ago due to social media, says Bruce. “It just became really big


on Pinterest and even now on Instagram. It started with the fiddle leaf fig,” she explains.


“They got super hard to find. It became a piece that you’re decorating with in your house. Succulents went that way, too.” Bruce says part of the


reason house plants are growing in popularity is summarized in a comment Texas A&M University horticulture professor Charlie Hall made at the Cultivate’18 show in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this year: “You’ll never do what your parents do, but you’ll do what your grandparents did.” Bruce is seeing the


grandparents moving into smaller homes that let them continue to garden. Reduced yard space makes container gardening an option, not only for retirees but also young families and singles. “Container gardening has been an upward trend for several years. I think it’s just going to continue in the coming years with yards growing smaller,” notes Bruce. They’re seeking out


annuals, but also incorporating perennials and shrubs. Bruce has boosted her selection of Proven Winners- brand plants, which includes a number of smaller selections. “They have a lot more


selection as far as dwarf and miniature varieties,” she says. Proven Winners is also helping Bruce reach community gardeners – people who often lack enough yard space but still want to grow something. “With the yards being


smaller, more people are getting plots in the community gardens,” notes Bruce. “It’s kind of all over the map [in terms of age ranges] but there is definitely younger


43


Cedar Rim Nursery GM Amanda Bruce, winner of Green Profit’s2018 Young Retailer Award, is trying to stay one step ahead of trends in the nursery sector. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO


people getting into it and they need help with everything because they don’t know how to do it.” She says younger, less- experienced gardeners lean towards seedlings that provide the instant gratification of plants in the soil. There’s also less fear of failure. “We want them to have success because once they have success, they want to do more of it,” she explains. Bruce is also seeing an


increase in visible minorities. While their shopping habits differ, they’re also more willing to experiment. “They are very excited to


be gardening,” she says. “We’ve definitely started carrying things to appeal more to them. Some of the different fruit trees … persimmons, and those type of things.” Wells says appealing to


Millennials is the most profitable trend. “Make the garden centre their Starbucks for plants,” she says. “So they know what to do, feel comfortable there and hang out there.” As younger customers


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increase their incomes and buy homes, an established relationship with a garden centre will grow. Cedar Rim hired a social media manager a little over a year ago. The investment paid off with vastly improved content. Bruce encourages younger staff to contribute their ideas to the business, too, to help it keep pace with emerging trends. “We’ve definitely put a big push into our Instagram, and people on Facebook are still very strong,” Bruce notes. “Hopefully, one day we’ll take


our online sales further. It’s not something you want to do poorly.” Additionally, to keep


relationships with Millennials growing and encourage customers to spend more time at Cedar Rim, she hopes to add a café, but like the online sales, it’s not something she takes lightly. “We’d love to one day, but straight up, we don’t know anything about running a restaurant,” she says. “It’s something we have to think about and obviously do our due diligence.”


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