Customize It!
Garden centres capitalize on the container garden trend
By Diane Stewart-Rose
Predicting the direction of customer tastes for the coming season is a feat. The more educated the consumer, the more sophisticated his taste. The signs, say industry experts, point to container gardening. Inspired in part by smaller gardens and the selection of interesting plant material and products, container gardening offers customers the foil to experiment with and express their own personal taste. It can also provide garden centre retailers with means to promote their services and products, and keep their name on the lists of the increasingly sophisticated consumer.
Take a look at what consumers will ask for to accent their garden next season. The home gardener wants a custom-planted combination of annuals that will reflect their personal style and taste. Accent plants, vines and plants with textural features, selections of long-blooming traditional annuals as well as plants that bloom for a short time (perennials) make excellent product choices. They will also look to the garden centre to provide starter plants for the do-it-yourselfer and ready-to-go planters for the later season. It’s just that simple … and complicated.
This is no small order for growers and retailers. No longer satisfied with the status quo, namely impatiens and petunias, the dedicated gardener now needs extra advice on the selection of suitable combinations and growth habits of newly introduced selections and unfamiliar varieties. They want contrast and compatibility, colour and fashion. Predicting which combinations work effectively for sales and compatibility of habit can be tricky. At right is a list of tested and proven new varieties, as well as traditional and reliable favourites.
Garden centres can provide the information and the myriad of combinations in colour and habit from the list at right, however, this influence stops once they proceed past the checkouts and take their purchases home. The following project for the do-it-yourselfer caters to that customer type, and gives them a reason to return season after season to put a different, seasonal spin on their creation. Garden centre retailers can also create these containers as a “ready-to-sell” product.
The Do-It-Yourself Project
- Select a suitable urn, wire basket or other planter.
- Line the urn with soaked sphagnum moss pressed against the sides of the planter, mat fibre liner or landscape fabric. Chicken wire or plastic netting can be used if extra support is required. Incisions may be made in landscape fabric or fibre liners if planters are to be fully planted from the underside as well as from the top.
- Starting from the base, add soil in layers, also making incisions and inserting vining material as you move upward if this is the effect you are seeking. Moisten the mixture before working with it. Fill the container loosely with soil to within approximately five centimeters from the top rim, leaving a lip of fabric or moss to allow for a reservoir for water collection. A hanging basket and planter mix is the best selection for container gardening available on the market.
- Select materials on hand for planting the top portion. Gently ‘crack’ or break the roots slightly.
- Add soil as required to be sure that plants are firmly in position with no exposed roots, and press soil into position. Water thoroughly and gently.
Planters may be fertilized every two to four weeks with a water-soluble fertilizer such as a 15-30-15. Available nutrients will be quickly used up. A 14-14-14 slow release six-month formula will feed for an entire growing season. Planters should be planted as full as possible as most gardeners are not prepared to wait the season for an attractive effect but want instant appeal and colour.
As the market evolves and consumers seek expanding choices, these containers may include tropicals, perennials and nursery material for added interest. An added benefit of such a mixed planting is that unique plant materials with short periods of interest (bloom) can be combined with long season foliage accents and flowering material. And, just as the demand for plants will increase, the same can be said for the available container choices. The demand for these container gardens will continue to grow as consumers look for larger containers in which to appreciate these plants in an “up close and personal” setting.
The growing connection
Dan Sant of George Sant and Sons Greenhouses in Kleinburg, ON, has witnessed the container gardening trend first hand and sees it as an ever-expanding and evolving market, with buyers always seeking something different. It is up to the grower to stay on top of these changes and provide retailers (and consumers) with colourful and exciting alternatives to the traditional fare.
Gone is the demand for the 10-inch plastic hanging baskets, once the mainstay of the spring and summer business for Sant’s high-end clientele. This year, Sant noticed an increase in the sales of the 12-, 14- and even 16-inch fibre hanging baskets, planted with assorted mixes. They also report strong sales this season with a white wire basket with cocoa fibre liner which Sant says looks very ‘classy’ and appeals to his clientele. Easy to sell, these baskets are also easily handled by a grower who can just fill with soil and plant up. While lining wire baskets with sphagnum moss is a costly and labour intensive process, these products could be offered by a grower-retailer, Sant suggests.
When planning the container garden mixes, Sant (and brothers Rick and Ron) rely on three things: intuition, inventory and sell-out records from the previous season. “We try new combinations all the time,” says Sant, explaining that all mixtures need to flow, with good colour contrast between the varieties. Scaevola (fanflower) mixed with Balcon geraniums was formerly a big seller. This year, however, a more subtle combination of silver licorice vine with Patio (chalk) blue verbena did very well. Sales for individual mixes also depend on the likes and dislikes of the individual buyers, making purchases on behalf of their clientele.
TOP PLANT SELECTIONS FOR CONTAINERS
Top foliage accents
Lysimachia ‘Goldilocks’ – bright chartreuse colour, dainty leaf, tidy habit
Vinca ‘Illumination’ – colourful contrast, sturdy grower, non-invasive
Asparagus fern – light and feathery, open habit
Bacopa – more drought tolerant, delicate flowers, reliable performance
Coleus – back in fashion, contrasting earthy colours have current appeal
Vinca vine – reliable performer, pleasant contrast, attractive foliage
Silver Helichrysum – silver accent, sturdy grower, textural accent
Ipomea ‘Blackie’ – dark burgundy foliage, large bold leaves, vining, non-invasive
Ipomea ‘Marguerite’ – lime green foliage, bold leaves, vining, non-invasive
Hosta – bold leaves, textural appeal
Top accents for height
Perennial ferns – ideal for shade
Formium – tropical grasses, great colour selection, some with marked variegation
Perennial grasses
Annual grasses
Dracaena
Annual standards – fuchsia, lantana, blue solanium
Top trailing/flowering accents
Bacopa – delicate flowers, new blue and pink varieties
Lobelia – new varieties are more succulent and drought tolerant
Fanflowers (Scaevola aemula) – great performer, reliable in containers
Calibrachoa – range of colours, new ‘Celebration’ series shows improved performance
Bidens – bright colour, great for hot and dry containers
Verbena – strong, vibrant colours
Top flowering plants
Heliotrope – strong almond fragrance, leathery foliage and beautiful blue and new white colours
Tuberous begonia – best performance from the reliable ‘Non-Stop’ series
Nemesia – perfumed white, long flowering season, lasting into the fall
Surfinia petunias – great container performance, interesting veined varieties available
Impatiens – continues to provide a bright spot of colour, with reliable container performance
European ‘Balcon’ Geraniums – old world themes with a country look
Argyranthemum – showy yellow and white daisies
Brachyscome – delicate and dainty daisies and lacy foliage
Diane Stewart-Rose is a lover of gardening and the garden centre industry. She lives and works in Toronto as an advertising consultant.Top plant selections for containers.