Sally Benson June 14, 2016<\/p>\n
Growers\u2019 Gardens
\nPhoto: Iseli Nursery<\/p>\n
How do you sell a plant? You do your best to grow the best, but there\u2019s a lot of competition out there. If you\u2019re a grower and you\u2019re attracting landscape and retail customers \u2014 selling wholesale \u2014 you have a website, a catalog and an availability list. You tweet, you e-blast, you Instagram. You do all you can to get the word out. For those customers who are fortunate enough to visit your facility, however, one of the best ways to show off your plants is in a display garden. Out of the pot and into the ground, those plants look different. Giving them a few years to mature in a garden setting, showing customers what the plants look like in their \u201cnatural\u201d environment, can inspire even the most creative of landscape professionals. The result? Better educated customers and increased sales. Plus, there\u2019s the benefit of working with an on-site test plot, where your staff can monitor and evaluate plants in a garden setting.<\/p>\n
Many growers offer their gardens for landscape customers, showing off their best selections in a way that\u2019s a bit more inspiring than row upon row of cans. But often the gardens are used for trials and staff instruction, as well. As Jill Bondi, marketing manager for Midwest Groundcovers in St. Charles, Illinois, describes it, \u201cIt\u2019s utilizing the space to create a beautiful display, but really utilizing it more for education to compare and contrast different varieties; basically, the space [is used] as much for education versus just a beautiful garden.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world-renowned display at Iseli Nursery in Boring, Oregon, was established by the late Jean Iseli as \u201ca synoptic garden, kind of one of each of different groups of plants,\u201d explains Sandy Dittmar, director of consumer marketing relations for the grower. \u201cThere were strip plantings of different types of plants; I\u2019ll say one strip would have been Chamaecyparis obtusa, and another strip Picea abies \u2026 .\u201d It was intended to be a place of comparison, a living lab for the nursery that evolved into spectacular gardens still used for education, but for display as well.<\/p>\n
What began as a synoptic garden on the Iseli Nursery site has evolved into a stunning display garden, a memorial for the company\u2019s founder, Jean Iseli.<\/em><\/strong><\/span> At Monrovia\u2019s Dayton, Oregon, facility, plant production manager Ron Tuckett maintains the extensive display gardens for visitors as well as for \u201cin-house\u201d purposes. \u201cFirst and foremost,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s a display garden. But then we also get new plants in all the time; there are people who\u2019ll send us new varieties, and they\u2019ll say, \u2018We want to see what this looks like planted out.\u2019 Or people will call and say, \u2018How big does this get if you don\u2019t prune it?\u2019 Well, we\u2019ve got the plant in our garden, and we haven\u2019t pruned it, so we can show them, this is how big it will get after so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the J. Frank Schmidt Jr. Arboretum in Boring, Oregon, a private, 10-acre display that was established in 1984. Nancy Buley, the company\u2019s communications director, says the extensive collection \u201cis used to educate customers and specifiers (landscape architects, designers, urban foresters, garden writers, policymakers) \u2026 and it is a great living laboratory where we can observe tree performance over a long period of time. Understanding how each variety and tree grows helps us do a better job of growing them.\u201d<\/p>\n Most growers\u2019 display gardens are open to customers, and a few to the public. While we\u2019d like to fly everyone out to stroll through the actual gardens, we\u2019ll have to give you a little preview here. And for more photos, be sure to visit http:\/\/www.amerinursery.com.<\/p>\n About 2.5 acres of garden surrounds the Iseli Nursery main office in Oregon, and the site is well-known for its collection of woody plants. \u201cWe get people from all over the world coming to look at our garden,\u201d Dittmar says. \u201cIt\u2019s not open to the public, but it\u2019s for our customers; sometimes a landscaper will bring one of their clients here to look at something. They\u2019re usually here to purchase something, but of course they can tour the garden.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of college groups come through, kind of a field trip for their plant identification class, or just to see what\u2019s out there,\u201d Dittmar continues. \u201cSo those students are getting some exposure to the company and possibly would have interest down the road in an internship program, or future employment, you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n The garden was created by the late Jean Iseli several decades ago, primarily as a place for the company to observe plants as they mature. But in the late 1990s, the company developed the site into a regular garden design, connecting several individual plots to surround the main building.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not just the plants that we\u2019re actively producing, there are things that we\u2019ve discontinued that are still there,\u201d Dittmar describes. \u201cBut we also include a lot of evaluative material so that we\u2019ve got it, we can show our customers what\u2019s coming on, we can show them things we\u2019re working on, we can ask them, \u2018what do you think about this plant?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The garden gives Iseli staff an opportunity to \u201csee a plant 15, 20 years down the road,\u201d Dittmar says. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have a 20-foot-tall whatever in our growing yards, but here in the garden we do. It\u2019s all inventoried in a database; it\u2019s like a living museum.\u201d<\/p>\n As with most growers\u2019 displays, this garden provides customers a unique view of a plant\u2019s future. Specifying a plant from a plant tag is one thing; seeing a variety several years down the road gives a designer a whole new perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of conifers will start out more globe-shaped and develop a leader later, and become more treelike,\u201d Dittmar says. \u201cThat\u2019s just what a lot of them do. So then you can show the customer, this is what it\u2019s going to do; you\u2019ve got to be patient with it, but this is what you\u2019re going to end up with.\u201d<\/p>\n The Iseli garden also is used as the company\u2019s own photography studio, ready to be employed for marketing and advertising purposes. Having mature trees in a landscape setting helps the company show customers more than just a snapshot of the plant. \u201cWith a typical flowering crop or other types of plant materials, the photo image that\u2019s used to represent those, either on the retail tag or in a company\u2019s catalog, is a bloom,\u201d Dittmar notes. \u201cIt\u2019s just a close up; that\u2019s all that\u2019s seen. With the type of material we have, we need to show it in a landscape setting.\u201d<\/p>\n Nancy Buley describes the garden thus: \u201cNamed in honor of the founder of one of North America\u2019s leading nurseries, the J. Frank Schmidt Jr. Arboretum is home to more than 500 species and cultivars of deciduous trees, shrubs and conifers. Established 30 years ago, this private 10-acre arboretum is a living museum and may well be the most up-to-date collection of deciduous tree cultivars in North America. Trees are organized by genus and species, and identified by Latin and common names.\u201d<\/p>\n The site is visited year-round, and often plays host to social events as well as horticultural educational events. \u201cWe make it available to green industry and non-profit groups as a gathering place. We often host green industry educational events and field days,\u201d Buley says. For several years, Dr. Michael Dirr and Keith Warren, the nursery\u2019s director of product development, have teamed for a tour of the site billed as the \u201cWalk of Legends.\u201d<\/p>\n The J. Frank Schmidt Jr. Arboretum<\/em><\/strong><\/span> Buley explains that the arboretum was ahead of its time. \u201cOne of the things that I find quite visionary about J. Frank Schmidt Jr. \u2014 the arboretum was his idea, and it involved taking a perfectly good, 10-acre production field out of production and turning it into an arboretum\/display garden. They started by laying out the planting areas, the road to the eventual picnic shelter, and then planting bare root trees. For a decade, it looked like a big field with trees planted here and there, but as they matured, the arboretum took shape, and it has become a wonderful, shady, cool gathering place.\u201d<\/p>\n The site has become so successful that the company has planted more displays closer to headquarters. \u201cWe have developed a good collection of our newer introductions in the main office landscape,\u201d Buley explains. \u201c[It features] probably 40 or more trees that are currently in production. Showing these to customers on our way to the Suburban for a field tour is a great sales tool.\u201d<\/p>\n At Midwest Groundcovers, lush display gardens designed by internationally renowned plantsman Piet Oudolf highlight the company\u2019s selection of perennials.<\/em><\/strong><\/span> On its softly rolling property in northern Illinois, Midwest Groundcovers has established several areas of display gardens. Initially created as islands among production acreage and administrative facilities, the gardens have evolved over the years in many ways. A swath of lush grasses and perennials along the two-lane highway provides a welcome at the entrance to the property, but the area also hosts a trial garden. \u201cIt isn\u2019t the best area, so we did it on purpose,\u201d Bondi remarks. \u201cIt\u2019s close to one of the main drives, alongside the gravel road,\u201d where plants are put to the test. Selections such as a new Gypsophila \u2014 which did not survive the challenging winter conditions \u2014 and about 10 varieties of Geum have been trialed so far. Two of the Geum passed muster and will be incorporated into the company\u2019s production program.<\/p>\n The approach to the main office of Midwest Groundcovers in St. Charles, Illinois, offers visitors a preview of the plants they\u2019ll be selecting.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Noted international plantsman Piet Oudolf designed perennial gardens that surround the Midwest Groundcovers office, incorporating many of the company\u2019s current inventory as well as a few plants on trial. Midwest also works closely with plantsman Roy Diblik, co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, Wisconsin, and author of The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden, who often supplies the nursery with introductions. (Oudolf and Diblik also teamed to help develop the Lurie Garden in Chicago\u2019s Millennium Park.)<\/p>\n Bondi explains that all gardens on site are dual purpose: to educate customers and to educate the staff. A new Hydrangea paniculata display was incorporated, because \u201cthe market is so saturated with different hydrangeas, but what do they do? How do they perform?\u201d she poses.<\/p>\n A company brand enjoys its own space: Hocus Pocus Groundcovers\u00ae is a line of plants that are said to \u201ccover like magic.\u201d The small garden is a way to show customers new varieties, and a way for the company to evaluate its own efforts. \u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is that, right or wrong, good or bad, we display them,\u201d Bondi says. \u201cThere are plants that do not perform extremely well in our site, so we have to replace and\/or decide to eliminate them completely. If we continue to see failures in our landscape, we know it\u2019s probably not something that\u2019s covering like magic, at least not in our site, and we question whether it belongs in the program.\u201d<\/p>\n There are two types of landscape customers who visit Midwest Groundcovers, according to Bondi: \u201cSome come just to pick up their order, then there are others who come here, place their order, and then walk the property. And they take pictures.\u201d Those pictures inspire the landscape pros, but they also serve to inspire their own customers. It\u2019s great marketing.<\/p>\n A weeping cedar (Cedrus atlantica \u2018Glauca Pendula\u2019) beautifully highlights one of two bridges in the display gardens at Monrovia\u2019s Dayton, Oregon, facility.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The meandering, 6-acre display gardens that surround Monrovia\u2019s Dayton, Oregon, facility, resemble a park more than a distinct garden. But the installation serves, as most do, as a source of learning and beauty. Plant protection manager Ron Tuckett is charged with maintaining both of those functions, ensuring that visitors are greeted with outstanding examples of Monrovia\u2019s plants as well as providing Monrovia staff with information, and material, at their fingertips. \u201cWe want it to look beautiful out there, and we want to display all our plants so that people can see what they look like as they grow and as they mature,\u201d Tuckett says. \u201cWe want to show off our building as well, and make it beautiful for everybody to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes the acreage is used in propagation. Yes, it\u2019s a display garden, but \u201cthere have been times where we\u2019ve gone out of a certain variety and weren\u2019t producing it anymore, and so the only plants available were in the landscape,\u201d Tuckett says. \u201cSo they became mother plants, and those didn\u2019t look very good for a while, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. One year we got 2,000 cuttings off of plants in the garden, and we were back in business again with the variety. We try not to do that; we try to keep it good looking out there all the time. But occasionally plants will get pruned out fairly heavily for propagation, even though that\u2019s kind of a last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n Display gardens need not be vast to make an impact; a smaller, well-designed and maintained plot that features your plants the way the end user imagines can be just as effective. What\u2019s critical?<\/p>\n Monrovia\u2019s Dayton facility, designed in Craftsman style to reflect the company\u2019s tradition of employing \u201ccraftsmen,\u201d is surrounded by acres of display gardens.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think this is probably the most important thing for a display garden,\u201d Tuckett says. \u201cWhen you see a plant like a nursery would sell it \u2014 in a 1-gallon container, a 5-gallon container \u2014 it almost never looks like it\u2019s going to look in the landscape. It\u2019s been pruned, and it\u2019s a certain size, and you really don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to do. Sometimes you just don\u2019t have the vision of what it\u2019s going be, and people need help with that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a very good designer; I can\u2019t see a plant or look at a picture on a page and imagine how it\u2019s going to look in the garden,\u201d he continues. \u201cI have to take it out there. I\u2019m fortunate that I work at a big nursery where I can just go out and grab whatever I need, and I\u2019ll take three or four things out and see what looks best.<\/p>\n An idyllic setting graces Monrovia\u2019s Oregon growing facility.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why seeing a full-sized plant, or seeing a mature plant, people can get that vision. You might not sell the plant in a 1-gallon container, especially if people just saw it in a 1-gallon container. But when they see it full size, in the garden, it\u2019s like \u2018Wow, I\u2019ve got to have one of those!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sally Benson June 14, 2016 Growers\u2019 Gardens Photo: Iseli Nursery How do you sell a plant? You do your best to grow the best, but there\u2019s a lot of competition out there. If you\u2019re a grower and you\u2019re attracting landscape and retail customers \u2014 selling wholesale \u2014 you have a website, a catalog and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nursery"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nPhoto: Iseli Nursery<\/p>\nIseli Nursery, Boring, Oregon<\/h3>\n
J. Frank Schmidt Jr. Arboretum, Boring, Oregon<\/h3>\n
\nPhoto: J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co.<\/p>\n
\nPhotos: Midwest Groundcovers<\/p>\n\nMidwest Groundcovers, St. Charles, Illinois<\/h3>\n
\nMonrovia, Dayton, Oregon<\/h3>\n