The challenge of growing unique plants
Most of us are in this industry because we are, at heart, plant people – we’re the kind of people who text each other photos of plants we find on vacation, and whose camera rolls contain almost as many pictures of plants as they do of people. We’re the self-described “plant snobs” - the type of people who talk plants in our free time, and I think it’s fair to say that we weren’t drawn to this field because of our passion for Stella de Oro Daylilies or Autumn Blaze Maples. But, at the end of the day, we’re also businesspeople. In order to grow the plants that excite and inspire us, and to trial exciting new and improved varieties, we must also continue to produce the commodities of the plant world - the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass and the Annabelle Hydrangeas - that we need to grow if we want to stay in business.
We recently had a conversation with a customer about the difficulty in sourcing unique specimen plants. As more and more specialty nurseries that focused on niche plant material have closed over the years, the rare and unusual finds of the plant world have become increasingly challenging to find at the local level. At the same time, we’ve seen the nursery industry evolve to become one of low cost and high volume, as many other industries have.
To help understand this trend, we need to go back to the Recession of 2008, as is so often the case when we look for insight into long-term economic shifts in our industry. The Recession led to a shifting mentality when it came to holding onto plant material. For one thing, we saw the risks involved with waiting for trees to reach larger sizes. There is, of course, inherent risk involved whenever it comes to holding inventory. The longer you hold plant material, the greater your chances of loss due to insect and disease pressure, and the greater the possibility that you won’t be able to sell the plants later, after incurring all the added labor costs. Risk is part of any business, and we’re often willing to take those risks when we feel that the likelihood of success outweighs the possibility of failure. But the Recession forced us to face the realization of those risks head on, in many cases by grubbing large trees out of our fields.
This was a punishment that couldn’t have been more deeply personal, it was one that made a lasting impact on our industry, and on those of us who were affected by it. Another outcome of the Recession was that nurseries simply needed revenue and growers became more willing to sell trees at smaller sizes. And so we began to see an increased focus on turning product faster by moving smaller trees out the door. This left a hole in the market for large specimen trees and evergreens that won’t be filled for some time.
In addition to creating a shortage of large, mature plant material in the market, the Recession, and the lessons it taught us about risk, are also likely somewhat to blame for our increasing hesitancy to grow unique and uncommon varieties on a large scale. We tend to grow what the market asks for – there’s less risk involved that way. So we grow what we know we can sell, and what we know we can grow well. Unique plant material is also generally more difficult to propagate and it requires more labor. This means that more risk is involved in getting the plants to market, and it results in lower margins. All this is to say that unique plant material is generally not economically feasible for large scale nurseries.
Having said all this, I don’t think any of us want to give up on growing unique and uncommon plants, and we shouldn’t. But in order to do this, we need to make sure that our customers understand the true value of our product, and we can’t continue to undercut one another when it comes to pricing. Our passion for what we do is what makes us successful - it inspires us to grow and change, and it motivates us to move forward and to pass our love for this industry down to the next generations and to our customers. If we can find a way to balance the unique and interesting varieties along with the tried and true landscape staples, we can continue to be inspired by plants and by each other’s love for plants. After all, isn’t that what led us here in the first place?
