FROM THE BOARD 



Satisfy Your Customers' Curiosity 



ROBERT DEMERS 



Spring is over and for some of 

 us, it's time to slow down, 

 but for me and most garden cen- 

 ters like mine, we have just be- 

 gun. Once Father's Day comes 

 around, our cell-pack annual se- 

 lection will be small, but our 

 jumbo annuals and perennials 

 will be in the thousands. Annuals 

 and perennials in 6 1/2-inch, 8 1/ 

 2-inch, one-gallon, and two-gallon 

 pots will fill every square inch of 

 space I have. 



This is also a good time to take 

 a few notes and put them in a 

 spring order file for next year. 

 Give yourself a reminder as to 

 what your customers are buying 

 while it's still fresh in your mem- 

 ory. Also write down what you 

 had a hard time getting or what 

 sold well, so you can grow your 

 own or get more in next year. We 

 try to keep note of what kinds of 

 containers our customers are ask- 

 ing for as well as which ones they 

 are buying, so that next year, we 

 can offer those containers with 

 plant material already in them. 



Last year we noticed that mixed 

 baskets and Proven Winners sold 

 the best, so a lot of our green- 

 houses were dedicated to growing 

 just these. We also noticed that a 

 lot of our customers bought 



flower bags or pouches. Some of 

 our growing houses had nothing 

 on the posts, so we grew flower 

 bags on all our empty posts. 



A few of our houses have 

 shelving or brackets, but the 

 houses that have bare wall were 

 suddenly full. This didn't inter- 

 fere with the natural light and in- 

 creased the retail production value 



WELCOME, 

 NEW MEMBERS! 



SHEILA DOHERTY 



15012 Sunrise Lane 



Burnsville, MN 55337 



CREENBRIAR FARM 



RRI, Box 273 



Center Ossipee, NH 03814 



LILIE LEBLANC 



PO Box 34 



South Acworth, NH 03607 



MITCHELL'S FARM AND SEED 



414 High Street 



Boscawen, NH 03303 



PURPLE FINCH GARDEN 

 48 Duston Road 

 Salem. NH 03079 



a thousand dollars per house. 



Creative containers are becom- 

 ing more and more popular. I 

 strongly urge you to attend 

 greenhouse open houses, twilight 

 meetings, and your state associa- 

 tion's trade meetings to learn 

 more about them. Your custom- 

 ers — not trade store bargain hunt- 

 ers, but your true customers — are 

 more educated and more curi- 

 ous — more eager to learn about 

 new ideas. If you don't satisfy 

 this curiosity, your customers will 

 move on to somebody who can. 



So this year, as you visit our 

 summer meeting on August fifth, 

 take some notes and talk to the 

 various vendors there. Change 

 your way of thinking about how 

 and what you are growing. By 

 doing this, you'll not only sell 

 more, but will keep your custom- 

 ers curious as to what you'll be 

 offering next. 



Satisfying your customers' curi- 

 osity and your cash register are 

 probably the two best creative- 

 container combination baskets 

 you can grow. 



Robert Demers, Demers Garden 

 Center, 656 South Mammoth Road, 

 Manchester, can be reached at 

 603-625-8298. 



:^<^"'% 



GARDHVS 



WHOLESALE GROWERS and SUPPLIERS 

 of QUALITY PLANTS 



Spring Annuals • Geraniums • Hanging Baskerts 

 Perennials and Foliage Plants 3" to 10" 



P.O. Box 360 • Alton NH 03809 • Tel: 603-875^444 

 Located on Route 28, 1 V^ mile south of the Alton Traffic Circle 



Oumers Bnice and Linda Holmes 



THE PLANTSMAN 



