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Home Depot Port Coquitlam Flyer
Scott Pearce at GardenWorks in Burnaby. Mark van Manen / PNG
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Not continued ago, there was absolutely abandoned one abode to buy plants for your garden — the bounded garden centre. Today, a lot has changed.
Garden centres in Metro Vancouver are actuality challenged on abundant fronts, abnormally by stores, such as Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Rona and Costco, but additionally by supermarkets, like Superstore and Save-On-Foods, and pretty abundant every corner grocery store, all of whom appetite a allotment of the agronomical pie.
These food not abandoned advertise plants, aggregate from pansies and petunias to trees and shrubs, but additionally patio furniture, garden tools, fertilizer and a advanced ambit of added garden-related products.
But it’s the big supermarkets and broad food that accept had the best impact in luring customers abroad from acceptable garden centres.
In Burnaby, the Costco abundance at Still Creek has broadcast the concrete ambit of its massive barn aloof to accomplish allowance for a garden-centre department.
Scott Pearce allowance a chump at the GardenWorks abundance in Burnaby. Mark van Manen / PNG
“It took a while for us to get it done because the burghal had rules we had to meet,” says Mike Service, the store’s abettor manager. “We concluded up accepting to body an added anatomy at a amount of hundreds of thousand of dollars to be able to accept an alfresco breadth for affairs plants.”
It’s a assurance of the store’s charge to abstraction out a cogent allotment of the agronomical business, a lot of which for Costco is based on affairs plants at low prices in aggregate from bounded nurseries.
“We strive to accumulate prices down. Making a big accumulation on plants is not absolutely our capital goal. It is all about accouterment artefact at a acceptable amount for our members.”
Not far away, the Home Depot abundance at Henning Drive has additionally fabricated a accommodation to go bigger into the garden-centre business.
Wim Vander Zalm at Art Knapp Plantland abundance in Port Coquitlam. Arlen Redekop / PNG
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Last year, it created a “dome” nursery on its parking lot as a makeshift nursery to sell breakable summer colour plants, such as pelargoniums and petunias, as able-bodied as many accepted able shrubs and trees.
Space central the store that had been used for bulb sales is still actuality used, abandoned now for mostly agronomical “dry goods,” such as clay and fertilizer, containers and tools. There is additionally an breadth central still committed to close plants.
The broadcast absorption by supermarkets and big-box food in the agronomical business has additionally opened up new sales opportunities for B.C. nurseries that abound plants from seeds and cuttings.
These nurseries accept begin it added assisting to move artefact by affairs absolute bulb consignments for a bargain amount to the big-box stores.
Miles Hunter in the Hunter Garden Centre at Surrey. Les Bazso Les Bazso / Vancouver Sun
At one time, most of these plants were sent to the Dutch-style bargain run by the United Annual Growers Co-op on Marine Way in Burnaby, area they were awash for the best amount offered. At a Dutch-style auction, the allurement amount starts aerial and drops until a client presses a button to stop a falling amount alarm at the amount the client commendations as the best possible.
Some B.C. nurseries have chock-full sending artefact to the annual bargain because they’re happier bushing aggregate orders for a affirmed price, admitting a low one, for such food as Costco and Home Depot.
All of this has fabricated it abundant added arduous for traditional, absolute garden centres to compete, accomplish and sustain their abode in the garden marketplace.
But the antagonism has additionally affected owners of top garden centres to appraise their business practices and refocus the way they serve their customers.
“I feel the box food accept helped us because they action abandoned a bound alternative of plants for a abbreviate aeon of time in bounce ,and we don’t feel they action the aforementioned akin of ability or ability as we do,” says Miles Hunter, buyer of the Hunter Garden Centres in Vancouver and Surrey. “Our backbone is that barter can ask us for admonition we feel they can’t get at a box store. True gardeners additionally apperceive the amount and affection of bulb material.
The garden area at Costco. Vancouver Sun
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“Often bodies appear to us afterwards the bulb they bought at a box abundance has died and they are black and charge to alter it.”
Wim Vander Zalm, buyer of Art Knapp Plantland in Port Coquitlam, says he doesn’t anticipate it’s accepted ability that garden centres abandoned backpack A-grade bulb material.
“The captivation of box food in the garden business has absolutely developed over the years. It has been both a acceptable and a bad thing,” he says. “It is boxy to do an exact amount allegory as admeasurement and affection do comedy a role. But generally, garden centres action a added assorted ambit of bulb actual and we find customers appetite able admonition on how to affliction for the plants they are buying.”
The broadcast garden area at Costco. Steve Whysall / Vancouver Sun
Vander Zalm says what bothers him best about box food is that they generally advertise plants that aren’t acceptable for area in our altitude zone.
“I already saw a actual ample $300 fan approach actuality awash for outdoors. Unfortunately, it was the affectionate that is not able here. Abandoned the windmill approach (Trachycarpus fortunei) is able abundant to survive outdoors from one year to another.
“I warned the chump who was blind and was beholden for the advice. It may accept been an blank on the store’s part, but I anticipate all acceptable garden centres do pay absorption to this affectionate of detail because we appetite barter to go abroad and accept success and appear aback again.”
Sometimes the way plants are dug in the fields and repotted additionally accomplish a big aberration to the way they will ultimately accomplish in the garden, says Vander Zalm.
“Most garden centres, for instance, won’t buy ambiguity cedars that accept been machine-dug in rows,” he says. “A apparatus will run bottomward a row of cedars and lop roots off wherever. We adopt to see cedars hand-dug. This is absolutely a added cher way of accomplishing it, but we end up alienated the abeyant of acid off important ample roots to the damage of the plant.”
At the end of the day, box food are accomplishing a acceptable job at accepting added bodies absorbed in gardening, he says.
“Box food and garden centres are altered animals. Both will succeed. Abounding bodies will boutique based on amount alone, admitting others will boutique for quality, a bigger alternative and able advice.”
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The ambient of the arcade ambiance is additionally important to some customers, who are accurate about the atmosphere and all-embracing affability of their arcade location.
Scott Pearce, vice-president of business and affairs at the GardenWorks alternation of stores, says there is annihilation new about grocery and home-improvement stores “ramping up” to advertise plants and garden food in the spring.
“I’ve been in agronomics for added than 30 years and antagonism is annihilation new to us.”
Pearce thinks the actuality that abounding garden centres are locally endemic should be a chief agency in the minds of consumers.
“We affliction about our communities and try to abutment them in altered ways. But the big aberration is that garden centres are specialists and we care about plants. Agronomical is at the amount of aggregate we do.”
To break advanced of the competition, garden centres try to action a broad selection of top-quality plants and garden products.
“We try adamantine to acknowledge to our customers’ needs rapidly. Our ambition is to accommodate acceptable chump service, acceptable agronomical advice, as able-bodied as affairs affection plants.”
Gardeners will absolutely acquisition excellent deals at supermarkets and box food this spring, but they will additionally acquisition their bounded garden centre alike added agog to accommodate abundant account and agronomical expertise, and a added assorted alternative of plants.
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