Carolina Native Nursery’s staff can help you make the best plant selections

‘Where are your native plants?” is a question heard at more and more garden centers. When you finally decide to make native plants part of your selection for your clients, it will be very important that you bring in the best. That’s where we can help. Our staff has garden center experience. We can recommend the best plants, help your staff become familiar with them, deliver quality, and support your efforts. Please give us a call and let us know when you are ready. Ask for Shelby.

 

Selling native plants in your garden center

The amount of press native plants have received in the mainstream press over the past year has been phenomenal. Southern Living has had oakleaf hydrangeas on the cover. Fine Gardening has had articles on native viburnums as well as witch hazels. The American Gardener from the American Horticultural Society writes about blueberries and wildflowers. The people that read these magazines are your clients and, sooner or later, they will be coming to see you for these plants.

It’s increasingly important for you to have native plants on display, separate from the rest. With the proper point of sale tagging, information, and branding, the sale of native plants becomes easier. Your customers will be happier and will keep coming back.

Native plants are a premium sale.

People will pay more if they perceive an added value, which they do with native plants. Better margins mean a better bottom line. But why do native plants cost more? They are hard to find. Many are grown from seed and difficult to propagate. Therefore not many nurseries have the expertise or time that it takes. But in the long run they may be less expensive to maintain for many of the reasons listed below. It is important that you and your personnel are familiar with this information.

Speaking to your clients in an informed manner is impressive and will keep them satisfied and coming back.

• Native plants have evolved in place over geologic time. Their distribution across the natural landscape is due largely to adaptation to local and regional site and climatic conditions. The benefits of using native plants are varied and numerous.
• Native plants are environmentally friendly. They require less maintenance and are cost-effective, both in the nursery and in the landscape. In other words, they require less pesticides and fertilizer treatments and they conserve water. Once established, the will not require an irrigation system for their survival. This can be a very substantial cost savings for your clients in the long run. It can be especially important for clients who have vacation homes.
• Native plants are hardy. The have adapted and evolved through the ages to local soil types and climate, therefore, withstanding winter cold and dieback as well as drought conditions. You may lose less plants that are expensive to replace in cost not to mention the time and labor.
• Native plants promote biodiversity, provide food and shelter for native wildlife, and restore regional landscapes. A native landscape can blend effortlessly with the surrounding natural landscape.
• Native plants prevent future exotic and invasive plant introductions. Although many exotic, or non-native, plants are not invasive, some are. Invasive exotic plant material escape, naturalize, spread, and replace the native plant communities. These exotics can be vectors of disease and insects. Kudzu, privette, and bittersweet are examples of exotics gone awry.

Contact us for more information on the benefits of selling native plants in your garden center.