If any one sentiment resounds through the horticulture industry this year, it is that everyone is looking forward to a well-deserved break this winter. The delayed spring caused many businesses to have a slow start. By working harder and longer hours, most companies made up their spring losses, but now, with the frustration of working through a wet fall, many are looking forward to winterizing their tools.
Once again, Horticulture Review took to the phones to get a feel for how the different industry sectors fared in 2003. Thanks to those companies that took the time to speak with us.
Retail
It’s no surprise that the weather continues to play a role in the retail garden centre sector – with good and bad outcomes. Nursery stock shortages, returned plant material and low spring sales contributed to a slow start to the season. However, most garden centres reported high mid-summer sales and demand for more refined products.
For Klaus Tiessen of Glen Echo Nurseries in Caledon East, the harsh winter coupled with a few years of drought resulted in the largest number of requests for replacement plants. “It was unbelievable the number of returns we were getting at the beginning of the season,” says Tiessen. “I hope this will never happen again.”
While some replacements were understandable given the unusually frigid weather, one northern garden centre reported that returns were not as high as they had expected. “Because the winter was so severe, our customers tended to blame the weather and not the plants they bought from us,” says Susan Richards of New North Greenhouses in Sault Ste. Marie. New North’s sales were slow in coming because of the late start to the season, but ended on a high note, with sales on par with those of 2000. A wet fall season did have an adverse effect on fall bulb and flower sales, notes Richards.
For Glen Echo’s Tiessen, those customers who did come in with returned plants tended to buy even more plant material to expand their garden, but also to replace older, established plants not under warranty but which succumbed to damages from mice and deer.
Perennials continue to be hot. Customers continue to look for the latest new perennial introductions but also search for selections in larger pots and intermixed in ready-made containers. “At New North, we grew more perennials in the larger, two-gallon pots, which I didn’t think would sell as well as the smaller cell-paks, but our customers responded favourably,” says Richards. A shift in the layout of the garden centre will see more room for perennials next year.
New and expanded product lines helped to extend the season. Christmas retailing proved advantageous for Glen Echo, shifting from traditional trees, wreaths and garlands to the more unusual floral greens like Ilex, Eucalyptus and Magnolia. Customers are also now more educated on fall planting, resulting in consistent demand for new plant material into the fall season. “We brought in new plant material as late as Halloween,” says Tiessen. “Customers will still look for a deal because it’s fall, but they don’t get the blow-out prices they used to.”
Whether it is a plateau or the fall-out of West Nile virus, garden centres reported a definite decrease in water gardening sales. Farley See of Moore Water Gardens in Port Perry noted it was the first in 12 years that he did not see an increase in sales, instead reporting a four- to five-per-cent decrease, with the weather as the main culprit. “Water gardening has a relatively short season, between May and June, in which we do 80 to 90 per cent of our annual business,” says See. “We didn’t really recover from the late start and the continual rains.” This year, customers turned to the larger, more established and blooming water plants in six- and seven-inch pots. New pond installations also dropped in number, with customers looking to expand existing ponds using larger pond liners and filter systems, confirm both Moore and New North. Going against the norm in Ontario, however, sales in the Quebec area are up, and See remains optimistic for 2004 as early booking wholesale orders continue to come in.
Growers
Marc Ouellet of Rockwood Forest Nurseries in Cameron says the weather was extremely tough on his plants, causing severe dessication. “I chose not to rip a lot of the plants out – which turned out to be the right move, because most are coming back nicely,” he says. “We loaded up our conifers with fertilizer in late fall (for an early spring start), which in hindsight probably helped them put on new growth.” The deciduous plants at Rockwood Forest Nurseries experienced a fair bit of die-back, but says Ouellet, “nature takes care of itself; we got very good growth on these plants this spring and summer.”
Ouellet was pleased with sales this year, saying the increased housing development across the GTA is fuelling sales. Reacting to the current shortage of large trees, he has opted to hold back some product and let grow to larger caliper sizes for the landscape market.
Noting that some growers are acting as nursery brokers by buying in more and more plants, Ouellet has chosen to go the other route, and is focusing on growing more hardy nursery stock and buying in fewer items. “It ties up more money,” he admits, “but the margins are better.”
Elly Hillen, of Hillen Nursery Inc. in Mt. Brydges, says plants at her nursery came through the harsh winter just fine. “There is always a bit of damage, but we had nothing out of the ordinary this year.” Sales were good during the summer and continued well into fall. “We are looking forward to more of the same next year,” she says.
In St. Catharines, John Bakker of J.C. Bakker & Sons Ltd. says their main problem this winter was that they had six weeks of bare frost and extremely low temperatures. The nursery’s proximity to Lake Ontario helped though, as plants closest to the lake had very little damage.
“Our polyhouses were consistently cold, so most plants came through the winter o.k.,” says Bakker, “It is when winter temperatures fluctuate that plants under poly suffer the most.”
Like others in the Niagara Region, Bakker’s experienced a major ice storm in April that set shipping back a full week. After working hard to catch up, Bakker says the long drawn-out spring made for a really good planting season.
“Plants grew very well this year, and we enjoyed this summer, too,” he says. “The more moderate temperatures were nice to work in and we didn’t miss lugging irrigation pipes around.”
Bakker finds customers are very positive – his spring bookings are up from the year before and he is looking forward to a great season next year. “The interest in gardening has increased dramatically in the last four or five years,” he says, adding, “Ten years ago, everybody wanted a nice landscape, but they wanted it done for them. Now I think people are getting outside and becoming more involved with their gardens. People are beginning to know their plants, and we have to be sharp when serving them.”
Lawn care
Despite action on the pesticide debate with the municipalities, there has been little or no reaction on the customer front in terms of service cancellations, say both Gavin Dawson of Greenspace Services Ltd. (Toronto) and Jordan Lavin of Nutri Lawn – Woodstock.
“Our customers did not rush en masse to non-pesticide programs, we had no cancellations or requests for program changes,” says Dawson, only questions on how the bylaw changes may affect the services Greenspace offers. He cites that misinformation or lack of information from the media causes the most concern, and it’s up to the lawn care companies to pick up the slack.
Lavin agrees. “As always, the pesticide issue is not so much an issue with the homeowners as it is with the industry,” he says. Thirty to 45 per cent of Nutri Lawn – Woodstock’s customers already use the company’s organic lawn care program, however, these customers will change to pesticide application if problems arise.
While customers like to have options, the trend certainly points to organic programs, or more specifically Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs. “More and more people are coming on board with IPM, and those firms that do not (adopt) will quickly find themselves behind the times,” Lavin warns.
Weather definitely affected the season, resulting in an almost two-week late start to the season, but ended with great fall weather, says Greenspace’s Dawson.
It’s difficult to say what next year’s weather forecast will hold. “Weather always affects us – either it’s too cold, too hot, not enough rain, or too much – it’s always something,” Lavin says.
Landscape contractors
“Slow and cautious” is the way Audrey Partridge, of Juergen Partridge Ltd. in Terra Cotta, describes the mood of 2003. As with most companies, they found replacements of plant material were way up in the spring. The high-end clients for which Partridge designs and builds gardens are taking their time spending money. After a guarded summer, she says “things are looking better this fall, but now the weather is closing in.”
Phil Charal of Allweather Landscape Co. Ltd. of Toronto is optimistic about the marketplace in general. He finds that consumers are better educated and more aware of the elements of good landscaping, whether it is through increased media attention or the number of televised gardening shows.
Plant replacements were higher than usual, but Charal attributes some of this to Allweather’s aggressive planting policy, which sees crews still planting in November and December. He is rethinking this strategy and has now convinced some clients to wait until spring for the installation of the majority of their plant material.
Again, the weather made a big difference in the operations of this company. “We had a lot of unproductive days from April to June. “I’d estimate we lost about one month of production time and because of that, our overall volume was down. However, he notes, “we can’t do anything about the weather.”
Overall, Charal notes a change in the industry – for the better – with companies more aware of professionalism. “I’m not sure if I’m imagining it, but it seems that there is a higher level of professionalism overall in the industry.” One reason, he thinks, could be the creation of better, more professional contracts.
Landscape maintenance
“If I had to ick a single word to describe this year, it would be ‘frustrating’,” says Craig Gaynor, of Ever-Green Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance in Hamilton. “The late start in spring meant we had 85 to 100 spring clean-ups to complete in two weeks. I had to pull my landscape crews off construction jobs to help the maintenance crews catch up, which put landscaping behind,” he explains. “We were just out of rhythm this year, and the wet fall has given us similar conditions — I don’t often say this, but I will be glad when the snow flies this year.”
Gaynor’s two maintenance crews perform a ‘gardening service’ for upper-end residential clients, and work hard to keep clients happy. However, despite frustrating weather conditions, he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. “I see a little bit of economic recovery happening, and we are already going into spring 2004 in a better position than this time last year.”
For Melissa McKerlie, of It’s About Thyme Garden Design & Landscaping in Kitchener, the fall weather conditions this year have been more frustrating than those in the spring. “There have been very few sunny weekends this fall. I don’t think people are able to get out in their gardens, so they aren’t thinking about landscaping.” The economy in the K/W area is still strong, so McKerlie blames the weather for slowing landscape bookings for next spring.
The maintenance side of her business was good, but McKerlie says it took a long time to get caught up after the spring. “I did catch up quicker than anticipated, but had to work longer hours to do it.” Now, in addition to completing fall clean-ups between rain storms, she is hurrying to get her clients’ winter urns planted up in case a cold snap freezes the soil. After a long, sometimes trying season, McKerlie is uncharacteristically looking forward to winter, “I’m read to pack up and start fresh next spring,” she admits.
Irrigation contractors
With the drought of 2002 still fresh in people’s minds, irrigation contractors had a very good year. For Al Marysiuk of Adam Irrigation in Burlington, the only down side was the cold, wet spring. “We lost a lot of time this spring, but more than made up for it in the summer. Our final figures are not in yet, but expect we had higher sales than last year,” he says. “We have quite a good cross-section of customers, and do most business through referrals and landscape contractors.”
“When landscape contractors do well, we do well,” adds Harry Hutten of Select Sprinklers in Waterdown. He echoes everyone’s opinion of the cold, wet spring, and says his crews worked longer hours to catch up. “We had another good year,” says Hutten, who has positive predictions for next year. “Most of our work comes from referrals through landscape contractors. More and more we find they include an irrigation system as part of their warranty. Both they and the customer want the plants to work in the landscape and an automatic irrigation system is their best insurance.”
Landscape designers
The landscape design sector is different than any other sector in the horticulture industry because it is not weather-dependent. Because of this, and because of a still-buoyant residential market, most designers report steady, if not increased sales.
Ron Swentiski of Trillium Associates in Thornhill, is very happy with his year-end figures, which doubled from the previous year – and he anticipates this upward trend will continue. “We design for our own clients by referral, and work as a design sub-contractor for those contractors who do not have the design capabilities or the time to do the designs themselves,” says Swentiski, but it’s the design consulting business he says that has really taken off.
Many landscape design firms also foray into project management, often a great partnership between the project management company, the contractor and the client to ensure satisfaction on all ends. As Kent Ford of Kent Ford Designs (Toronto) explains, his company’s project management division experienced nothing but headaches in 2003, with unreturned phone calls high on the list of grievances. “There are contractors I would have considered in the past, but will not work with them now simply because they lacked the professionalism to return my call,” he says, indicating that this bad business practice may not result in an immediate decrease in business, but will limit a firm’s future growth.
Overall, business activity for the design side remains steady, says Ford. Baby boomers are still renovating and that, along with increased public awareness of the services offered by landscape designers, will help to spur the industry along. Ford credits shows like Canada Blooms and gardening TV shows for raising the profile, but says it both helps and hinders the industry. “If people watch enough television, some may think they can do (the design) themselves, while others realize the need to consult a designer,” says Ford.
It was a flat year for design for Tumber and Associates of Orangeville, says owner Randy Tumber. Dealing with mainly high-end clients, Tumber signed only three contracts between April and September. Fortunately, crews busied themselves with projects started but not completed from the previous season. “We signed the three contracts in April and then it promptly went dead until September, and in two-and-a-half weeks, we signed five contracts and we’ve been signing them ever since,” he says, noting it was the same for many of the high-end contractors in the area. “We had a lot of tire kickers.”
Although Tumber can’t explain the slowdown, he says it may stem from the fact that he raised his design fees for the first time in three years. “We may have overpriced on some jobs but we still need to make a decent buck. We can lowball (bids) all we want and we can get the jobs, but if we can’t accommodate the volume of business, and if it doesn’t cover my overhead, then it’s not worth it,” he says. “I’ve never been interested in high volume – I want the high-profile projects that will allow me to stretch creatively.”
While Tumber is concerned over the slow design season, he remains optimistic for the overall industry sector, especially for those who “try their level best,” for those will result in the coveted referrals.
Professionalism in the industry is high on Swentiski’s list of priorities, and as the first registered Certified Landscape Designer, he looks to attract more individuals to attain this designation. Perhaps then, the landscape design industry can charge the rates more on par with their interior designer counterparts. “I was reading an article in the Toronto Star recently, and it quoted the rates charged-out by interior designers. It was obvious we are way under-charging for our services,” says Swentiski, especially considering the number of liability issues the landscape industry contends with. Ford says that the landscape design sector follows the path taken by interior designers, and more people are beginning to consider using consultants – both inside and for their outdoor spaces.
Interior maintenance
While the slowdown in the economy saw more consumers spending more time and money in their own yards, to the benefit of the landscape contractor and designer, the opposite can be said for the interiorscaper, whose livelihood depends on how much surplus money is available for the fringe benefits enjoyed by business owners and their employees.
The slowdown in our business goes hand-in-hand with the slow economy, says Larry Varlese of Valleyview Gardens (Toronto). “We’re not seeing as many big projects. Businesses are not willing to spend money on the aesthetics or extras for the buildings like plants when the economy takes a downturn.” He likens this tightening of the purse strings to the coffee industry. “Instead of buying the cappuccino, businesses and individuals opt for the (less expensive) regular coffee,” Varlese qualifies, adding that he doesn’t expect to see an immediate bounce back. “It’s a two- to three-year problem, not just a one-year downturn.”
On the upside, sales have started to slowly pick up, and Varlese hopes it’s an indication of what will come in the next few years. Retail sales of house plants continue to be high, and may go along with those same homeowners wanting to decorate their interiors with plants.
While no one likes a slow economy, there are some positive benefits, says Varlese. While the more professional, established companies may hurt in the short-term from lack of sales activity, it also helps to weed out the fly-by-night companies that inevitably appear when times are good.
