From soup to nuts

Harder & Warner Landscaping & Garden CenterHarder & Warner Landscaping & Garden Center, Caledonia, Mich., uses its four divisions – landscape maintenance, landscape installation, a garden center and a tree farm – to offer customers a full-service shopping experience.

The garden center attracts walk-in consumers, who are encouraged to take advantage of the company’s landscape divisions. Conversely, the landscape divisions drive foot traffic into the garden center.

Although the garden center maintains high visibility for the company, the landscaping installation and maintenance divisions account for the majority of the company’s business.

Warner & Harder found its niche in residential redesign. And the best marketing tool for bringing in re-design customers to its landscape division is the garden center, which sees 35,000 people come through its doors every year.

Customer Magnet
The garden center is located on a highly-visible piece of real estate in a high-traffic commercial retail area near a major airport. Although the company relies on word-of-mouth referrals and uses traditional advertising on local radio and television stations, the walk-in traffic at the garden center remains the driving force feeding customers into the profitable landscape installation and maintenance services.

Considered a destination attraction, the garden center sits on 12 acres and comprises nine distinct buildings or outdoor areas, each offering a themed experience. The areas include Blooms ‘n Buckets, a year-round garden gift store including winter holiday décor; the Atlantis Water Garden including fish stock; Perennial Park featuring perennial plants; House 1, a greenhouse featuring Japanese maples; Bulk Goods featuring mulches and soils; Stoneland for hardscape materials; North Growing for potted trees; Treasure Island for specialty plants; and B&B for balled and burlapped trees.

Thanks to its tree farm operations, Harder & Warner offers more than 80 species of tree on hundreds of acres in a 25-mile radius of the garden center. Select trees are then featured in the retail operation.

The company has found a niche in serving residential customers - both in garden center sales and design for housing developments.
Photo: Harder & Warner Landscaping & Garden CenterIn spring and fall, the company’s custom tree digging service is highly touted to garden center visitors. Here, they can hand-select the trees they see to be transplanted later onto their property. 

“The garden center is an ideal tool for gaining customers in redesign,” says Archie John Warner, manager of sales and design. “They can see actual nursery demos set up. They say to themselves ‘I can picture this – I want it.’ It’s a great sales driver for us.

“One of our well-known niches is providing unusual and unique plants that are rarely found anywhere else in Central Michigan,” he adds. “This is a great hook for driving traffic into the garden center. Some of our plant shipments come in from other states including Oregon, Illinois and Wisconsin. We are also offering dwarf tree varieties in high demand due to the increasing restrictions on plant growth on power lines.”

And, for customers who want to still do a bit of DIY, the company offers its “We Plan, You Plant” program – a complimentary design service offered at the garden center.

“We have designers on staff during regular business hours ready to help out when they are not out in the field,” says Warner. “We encourage customers to bring with them pictures and measurements of the landscaping areas they want re-done. One of nine designers is then assigned to them who also serve as personal escorts and guides for the garden center. Customers can leave with a customized landscape design in-hand with the materials they need to get the job started.”

Four Generations of Growth
Harder & Warner’s journey to an integrated full-service operation began almost a century ago, when farmer Henry Harder lost his Ionia, Mich., farm to foreclosure. 

Harder couldn’t stay away from working the land, and moved his family to Grand Rapids, where he hauled dirt and installed lawns for the city’s burgeoning new residential neighborhoods.

In 1954, Henry’s son-in-law, Archie H. Warner, joined the landscaping business, forming Harder & Warner Nursery. Son Archie A. Warner modernized the business by mechanizing operations with front loaders and automatic tree diggers, which increased digging production from 10 to 100 trees a day. He also encouraged the company to grow more stock on its own tree farm to minimize freight charges.

Soon, the landscaping business outgrew its longstanding location in Grand Rapids. In 1979, the company relocated to Caledonia, where it expanded its retail garden center and tree farm operations.

In 2000, Archie’s daughter, Jonci began to manage the garden center’s retail sales operation. In 2003, son Archie John, who earned a degree in horticulture and landscape design, became head landscape designer. To complete the team, Jonci’s husband, Kevin, ran the maintenance and irrigation division. In her mid 80s, Erma Warner, daughter of founder Henry Harder, still works at the garden center.

The author is a freelance writer based in Akron, Ohio.