Nursery Market Report: May 2000

People love themes. They choose themes to decorate their homes – Victorian, Mediterranean, Southwestern, French country or perhaps contemporary. They throw theme parties, visit theme parks and take theme cruises. With themes, the options are endless.

Themes are catching on in the nursery industry, as well. More growers are producing and assembling plant collections by theme, and landscape professionals report increased requests to design and build theme gardens. Shade, hummingbird, butterfly and herb gardens are just a few hot ideas.

“Bird and butterfly gardens are really popular right now,” explained Damon Scott, landscape designer at Ireland-Gannon Associates, Long Island, N.Y. Scott recently installed a bird garden for the winners of an Audubon magazine garden makeover contest. Working in cooperation with Martin Viette Nursery on Long Island, Scott designed and installed the garden for the winners.

“We’re getting quite a few requests for herb gardens, cut flower gardens, rose gardens and even bulb gardens,” Scott added. He and other contractors agree that today’s consumers are more sophisticated and know what they want, thanks to the recent proliferation of gardening television shows and Web sites that offer many ideas.

Cathy Goldman, a landscape industry consultant, Los Angeles, Calif., said she loves when her customers come to her with ideas for creating fragrant or hummingbird gardens. “The initial planning goes so much faster, and the client is usually thrilled with the results,” she said. “There are just so many options when designing a garden, and that can be overwhelming to some people. But by focusing on one area or theme, people find it easier to learn about gardening – and that’s fun for them.”

Currently, Goldman is designing a custom theme garden for Peter Greenberg, travel reporter for the Today Show. “He spends most of his life traveling the globe, and he wanted an around-the-world theme garden,” Goldman said. The result was a Japanese theme off the master bath, an Indonesian-Balinese area with bamboo and orchids, and a Mediterranean garden with bay, rosemary, figs and iceberg roses. The front yard and pool area unify the theme with colorful perennials and flowering shrubs.

Designer Kim Walden with Walden’s Way Landscape Design in Nashville, Tenn., goes with her clients to the local garden center to gather ideas. “Theme collections are great for people who don’t know what plants go together,” she said. “Seeing a garden already put together will often ring a bell in their minds and we can create a similar theme.”

Bates Nursery & Garden Center, also in Nashville, produces theme collections of plants. Owner David Bates said the collections help enhance repeat business and generate landscape design ideas. “(Customers) come back because they know we can help them envision the garden they would like to have,” Bates said.

Some growers have assembled elaborate plant collections for theme gardens. “We select groups of plants based on themes, like fragrant garden, shade planting, tropical or wildlife,” said Pam Wasson, marketing director for ornamental grower Monrovia, Azusa, Calif. Monrovia customizes the collections regionally, with plant suggestions based on hardiness, making it easier for contractors to select plant material for theme gardens.

Monrovia’s latest theme offering features plants that reflect the West. Many are native plants, while others were introduced by settlers who came from countries with similar climates and brought with them bougainvillea, citrus, crape myrtle, lavender and olive.

One challenge for contractors lies in educating clients about what they can expect from a theme collection. As Scott points out, a client might request a Japanese or English garden. “We have experts who have traveled to Asia and Europe to study these gardens, and they can create a very authentic rendition,” he said. “But the image clients have in their minds might be more like Hollywood’s version, so before we put a single plant in the ground, we must make sure our visions are the same.”

The author is a marketing expert with Monrovia, Azusa, Calif.

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