Search Party - FOCUS: Landscape Installation

Contractors who do not plan in advance will play detective in what can be a frustrating search for ornamentals, noted Jason Buehring, plant purchaser, Greenscape, Holly Springs, N.C. Consulting 15 different nurseries to locate ornamentals for one project is not unusual, he added.

“If you’re going to do quality work, sourcing can be a problem,” he observed. “I’ve been here for years, and each year, finding good, quality material that you can get your hands on and be able to use is more challenging.”

Buehring points to the economy, which is springboarding consumer demand for property enhancement, he said. Driving land development provides plenty of work for installation crews, but acquiring the trees and shrubs to fill design blueprints can be a “double-edged sword,” Buehring added. He books plants for Greenscape’s installation projects in July or August for the following year, tagging trees to plant during the coming season, he explained.

“But if you don’t stay in touch with the nursery, work with them and make them feel like you’re going to use the plants you said you would, they could get upset and cut you off for next year,” he noted. This means one less option for sourcing ornamentals and one less avenue for locating specific trees and shrubs.

Since trees do not sprout and grow as quickly as the economy, nurseries might not have the quantity, size or variety of plants a contractor requests. This is the starting point of many contractors’ search tactics.

DEALING WITH DEMAND. “Sourcing ornamentals is more difficult than in some years since plant supply is a finite quantity and it’s not a manufactured product,” noted Michael Currin, owner, Greenscape. “When the demand exceeds the supply, there is not a manufacturing process where you can run the assembly line longer. There’s a seasonality that, in some cases, extends over several years. That has always been a challenge in the industry.”

Balled-and-burlapped ornamentals and plants larger than 3 inches are difficult to source now, noted Andy Simmons, nursery manager, Speakman Nurseries, Stillpond, Md. Contractors seeking these plants, and other hard-to-get varieties, might choose to enlist a broker to play “search and seize” for their ornamental orders - a time-saving solution for contractors running into supply dead-ends, Simmons suggested.

Bill Hutchinson, president, Plant & Supply Locator, Taylors, S.C., serves as a middleman for contractors by offering a catalogue with more than 500 ornamental suppliers that lists availability by variety, including information such as nursery location, number of plants available and contact names. “They keep their inventory current with us and we take their inventory and put it in a format so that contractors can open up the catalogue and look for live oaks, for example,” he described.

Contractors can forecast supply stresses by noting which varieties have numerous listings in the catalogue, Hutchinson noted. “If they look in our magazine and they see 25 people carrying a product, they can be pretty confident that it’s going to be out there,” he explained. “If they see just one or two, they could be gone before the installation.”

Researching availability and learning which varieties are abundant and which “hot plants” will quickly deplete allows contractors to make decisions for a design or installation, such as whether or not to substitute scarce plants for varieties that are easier to locate, Currin pointed out.

“There are always alternatives,” he stressed. “I don’t believe there is one plant out there that does it all, and there’s not another plant that couldn’t be a reasonably acceptable replacement in that situation.”

When considering whether or not to search for a substitute or settle for a smaller, lower-quality version of the desired plant, Currin advised considering the costs of the substitute. “You’re balancing the availability and cost as it relates to the substitute, and you’re balancing aesthetic acceptance and functional equality, meaning will it be equal to the other plant.”

If the substitute will not fit the bill, contractors might have to, “pay for it and eat it,” said Ed Schatz, branch president, One Source Landscape Construction, Bunnell, Fla., adding that the low quality of some high-demand plants do not justify high prices. “Occasionally, the pricing will fluctuate if a plant is in short supply,” he explained. “The big projects in the state might need oaks of a certain size, so nurseries will be low on supply and the quality goes down, but the price goes up or stays the same.”

This is where advance plant booking, relationships with nurseries, following market trends, communicating with landscape architects, and educating clients about varieties and expectations can build a contractor’s immunity to sourcing crises. Contractors might avoid settling for replacements by forming a sourcing system.

PLANNING FOR PLANTS. A shoddy sourcing system breeds inconsistency - contractors might be left with plants that are too small, below quality expectations or the wrong variety all together, Schatz noted.

“Without an efficient sourcing system, there is inconsistency from job to job,” he stressed. “If you’re going to build a reputation on quality, you need to know before you install how every job is going to look, and if you don’t have vendors you trust, you will get inconsistency that will scar your reputation.”

This is why establishing a sourcing method can be a crucial step to satisfying customers. If clients expect a red maple and a generous display of annuals and perennials, they will not be pleased if the end results leave them gazing at a bare lawn or one with a sprig-sized tree and a few scattered plants because their contractor wasn’t proactive.

To avoid this scenario, Schatz suggested a sourcing system that considers plant availability, pricing and nursery contacts.

“The key is to align yourself with a few vendors that you can rely on and then keep up with their inventory and what’s available,” he advised. “We send our representatives to nursery offices so they can keep us informed on supply.”

Schatz said his company adjusts its ornamental orders based on the information he learns at these meetings. Also, notifying nurseries of prospective plant needs helps contractors sidestep sourcing problems during the installation process, Schatz added.

When Schatz is awarded a contract where the project will not begin for months, he places a deposit on the plants needed to satisfy the design and tags the trees at the nursery so he won’t run into shortages during the installation process, he said.

Often, contractors are looking for a little bit of everything, Simmons noted. Most projects combine shade trees, perennials and evergreens. “It runs the gamut, usually,” he noted. This is why Simmons said he commonly encounters contractors who can’t locate the plant size or variety for their job.

“With plants, you’re speculating what the demand will be three to eight years in advance,“ he noted. ”So you have to look at your crystal ball and see how many plants you think contractors will want. That’s hard.”

Often, growers’ pre-planning efforts prove to be a guessing game, Simmons said. He is now filling requests for spring and fall of 2001, and his “fax machines get a good workout,” as contractors send lists of plants they want his nursery to hold, he said. If there are no guarantees, how can contractors ensure that they will have access to the plants they need for a job? Schatz recommended including landscape architects in the loop and informing them of vendors’ available varieties.

“The proactive approach is to contact the architect right away if you’re having problems locating an ornamental,” Schatz said.

Design/build firms that house designers, contractors and purchasers can cooperate and cater designs to the market’s availability, Currin said.

“During the winter, we sit down with designers and discuss the type of plant material they anticipate using in the coming year,” Currin explained. “We try to keep designers informed on the market conditions.”

E-SOURCING. With e-commerce gaining consumer appeal in many industries, some contractors are using nursery Web sites to check variety listings or email plant requests. The Internet provides an efficient method of updating plant availability.

However, Simmons noted that there is a certain point where contractors must see the plant they are purchasing - not simply view it on a screen. Digital images might not capture the product's essence, Currin pointed out. “This industry still sees what it does as an art form, and as long as that element exists, I don’t think shopping online will replace the visit to the nursery.”