Maple Leaf Garden Centre

Nestled in the foothills behind a stunning, mountainous backdrop in West Vancouver, Maple Leaf Garden Centre caters to a high-end demographic in a neighborhood filled with beautiful, historic homes.

With an elegant yet rustic atmosphere, the garden center certainly fits in with its surroundings. They’ve dressed up some ordinary hoop houses with attractive, cedar facades, which help add value while creating a richer ambiance and more enjoyable shopping experience.

Exquisitely planted containers throughout the garden center include recipe cards so customers can easily recreate them in their own gardens.

IGCA Congress - Stop One: Art Knapp's Urban Garden

More than a dozen different countries are represented on this year's International Garden Center Association (IGCA) Congress. The three tour buses full of people visiting Vancouver's finest garden centers are melting pots of garden retail for the next five days. The tour promises to provide of host of ideas for everyone to take back home to their own operations, and day one certainly did that. The first stop was Art Knapp's Urban Garden.

Art Knapp’s Urban Garden is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver. A unique atmosphere and product mix cater perfectly to the garden center’s demographic – young urbanites and condo dwellers.

Because of the recent explosion in high rise condo construction over the last few years, The Urban Garden has adjusted its product inventory to include more home décor pieces and indoor/tropical plants (or, living art, as they call it). There are also plenty of cool containers planted up for condo owners looking for something easy but different to drop on the balcony.

The garden center also does a particularly good job of promoting the benefits of indoor plants, effectively using signage to tout plants’ ability to clean the air we breathe.

Don't Forget About My Mom

There's a lot of talk in the industry lately about how to attract Generations X and Y. That's great. We absolutely should be coming up with ways to attract new gardeners. But not at the expense of the seasoned ones.

Take my mom, for example. She's retired, but not tired. In her case, 67 is the new 47. She's always on the go, but she also spends a considerable amount of time in her garden. I'm sure she would love it if her local garden center offered classes that catered to her generation. Perhaps a session on low-maintenance plants? She is spry, but that doesn't mean she enjoys lugging a heavy watering can or hose around the yard twice a day to keep her water-guzzling plants looking good. Or, if you offer ergonomic gardening tools, what if you offered a pruning demonstration session in which you used some of these tools? That surely has the potential to beef up your tool sales, I would think.

The other thing my mom loves are Wednesdays at Kohl's. Why? Because it's Senior Discount Day. All she has to do is flash her driver's license to save a few dollars on her purchase. Even if she doesn't need anything at Kohl's, if it's a Wednesday, there's a good chance you'll find her there, and Kohl's has gained a sale it otherwise might not have. Just a thought ...

It’s All Happening At The Zoo

TGC’s summer intern, Pete Mihalek, who also happens to work at Gali’s Garden Center in Beachwood, Ohio, told me about an interesting concept that’s generating a bit of buzz among gardeners: Zoo Doo.

Some zoos were finding themselves up to their waists in waste and decided to do something about it. They began recycling the animals’ excrement and selling it as composted manure, which not only enhances soil but can also deter deer.

Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle is just one organization with a Zoo Doo program. Its zebras, elephants, hippos, giraffes, gazelles and other animals produce one million pounds of compost each year, and the zoo saves about $60,000 a year in disposal costs. The Zoo Doo is sold in its ZooStore year round in 2-gallon or 1-pint containers.

What Women Want

A couple of months back, we ran a story in TGC called “Are You Relevant To Women?” and it got a great response from our readers. Apparently we hit on a hot-button issue.

It definitely seems like businesses these days are looking for ways to cater to the female demographic, which is smart, especially when you consider that 8 percent of all women are recession-proof shoppers, according to a recent survey by Elle magazine. Who knew?

Apparently Trademark Property Company of Fort Worth, Texas, did. I came across an article in the New York Times yesterday about the property development company, which is going to pretty extreme measures to make sure a new mixed-use retail shopping center it’s working on is exactly what women want. Instead of simply assembling a team of architects and building consultants to work on the project, Trademark Property Company tapped into a whole new group of consultants: women.

First on board were two female retail consultants. Then the company enlisted the help of 24 other women from the area to “pick apart its plans for the center.” Among them were Kristen Fair, a stay-at-home mother of two and Debbie Stout, a City Council member who also runs a small business. The women shared their thoughts on everything from the shopping center’s layout and landscaping to parking options and outdoor art.

According to Stout, the developers “asked us about every detail, and then they listened.”

Now if only the automobile manufacturers would ask for women’s input when designing cars. Are they ever going to add a compartment for my purse? I think my husband would appreciate that, too -- maybe my purse wouldn’t always end up on his lap when he’s in the passenger seat.

Don’t Miss This: A Glimpse Into The June Issue Of TGC

The June issue of Today's Garden Center is loaded with tons of ideas for bettering your business, so I hope you’ll have a chance to check it out (if you haven’t already). Maybe these highlights will entice you:






Gavin Herbert Jr., co-owner of cover story subject Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, Calif., realized gardeners weren’t going to come to Roger’s for petunias and marigolds, because they can get commodities like that anywhere. His philosophy? “Rather than sell 100 $1 items, I’d rather sell 10 $100 items,” he says. This philosophy has served Roger’s Gardens well. With annual sales of $18 million -plus, they’re right on target. Check out the cover story in the June issue of TGC to find out just how they do it. You’ll like it. I promise.




In her story, “The Name Game,” Jennifer Polanz drills down deep into the topic of branding, which entails more than just putting your company’s logo on a package. Jen’s story will help you determine what to consider before creating your own brand, and how to deal with the challenges, like quality control and marketing, that come with it.





If you’re starting to think that a pencil sketch on a coffee-stained napkin isn’t cutting it anymore when it comes to helping your customers design their landscapes, you should definitely peruse assistant editor Kevin Yanik’s story called "Servicing With Software." Kevin talked to some key suppliers of landscape design software to find out how it can help homeowners visualize their dream gardens, while garden centers reap the benefits. The best part? It’s quick and easy.


I love animals. So do people in 83 million other households in the U.S. That’s how many have at least one cat or dog, and if they’re anything like me, they spoil their pets. Why not consider capitalizing on the pampered pets trend? You’ll find some advice on how to implement a successful pet department from some garden retailers who’ve done it themselves in story I had lots of fun writing, called “Catering To The Pampered Pet.”

How Americans Are Really Spending Their Stimulus Checks

I came across an interesting Web site today – www.howispentmystimulus.com – which is, quite literally, chronicling how Americans are spending their economic stimulus checks.

The site allows anyone to post a photo and a brief description of what he or she purchased with the extra cash from the feds. The cool thing is, it didn't take me long to find a post about gardening. Check it out here.