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About the nursery |
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Mom and Pop nurseries...an endangered species The mom and pop nursery of yesteryear is almost gone. The owner, who was a self-educated lover of plants always on the lookout for something new - is in danger of disappearing. Why? There are several reasons. 1. Land prices The one to two acres of land the couple bought for $15,000 in 1964 on the outskirts of their nearby metropolitan city is now worth $1.8 million dollars. The father/mother is now dead or infirm so the kids sell the land because you can't make that kind of money in the nursery business. 2. Big Box retailers. What small retail establishment can compete with a store that does not purchase the nursery stock it sells? Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. do not buy their plants! They offer the grower shelf space to deliver and stock their plants. They only pay the grower for what is sold. This model only works for easily grown and well known plants. The price is cheap to the customer because the seller has virtually nothing invested in the plants. They hope to bring you in and make their money selling hoses, fertilizer, chemicals and tools. The Big Box employees know only what they learned at the three years spent at a mom and pop nursery. Recently Dan saw this expertise in action when an employee at Lowe's couldn't look up the price for a bale of peat moss because he didn't know how to spell peat moss. 3. Reality. It's much faster and easier to sell a hamburger (meat 40 cents, bun 20 cents, condiments 11 cents) that cooks in three minutes and charge $2.95. Compare this to a one gallon plant which has the cost of a container, soil, and plant in addition to the six months to two years of sun, watering and weeding. Go figure.... |
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