1/31/2015
Borrowed Views: The Sequel
John Friel
Last month, I shared excerpts from chats with garden designer, author, teacher, radio personality and dedicated gardener Deb Knapke. We talked trends: What’s in, what’s out, what’s back? What’s changed in the years she’s been designing and judging designs?
IN: Pollinator/Native Gardens, Sustainable Practices
Much has been written about our dependence on pollinators and our need to nurture them. Gardeners have embraced the plight of moths, butterflies and bees, with adventurous plots breaking out in hives. Deb calls natives and sustainability a “slow-and-steady” trend, while chemicals—no coincidence—increasingly fall out of favor.
But we’re so accustomed to perfect, spotless edibles and ornamentals, I fear it’ll be a very long time before mainstream gardeners are sufficiently enlightened to accept the bedraggled appearance of plants ravaged by the necessary herbivory of caterpillars. And bees still scare the bejesus out of many otherwise-normal folk.
I hope the move to safer controls remains steady. But I’ll bet it remains slow.
IN: Container Gardens
This category got short shrift last month. One of the coolest planters I’ve ever seen contained only silver foliage plants—ferns, crassula, heuchera, artemisia, salvia. It was a beautiful mélange relying solely on form and texture, not color, for interest.
But I digress: What’s IN in containers, to my mixed pleasure and chagrin, are perennials, including natives and ornamental grasses. I work for a perennial and grass propagator, so the pleasure is of the Cha-ching! variety. I’m chagrined by the idea of perennials as disposables, consigned to winter’s trash like annuals.
Despite my disgruntlement, the containerized gardener will keep treating perennials like annuals. I’ll keep thinking she’s missing a key advantage of perennials—their very perennialness; and you, dear retailer, will keep smiling and accepting her money.
OUT: Water Gardens
Major water features are a bit like cigar smoking, a pastime whose popularity waxes and wanes. Ponds, especially, have been leaking market share for years. Deb says pricey aquatics “had their heyday, but for the average gardener, it’s mostly passed.” They’re now found mainly “at the homes of the well-to-do.” Question for GCs with pond departments: We all want to appear well-to-do; the urge to one-up the Joneses is universal and timeless. Does that elitist urge make this a selling point?
IN (unfortunately): Limited Planting Palettes
Deb lamented that too many designers seem to use “the same 10 trees, the same 10 shrubs, the same 10 herbaceous plants” in landscape after landscape. With so many choices now in all categories, it seems counterintuitive that anyone would cramp their own style.
But there are clear advantages to clearing away clutter and limiting the number of individual cultivars that you buy, or grow, and plant for customers. Your crew gets used to handling them, so survival rates and customer satisfaction rise. Certain plants or plant combos, skillfully repeated, become your “signature.” Economies of scale kick in, increasing leverage with suppliers.
Back at the GC, retail gurus like Corey Bordine are urging you to trim SKUs. That’s fine for widgets and weed killers, but one great strength of perennial gardening is the diversity of options—a huge gamut of sizes, colors, textures and habits. Let’s not confuse efficiency with effectiveness. Often, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. There are risks in trying something new and fresh; there are greater perils in letting your look get stale.
My mind keeps wandering back to containerized, annualized perennials. If this syndrome bothers you, too, be careful. Save the eye-rolling until that customer is gone. We don’t control how or where people garden. Smile and wave as she drives away. Cha-ching!
GP
John Friel is marketing manager for Emerald Coast Growers and a freelance writer.