Even with the recent downturn in garden product sales, plants are still a multi-billion dollar business. We gardeners love plants–old plants, new plants, easy care plants, drought tolerant plants, shade loving plants and quirky plants. Some of us like to be the first in the neighborhood to install a new hybrid. Others want so many flowers that drivers will slow down in front of the house just to get a better look. Plant collectors like me go crazy over particular species and want to amass as many cultivars as possible.
So what’s the common thread? We all have to get our plants from somewhere. In the old days, most people rooted cuttings or divisions donated by friends and neighbors or grew plans from seed. Now we go to garden centers, mega-merchandisers and catalog or internet vendors. But where do they get their merchandise, and who decides what they will offer? Ninety-five percent of the nurseries and garden centers out there do not raise their own plants, and even those that do augment their stock with inventory from big wholesale nurseries. Many plants now are patented and have trademarked names. Individual cultivars are part of branded product lines with names like Proven Winners®, BlewLabel®, and Blooms of Bressingham®. If it all sounds like big business, that’s because it is big business, with big advertising and promotion budgets and national or international outreach.
Who are these horticultural juggernauts? The following are profiles of some of the most influential and successful companies.
Proven Winners®: Fourteen years ago, three American plant propagators–Euro American in Bonsall, CA; Four Star Greenhouse in Carleton, MI; and Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NH–banded together and established the “Proven Winners®” line of branded plants. They and their three Canadian licensees produce “liners” or young plants that are then sold to wholesale nurseries who “finish” or grown them to marketable size, and sell them in turn to retail nurseries. The emphasis is on introducing and popularizing plants, supporting the retailers who sell Proven Winners® selections with marketing materials and advice, and promoting the product line in the national mass media. The self-proclaimed “leading brand in North America,” PW has an especially large line of colorful flowering shrubs, marketed under the ColorChoice® name, These shrubs are frequently variegated varieties or smaller cultivars suitable for container gardening or small spaces. PW is headquartered in Grand Haven, Michigan.
Terra Nova Nurseries: Only a year older than Proven Winners®, Terra Nova was founded fifteen years ago by horticulturist, author, plant breeder and explorer Dan Heims. The nursery’s original goal was to bring the best new plants from all over the world to the U.S. market. That goal has since expanded to hybridizing and breeding new cultivars. Heims and his associates have done a great deal of work with tiarella and heuchera, contributing to the current vogue for both plants. The innovative nursery is headquartered in Canby, Oregon.
Blooms of Bressingham: Before there was a Blooms of Bressingham® nursery, there was the appropriately named Alan Bloom, English plantsman extraordinaire. Starting in 1946 when Bloom bought a property called Bressingham Hall, northeast of London, and began a wholesale nursery business there, Blooms has expanded steadily, incorporating retail and mail order sales. Alan Bloom’s son, Adrian, now runs the business, which is famed in England for its display gardens as well as its plants. Blooms specializes in introducing new plants bred by others as well as conducting its own breeding program. Eleven years ago in 1995, the Blooms made an agreement with two American plant propagation concerns to propagate and sell Blooms of Bressingham introductions in North America. Blooms of Bressingham plants are sold by the retail and mail order nurseries that are part of the Blooms network.
Centerton Nurseries: You may not know Centerton’s name, but its brands are familiar–Centerpeace® flowering shrubs, Hasslefree® easy care roses, Trophytaker® Daylilies, Happily Ever Appster® repeat-flowering daylilies and Blew Label® perennial plants. Established in 1975 by Raymond Blew, Jr. and his wife, Marlene, Centerton has grown from nine acres of leased land to its current 205 acre spread with 80 employees and two million square feet of greenhouse space. Based in Centerton, New Jersey, the company is still family-owned and grows plants for an ever-expanding network of independent retailers. They have been among the pioneers in the branded plant line business, and are noteworthy for their investment in reblooming daylilies. The Happily Ever Apster® line is the result of a relationship with Dr. Darrel Apps, a renowned daylily hybridizer, who has done extensive work developing reblooming daylilies. Though Dr. Apps was not responsible for the mother of all rebloomers, Stella de Oro, he did breed the popular lemon yellow Happy Returns, the pink Rosy Returns and a selection of other colorful rebloomers.
So are all these intensively marketed, highly pedigreed plants better than their no-name competitors? It depends. As always, the most important thing to remember is that a successful garden is not about where your plants came from; it’s about what you do with them.