Monrovia Nursery has long been synonymous with quality nursery products. Their brand recognition has been seen on every advertising level from supporting local arboretums, like the Reeves Reed Arboretum in Summit, New Jersey to a more national audience being featured in Garden Design, Martha Stewart, and Southern Living to name a few. While their growth has continued, almost exponentially, throughout the years, Monrovia has not lost sight of its target audiences, the retail customer and the independent garden centers of North America. Their dedication to quality control, education and product development has given the independents an important advantage in the horticultural field. And when a company like Monrovia cares enough to listen to the input of its target audiences, it truly makes it a dream come true.
Nine years ago Monrovia Growers developed a National Retail Council to better understand its customers. The board consists of some of the most successful garden centers in the country, totaling twenty this year, and simply put asks for their candid input as to What’s new, What’s hot, What works, and What doesn’t. They demand participation in this ongoing, vigorous, three day symposium. So when a cutting edge company like Monrovia Growers asked for Hall’s Garden Center’s participation, we eagerly accepted.
Often I am asked in retail sales why a plant costs what it does. An overly simplistic retort reinforces what my parents always preached, “You get what you pay for.” A more accurate response would go further to describe what “Distinctively Better” means. Monrovia’s ideological catch phrase refers to their standard of excellence. The development of 32 different soil types, healthy root systems, customized InfoLabels, a support network of American Horticultural Society members to answer any question put forth by its customers. Expanding on Monrovia’s importance and inherent value of their products would tell of their 265 and counting exclusive plants, over 100 patents, some 160+ Federal and State trademarks and more than 9 million propagated plants annually. Their attention to detail is evident with 5 locations around the country, realizing that different plants need different attentions and can not all be grown in the same geographic. Slow release fertilizers, analysis of nutrients, precise proportions of trace elements, advanced plant tissue analysis and leaf analysis all contribute to the most beautiful and healthy plant material available by modern science. In short, all these contribute to one thing; the best plant money can buy.
Our three days in January allowed us to see future technologies that would further enhance a gardener’s experience. Poly covered greenhouses with horizontal air flow with exhaust fans, weed barriers, drip irrigation, tissue culture, sterile environments, proactive approaches to plant health care, and concrete heated floors to stimulate root development all suggest that this is not your average grower. However, equally important were the relationships formed in Visalia, CA during those three days. Garden center owners, managers and plant buyers all freely sharing ideas on marketing, merchandising, service, and product mix helped to strengthen an already cohesive group. With Monrovia’s top brass on hand, it reinforced yet again that serious topics were being discussed and that the future of the green good industry was clearly being dealt with forward thinking.
Working together will address “The Evolving Face of the Retail Garden Center,” is not only Monrovia’s locution, but a defining admittance carried through by all its employees and “Craftsmen.” Quite simply it is a way of life, a struggle to rise above and reinforce, to anyone interested, that they are the standard of excellence which all in the horticultural field should strive to emulate. Hall’s Garden center is proud to stand by their side and consider ourselves lucky to be associated with such a quality driven bunch. Thank you Monrovia Growers for your ingenuity, “Craftsmanship”, and advanced horticultural practices. Hall’s Garden Center and Monrovia Growers invite you to stop by your local independent garden center this spring and imbibe some of nature’s gifts.
Robert LaHoff
Hall’s Garden center
