What makes Countryside Greenhouse’s Flowers a higher quality than the competition’s flowers? |
Throughout our years as a direct market operation we’ve had many chances to interact with our customers on a one on one basis. Quite frequently the biggest compliment we receive from customers is that they just feel they have a higher level of success with plants purchased from our garden center than when they buy them elsewhere.
We are often asked why this is, and the reasons behind it are quite clear:
1) At Countryside Greenhouse, we’re growers, and we’ve been growers for a long time. We have an understanding of what plants need, and have developed efficient systems in order to make sure our plants are receiving the ideal conditions to grow to be healthy for our end consumer. We’ve been in business as growers for 25 seasons, and learn a little more each year.
2) We start from the highest quality plant material. Breeders around the world work very hard to push the limits of what flowers can give. They breed new material all the time in order to achieve a better level of success. We are thankful they are out there putting all of this hard work into creating lines that are more resistant to disease / insects, tolerant of poor conditions, and prettier as a whole.
This breeding process, however, is expensive. Thus the better lines created by these breeders are not necessarily the least costly on the market to purchase when it comes time to bring in starter plants for the new year. Fortunately, because of the massive volume produced at Countryside Greenhouse we are able to control just how much increased cost is experienced when buying these high bred quality plants, and in turn do not have to mark our product any higher than the competition growing out dated varieties.
3) Chemical Plant Growth Regulators play an important role in the commercial production of ornamental plants. Unfortunately, they are often abused by commercial wholesale growers. Here at Countryside Greenhouse we do not believe in using a chemical growth regulator as the default production method. There is a time when they are appropriate, but we are extremely limiting as to when our growers may apply them… and boy, is it frustrating for them.
Chemical growth regulators are rarely applied by direct retail markets. The reason behind this, is that the direct retail market must face their customer on a daily basis. Wholesale production facilities can become prone to over using chemical growth regulators when shipping out to retail markets as they are only concerned with how the product looks the day that it arrives at market and in the days following while it waits to sell.
One of the biggest challenges in direct retail marketing of flowering plants is trying to make sure that plants look prime on the retail floor. This can be difficult because in order to keep a plant looking prime for the day it must be well watered, well fed, and kept warm. The problem comes in that it also must be held to the container it is being sold in. This is especially difficult when you are dealing with plants that are ultimately intended to be planted into the ground from their selling container. Mostly with bedding plants which are commonly sold in what is referred to as a flat.
If a plant is given what it needs to look prime for the day (plenty of water, plenty of feed, and warm conditions) it is also going to grow quickly. It won’t take long, sitting on the retail floor, for this product to look overgrown in its container. In order to avoid this problem plants either need to have extremely close control over getting the precise amount of water and feed to look prime and still not grow much, or they can be hit with a chemical to keep them from growing while still looking great and getting an abundance of water and nutrients.
The problem with applying chemical growth regulators as a solution is that if they are over used in any way it can cause plants to behave as if they are plastic in the customer’s garden. They will look fantastic, just like they did at the time of purchase, but that’s also the problem. They will stay the same size as they were at the time of purchase for many weeks to come, and not fill out in the garden.
Countryside Greenhouse avoids this problem by having quality growers, by having state of the art environmental controls, and by turning product quickly enough that it doesn’t have a chance to get old on our market floor. The high turn of product allows us to water and feed healthily without fear of product out growing it’s container on our floor as it never sits there long!
High volume of production, and a high volume of sales is key to what Countryside Greenhouse is doing.
How does Countryside Greenhouse sell at such a competitive price? |
Countryside Greenhouse was established in 1982 as a small wholesale grower operation. Over the years Countryside Greenhouse has grown from a small one hoop facility to over 8 acres of enclosed production space, and additional out door growing area.
Over the past 25 years we have not only grown the size of our facility, but we have vastly improved the inner workings of the facility as well. It was a necessity during our wholesale years to plant, grow, and move our crop very quickly in order to meet the strict deadlines put upon us by our wholesale customers. These strict deadlines forced us to take on many challenges in improving efficiencies through our facility.
Today, even though we are no longer servicing any wholesale customers, we are able to take advantage of the equipment and methods put in place in order to meet a rigorous wholesale schedule to now produce a direct market crop at a low cost.
Our switch to becoming a direct market was made as we had grown both sides of our business too much to continue to adequately service both a wholesale and our retail from our facility. Now that we are servicing solely our own direct market from our facility we are able to concentrate all of our methods and equipment into doing this in a very cost effective manner.
Whether it be our conveyor belt system and transplanting line ensuring that our product is planted in a timely manner, our state of the art computerized environmental control systems, our low waste centralized irrigation systems, or our electrical plant transportation system we use only the best equipment to make sure that everything runs smooth from point A to point B.
This translates to lower costs in every area and allows us to sell a high quality product.
Largely, it again comes back to be a high volume grower, and a high volume direct marketer all in one facility.
Countryside Greenhouse is so large and busy that I feel intimidated, and don’t know where to start. Where do I start? |
Shopping at Countryside Greenhouse can be an overwhelmingly fun experience, but it can be frustrating if you’re not prepared.
If you’re new to Countryside Greenhouse we suggest that you make your first stop in the facility at Guest Services. Here you will find someone knowledgeable about the facility lay out, what new specials are currently going on, able to direct you to how to find other employees on the floor, and equipped with a good supply of facility maps to hand out as guides.
Some customers find that they don’t enjoy their trip to Countryside Greenhouse unless they go up and down each aisle and see everything we have to offer for the year. If you aren’t one of these people you should be able to locate the general area of the product you are looking for using the facility lay out map. This should at least get you close enough to the product you are looking for so that you can find either directional signage or someone who works directly in that department who can provide you with a bench number.
Once you are in the area you are looking for you should find lots of signage and tags packed full of information to help you make an informed decision. As well as friendly floor staff to help guide you in the right direction.
Take a look at our color coding information guide, as it provides a quick way of answering the most common question asked in the greenhouse, “What items grow in my light conditions?”
Click Here For Color Coding Information |
If you would like to avoid the crowd, have a need for some extra assistance, or just simply would like to take advantage of the best time to shop at Countryside Greenhouse we’d like to recommend that you shop Thursday mornings.
Our parking lot currently is sizable enough to accommodate 350 cars at a time. We’ve found that on the four busiest weekends of the spring season this isn’t enough room. We will fill over parking capacity on those busy weekends, and come very close on several others.
Our store becomes quite the carnival on weekends, and can be hard to navigate. Plus as the day wears on, even though we try very hard to restock during store hours, eventually our crews begin to fall behind and selection is not as good as it was when we opened the doors in the morning.
On Thursday mornings we’ve had a chance to fully recover from the previous weekend, fully restock our direct market floor, and the traffic inside the facility is as slow as it gets for the week. This should result in the best time to shop and avoid the circus of a weekend.