Taking a page from that of their colleagues in the floriculture sector, in recent years, some nursery producers are now opting to grow larger quantities of a greatly reduced number of varieties and cultivars, rather than the more traditional offering of numerous varieties and cultivars of a single species. This is especially true of those nurseries that service the mass merchandisers and larger independent chains.

Notes nurseryman Ronald, “The average garden centre customer doesn’t really care what the variety is of the cone flower or the lavender plant that they want for their garden. They just want a nice looking plant.” And so the focus instead becomes just that — to produce a high quality of desirable and saleable plants in large volume.

This production philosophy does not mean the nursery grower is not constantly on the lookout for new and improved varieties. To the contrary, explains Ronald, they are continually on the lookout for new varieties that are visually attractive and especially those that have superior features such as better flower color, extended bloom time, or growth habit. If a new variety becomes a part of the production cycle, however, a previous and less desirable variety is taken out of production. “We now have seven cone flower varieties in production. One of our specialties is the production of lavender, but we have only a single variety.”

This production philosophy allows for a high degree of mechanization and automation that would not otherwise be possible. Specialized potting machines and computer controlled conveyor systems to affix labels and customer-specific bar codes greatly reduce labor costs.

The other advantage is the relative ease of staggering production times to allow for ongoing delivery to the retail garden centre of product that is at its peak and ready for sale. “Our customers don’t want a single shipment of lavender at the start of the season,” explains Ronald. “By staggering our production and delivery, we can ship fresh product that is at its peak, once a week for five or six weeks.” This is especially critical in view of the many statistics on consumer impulse buying habits.

Last but certainly not least in guaranteeing a high quality and uniform end product is to start with high quality lining out stock, notes Ronald. For this nursery, ‘the best’ means lining out plugs that have been propagated through tissue culture. “There are still some retailers that do not believe they can pass along the extra costs to the consumer,” says Ronald, “but we have enough customers that insist on tissue culture plugs to prove them wrong.”

These are just two of the several varieties of Echinacea produced by the nursery. When new and improved varieties are put into production, they replace rather than supplement older varieties.
By starting with tissue culture propagated plugs, finished crops of Heuchera (Coral Bells) ensures an end product that is uniform in size, habit and color.