Will You Be Ready?

by Danny Summers

These are the weeks of preparation. For the Garden Center, it's like the late summer practice for the football team just before the first season game. Or, the late weeks of track work for the thoroughbred before the big race.

Years ago, a great friend, Louie Hillenmeyer, took us to Keeneland early one fall morning. Keeneland is Lexington, Kentucky's famous horse racing track, with stables and a training center. In comparison to Louisville's Churchill Downs, you might say Keeneland is the aristocrat. In a quick search I found this amazing description of the two...

The Easy Button!

by John Kennedy

This past week, Souny and I were invited to facilitate the strategic plan for the Northwest Nursery Buyers Association in Vancouver, Washington. Although we have been working on setting the table since September, the heavy lifting of assigning timelines, tasks and talent were the focus of the three-day event, and there were a few familiar faces of The Garden Center Group members in attendance, which made our time there even more amazing.

The event took place at the Heathman Lodge, a rustic, log-cabin like property with a PNW charm and weather that matched (cold and raining upon arrival).

Tell-Tale Tell-Tail Signs

by Danny Summers

A week or so ago, as I was walking into our favorite Pet Supply Store (Petco), I saw an English Pointer walking his owner towards the door. For anyone who is not familiar with the English Pointer, they are a short-haired spotted bird dog.

I was especially attracted to this one since it was a liver and white (dark brown and white), much like one our family had when I was about five years old.

February is Loaded with Opportunities!

by Danny Summers

February is a unique and busy month of the year... it's the shortest month of the year, the coldest month of the year, and the month of the Groundhog Day, Presidents' Day, Valentines Day, the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and the Grammies. But most importantly for you, February is Loaded with Opportunity for you within The Group!

You may have already seen Rachel Reynolds is presenting But is it Shoppable? Creating Displays that Customers Actually Buy From, a new session on Visual Merchandising during our regular GROUPtalk LIVE on Tuesday, February 10th at 2:00 PM Eastern (our new day and time for 2026). Full details on her message is below.

Keep it REAL!

by Danny Summers

Last week many of us were at TPIE in Ft. Lauderdale. It was the largest TPIE ever with their newly expanded show floor and more booths - featuring many more amazing plants!

The General Session Keynote featured on Wednesday morning was Jill Hawkins, born in the UK and now living in Denmark. She says, "I'm a trends and human insight researcher and fashion psychologist, exploring the relationships between fashion, lifestyle, well-being and creativity."

Reading the Tea Leaves

by Danny Summers

The ability to read your audience (and market) is probably one of the most important roles in managing any business today. I sometimes call this "reading the tea leaves."

I wonder if anyone truly has all the secrets for doing so. But establishing a culture or practice for you and your team to monitor trends and understand your audience on an ongoing basis is essential. With this in mind, I want to challenge you to develop a regular schedule for discussing this topic as a team. Maybe call it "Trend Watch" or perhaps even... Reading the Tea Leaves. (just kidding)

Our Promise - Part 2

by Danny Summers

In Part 1 of Our Promise, I shared examples of several Group Centers' 5 Star Commitments. They help set the standards for how each Center expects the Guest should experience should be.

I ended Part 1 with, there's more to this story...

Our Promise - Part 1

by Danny Summers

One of the most important connections a customer can have with you and your Garden Center is a sense of trust and dependability. And the most successful brands are those with well-established and well-known consistency in their products and services.

Dan Gingiss, our keynote speaker at The Fall Event 2025, told us...

Forest Bathing – A New Event in Your Center?

by Danny Summers

The term "Forest Bathing" might sound a little weird at first glance. Just the basic perception might conjure up an image of filling your bathtub with every green leaf you can find and soaking in it. But put any "that's weird" thoughts out of the way and let's explore further

Here in The Group, the first time Forest Bathing has been shared was this past May in the GROUPtalk LIVE session when Nicholas Staddon presented "What's Your Therapy." Nicholas covered a number of the benefits and activities of plants and nature in our lives. One of those he mentioned was Forest Bathing.

Lots of Stuff! (Group News)

by Danny Summers

As I was trying to decide what to share this week, I quickly realized... I have a lot to share... so why not just title this... Lots of Stuff?

So, here goes... a quick overview of lots of stuff I want you to know:

To Be a Gardener

by Danny Summers

Last week, I received an email from Dr. Allan Armitage, sharing news of his newest book, "The Common-Sense Gardener." Through the process of ordering a copy, I read some of the preface. I have to admit, as I read the words, I realized that Allan is absolutely right. Here's a sample...

Trial Box Program for 2026

by Danny Summers

On April 7th of this year, I shared news of the new Trial Box Program by Peace Tree Farm. You can see that announcement HERE. Here's a quick recap of how this began...

Last September I first shared "A Surprise Inside" as I explained being part of the Ball FloraPlant New Introductions Sample Box Program the past several spring seasons. You can see that Blog message HERE.

Leveraging Group Knowledge & Experience

by Danny Summers

The Fall Event 2025 set new records for The Group. Obviously, the easiest one to recognize is overall participation. It was the largest attendance since The Fall Event began in 2001.

But if you were with us, there are several other areas that are easily recognized as gaining momentum... Peer-Sharing and Use of Technologies.

Building TeamWise

by Danny Summers (with tons of help from John Kennedy and others)

When we were developing programming for The Fall Event 2025 and we connected with Dan Gingiss to present his Experience Maker message, I asked John Kennedy if Team Building could be dovetailed into the momentum of this message we wanted to create. He quickly said, "Absolutely... It's an easy bridge to build!"

What John created for us was this TeamWise program. Here's an overview of his message:

Nominate YOUR Young Retailer of the Year!

by Danny Summers

If you were with us at The Fall Event 2025, you may have seen me introduce all three Young Retailer of the Year Finalists for 2025. This was the very first year all three finalists were from Group Centers, and all three were with us at The Fall Event 2025. We traditionally offer all three finalists full registration to the upcoming Fall Event. The 2025 finalists shown here are:

Who is the RISING RETAIL STAR at your Center? Nominating them for this award could be an amazing experience for them and could also have a significant impact on your Center's future.

Made You LOOK!

by Danny Summers

Early this year, we introduced Rachel Reynolds, Birds Eye Visual Merchandising, as our new Group Visual Merchandising Coach. In April, Rachel shared the message "Creative Visual Merchandising" during our monthly GROUPtalk LIVE (Group Centers can revisit that presentation in The Group WebSystem: Clients-Only Menu/Training-GROUPtalk LIVE Series 2025).

During my introductions at The Fall Event 2025, I introduced each of our Group Team Members with a funny title, and we called Rachel our "Chief Window Dresser." This is a reference back to a time decades ago when major department stores would devote tremendous effort to their large store-front windows to attract attention. That's where I thought of the title for this message... Made You Look!

Are You an Experience Maker?

by Danny Summers

Unless you are totally new to GROUPtalk (joining the last week or so) or maybe GROUPtalk has been directed into your SPAM folder the past 5+ months, you know Becoming The Experience Maker has been a major subject for us this year.

We first introduced the subject by promoting Dan Gingiss to be our keynote presenter at The Fall Event 2025. That was back in May. You have had the opportunity to see and hear Dan three times over the past month. Two times at The Fall Event 2025.

Green with Envy

by Danny Summers

The word "Envy" is pretty simple to understand and it's something we are taught at an early age that we should not have. A quick search for a formal definition shows:

envy /ĕn′vē/

Little Things Add up to Big Things

by John Kennedy

In the book, “The Four Disciplines of Execution,” the authors introduce the concept of a “WIG”—a Wildly Important Goal.

It is achieved by focusing on “Lead Measures” which, when combined, help you to reach your overall outcome (referred to as a “Lag Measure”).  These three principles can be shared in a real -life example some of us go through at some point in our lives---getting into better shape.

September 11, 2025 - A POWER-USER at The Fall Event 2025!

Group Owners share ideas on how to be A POWER-USER at The Fall Event 2025

How do they prepare before they arrive?