Crafting Opportunities

by Danny Summers

One of the earliest forms of what we might call a craft today is Paper Mache. The image of the bee above is an example. A quick search reveals Paper Mache's beginning can be traced back to the 1300's. Today, we could quickly envision a piñata to represent Paper Mache, or an elementary school project. I can remember our girls using Paper Mache to building a volcano for one of their projects (and no kitchen or dining room tables were damaged by eruptions).

I am thinking for Garden Retailing, the idea for Crafting Opportunities could be focused toward both plants and product categories as well as activities outside of the typical spring season.

One such opportunity where I am seeing more of our Centers "crafting" is positioned around Pollinators. While some are promoting a particular Pollinator Week (officially week is June 17, 2024), more are expanding the focus on Pollinators to a month-long emphasis... a Pollinator Month.

When we were at the Darwin Perennial Day last year, several of our Group Centers shared how they were well ahead of most other Centers in their sales of Perennials and how it helped them move from the typical spring season sales to the next season, particularly summer and how Perennials were at the heart of this effort. Since most Pollinator supporting plants are Perennials, it seemed to go hand-in-hand.

I remember one Center saying, "Since most Perennials don't really "show-off" until June and then "shine" throughout much of the summer, our shift from Annuals to Perennials provides the next opportunity for us." By the way, this year's Darwin Perennial Day is Wednesday, June 19th.

We see messages built around the Pollinator subject attracts higher attention rates these days with more consumers hearing the message from many directions. Here's a few recent examples I grabbed from Group Centers emails this past week... (you can click on each to visit their website for more details):

Most every state that has specialty license plates now has either a Pollinator or Honey Bee promotion. Here's just a few...



Crafting Opportunities for Garden Centers should be considered an art for sharing ideas with meaningful subjects, like the Pollinators... and other plants, flowers, products and, of course, gardening activities.

Coming next week here in GROUPtalk... If you were with us at The Fall Event 2023, you heard Sid Raisch say to PROMOTE two things heavily...Pollinators and Sustainability. Watch for an important blog message from Sid - coming next week!

Our next GROUPtalk LIVE Session, June 13th is titled:

Thinking DIFFERENTLY about Summer, Fall & Winter
Actually the Summer portion has just been added to our sharing plans in the last few weeks. We will be sharing details of Homestead Garden's Pollinator Month promotion activities. Homestead's Clint Albin said this past week, "Our portion of the presentation will be given by Hayley Ross, Marketing and Brand Manager; Megan McMullen, Education Specialist and myself. It will include the planning process, a visual walkthrough of the art gallery installation on Bees (that were part of the Philadelphia Flower Show this year), the marketing assets and installations and the partnership groups for education and the Kids Club Activities."

We will also have Ball Publishing's Chris Beytes and Bill Calkins join us to discuss ideas we see as Opportunities for the Fall and Winter seasons that can help spawn planning for new promotions.

As you can see, our Centers have a wonderful ability to Craft Opportunities for their audience to learn and enjoy more of their world – right in their own garden!

Have you noticed no where in the messages shared here are prices or special discounts mentioned? Crafting Opportunities is not about price.

After all, you can't put a price on ideas and inspiration. That's real perceived value!

Best wishes for Crafting Opportunities!