Retired Group Founder
Robert Hendrickson

 It all started in the late 90's when Robert Hendrickson, our founder, began to get his garden center clients together to share ideas. By 2000, The Group was officially formed and met at the first Fall Event in 2001.

Robert's roots began in a small garden center in Illinois where he quickly became one of the industry's marketing "whiz kids" in the mid 80's as he worked for Metzler's Garden Center in the Baltimore area and soon began to help other centers. He continued helping garden centers until his retirement in 2021. But he will long be remembered as one of the best marketing "whiz-kids" and storytellers.

Robert Hendrickson

Group Founder

Life often comes full-circle. Robert's horticulture journey began at a backyard garden center in Illinois for two reasons... knowledge and the employee discount... while creating a self-sufficient farm in the process. "I needed to learn how to grow herbs and veggies and buy plants at a discount." His back to the land adventure was soon replaced by a true love of retail. "Getting people to buy stuff is a lot easier than canning food for the winter." 

What followed was fifteen years in the retail trenches, a decade helping garden centers find their success groove, then fifteen years developing The Garden Center Group. Now its time to focus on 3GFarm in Hannibal, Missouri. "This time the focus is on gardens, goats and grandkids."  

Robert has more than 30 years of hands-on experience working with garden centers on their marketing, merchandising, management and strategic planning decisions.

When Robert Hendrickson first founded The Group, his said, "A consultant should try to help a business owner do a better job running the type of company the owner wants to run, not the company the consultant thinks the owner should be running."  This is what The Group strives to do everyday for our Client Centers.

Many of the programs that continue today in The Garden Center Group were developed under the guidance of Robert Hendrickson. Even though Robert has retired, the foundation of The Group has his fingerprints all over it today.

Thank you Robert!