When planning a second turn of ornamental grass production, it’s important to pay attention to factors that have changed since your first production run. These can be either obstacles to overcome or positive changes ready to be taken advantage of.

Weather conditions will likely be warmer; houses opened, or you may be growing outside now. This is perfect for ornamental grasses, as they generally like full sun and the wind in their leaves, something that can be a challenge in a closed up greenhouse environment. You may be able to take advantage of cheaper outside production space with good growing conditions. You may be growing in open greenhouses, or you may be out of inside space and, out of necessity, producing outside. Every nursery is different, and only you know your options, but stepping back and looking at the best way to make your options work for you will pay off in the long run.

One of the most important things to nail down is the finish time needs and options you have to manipulate finish times. Whether you’re following through with a scheduled second turn or trying to up your production in response to good sales, there’s a good chance you will be looking for a faster finish time to meet demand before the sales window closes.

Slow-release fertilizers will be releasing faster, and hopefully sunlight will be more intense and plants will be finishing faster. Count on shaving a couple of weeks off your finish time from the first round of production. What happens if that couple of weeks you may save doesn’t quite get you to your finish date?

Emerald Coast Growers

Resist the temptation to up fertility rates with ornamental grasses to speed up finish times. While your grasses will grow faster, it can lead to several problems. Soft, leggy growth can result in leaves that are more susceptible to any number of fungal leaf spots, which can ruin the salability of a grass crop. You can also end up with a tall plant that falls over, is hard to ship, and doesn’t look good sitting in the garden center trying to convince someone to take it home with them. Staying with medium level fertility rates will help avoid these problems.

With ornamental grasses in particular, you can have a big impact on finish time by changing your input size. A 128- or 72-liner in a trade gallon might take 10 to 12 weeks to finish, whereas a 21-liner might finish in eight weeks. The extra cost you put into the larger liner can be the difference between finishing a crop on time or being stuck with a crop that came ready after your sales window.

A faster finish time frame can limit the selection of plants to choose from. Stay away from slow-growing varieties or cool-weather varieties that might slow down as temperatures rise. Warm season grasses like Panicum, Pennisetum and Miscanthus will be fast growing and quick to finish. Sticking with reliable grasses you’re familiar with helps remove some question marks when you’re growing on a tight schedule.

One of the biggest challenges in marketing heard by businesses across almost all industries is the constant search for their next idea—the one that’s going to hook and reel in new customers. It’s the idea that constantly eludes them yet, if they find it, will lead to more revenues, long-term relationships and evergreen sales.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking is largely mythology. And, if you haven’t figured out the big idea of your product or service—what’s intrinsically compelling about it—you have bigger problems than coming up with the latest gimmick.

Searching for a single elusive idea is like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. It depends on that which is neither familiar, nor within reach. It calls upon disconnected tactics over a focused and cohesive strategy. It manifests itself in the form of one-off and lackluster attempts that yield underwhelming results.

Here are three steps to moving away from this myopic approach and toward a more strategic way of finding better tactics.

Focus first on the bigger challenge

Take your attention off the symptoms of the moment—a sales slump, for example. Instead, ask these questions: What is the nature of the challenge or problem we face? Is there a larger issue we’re not facing that is causing our current predicament?

A short-term bump in sales is going to be hard to bring about without a larger understanding of what is causing the symptom of a temporary sales slump. Is it due to the seasonality in your business, an increase in competition, or a downturn in the market or economy that’s causing customers to spend fewer dollars?

Understand the causal factors contributing to the dynamic that has brought about your present challenge. By understanding the true nature of the problem, you will effectively prepare yourself to devise a better and more accurate approach. This new approach can be used to mitigate or overcome the forces that are causing a symptom, such as a short-term dip in unit sales.

Develop a strategic plan

Yes, develop a plan instead of brainstorming a single idea. Will it take longer and require more effort? Most likely, yes. Will it also solve your issue more effectively than a short-term tactic? Definitely.

Strategy is a form of problem solving. Good strategy clearly identifies the problem and then formulates a larger and binding approach to addressing the problem head on. Good strategy demands choice—choosing a path to the exclusion of others, whereby all plans can be coordinated and work together to overcome a problem (not just a symptom). Symptoms can sometimes be relieved through temporary tactics, but rarely will they go away for any length of time or with any great effectiveness without a strategy to deal with their source. A good strategic plan integrates: Goals—the end for the effort, usually one or two, at most;

Strategy—the binding approach that will inform all other plans and tactics;

Plans—individual recipes, each with coordinated activities in accordance with your strategy, that will serve your goal;

Objectives—observable, measurable and time-bound declarations of how you know you are successfully fulfilling your plans; sometimes called key performance indicators (KPIs);

Tactics—the details and activities that will be undertaken to fulfill plans and reach your goals.

The role of any strategic plan is that it serves as a blueprint for thoughtful, coherent and logical pathway for solving any complex challenge.

Rely upon integrated tactics

Once you have a thoughtful strategic marketing plan in place, you will be shocked at how much more easily the tactics present themselves. A thoughtful strategy serves to focus everyone around a centralized, agreed upon approach. Since strategy forces choice, it eliminates the need to consider disparate (and sometimes desperate) ideas.

What you once thought of as innovative and other-worldly ideas will become almost foregone conclusions when a strategy is present. New possibilities present themselves more readily when you and your team are provided a guided pathway upon which to engage creative thought and energy. Because such ideas must fall within a guided strategic pathway they become, by default, integrated tactics.

If you think bigger to tackle larger problems, thoughtfully plan your marketing approach, and tactically integrate ideas around a strategy, you will move away the myth of, “We need a new idea” and find yourself in the wonderful reality of, “We have a strategic approach to overcoming our marketing challenges.”

Rhodohypoxis baurii and several cultivars of that species can be found at specialty nurseries around the United States, but it’s so adorable that it could attain a much wider distribution. It’s a great plant that should be available in many independent garden centers, but it remains a little hard to find. However, I hope I never see this beautiful flower in big-box stores. Specialty nurseries and IGC’s play the important role in the gardening community of being the guardians and purveyors of our horticultural treasures, and I hope and feel confident that will continue to be true.

Rhodohypoxis can genetically cross with another genus in the same family, Hypoxis, creating a new hybrid plant called x Rhodoxis. Several beautiful cultivars of x Rhodoxis are available in the trade as liners. One of the most stunning of these is x Rhodoxis ‘Fairytale,’ bred by Philip van Hilst in the Netherlands and marketed by Concept Plants.

“Fairytale has surprised me by the amount of vibrant colored star-like flowers it produces year after year in containers and in the ground. In a four-year-old plant, there are literally hundreds of flowers. It even reblooms in autumn,” says Peter van Rijssen of Concept Plants.

Another noteworthy form is x Rhodoxis ‘Hebron Farm Cerise,’ which originated at West Acre Farm in the UK.

Cultivation of Rhodohypoxis or x Rhodoxis is relatively easy, as long as two important requirements are met. They must be kept dry in the winter, and they must have regular watering through their growing season. The plant goes dormant in the fall when the leaves will turn yellow, and you should discontinue watering about two weeks after this. After you cut off the water, you can even stack flats on top of each other to save space, and don’t water again until the next March when they wake up and begin pushing through the soil. Rhodohypoxis will tolerate freezing temperatures as long as they remain dry. R. baurii will survive temperatures in the low teens, though wet/cold conditions will most certainly do them in. Grow them in well-drained, slightly acidic soil, and provide light shade in the summer, especially for darker colored cultivars. Growers and gardeners who live in colder climates should still consider Rhodohypoxis as a fabulous container plant. 

In this space I tend to share happy and encouraging thoughts or helpful hints for various parts of your business operation. But this month I felt the need to bring a sad and staggering statistic to your attention. More farmers are committing suicide than people from any other occupation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When I heard this news on a recent NPR broadcast, my heart skipped a beat and I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.

My thoughts turned to you all, the representatives of the industry I adore, who often call yourselves “farmers.”

According to the NPR story, the uncertainty of the Farm Bill and its funding add to the mental health crisis that plagues the farming community. Whether it’s crop prices or severe weather, the farmer’s livelihood is at stake. And for some, the financial burden is more than they can bear.

NPR’s Morning Edition told the story of Iowa farmer Matt Peters, who took his life in 2011. His wife Ginnie thought it was just “normal stress” brought on by the springtime planting season. Matt was only 55 when he died, and he’d been farming for 35 years on the land that had been in his family for generations.

It all sounded so familiar to me.

That’s why I want to encourage every one of you to know the warning signs, and be aware of anyone in your circle of friends and colleagues who may be exhibiting these signs.

• Talking about suicide – Any talk about suicide, dying, or self-harm, such as "I wish I hadn't been born," "If I see you again..." and "I'd be better off dead."
• Seeking out lethal means – Seeking access to guns, pills, knives, or other objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.
• Preoccupation with death – Unusual focus on death, dying, or violence. Writing poems or stories about death.
• No hope for the future – Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and being trapped ("There's no way out"). Belief that things will never get better or change.
• Self-loathing, self-hatred – Feelings of worthlessness, guilt, shame, and self-hatred. Feeling like a burden ("Everyone would be better off without me").
• Getting affairs in order – Making out a will. Giving away prized possessions. Making arrangements for family members.
• Saying goodbye – Unusual or unexpected visits or calls to family and friends. Saying goodbye to people as if they won't be seen again.
• Withdrawing from others – Withdrawing from friends and family. Increasing social isolation. Desire to be left alone.
• Self-destructive behavior – Increased alcohol or drug use, reckless driving, taking unnecessary risks as if they have a "death wish."
• Sudden sense of calm – A sudden sense of calm and happiness after being extremely depressed can mean that the person has made a decision to attempt suicide.

For anyone needing help (for yourself or others), call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.