The Perennial Farm

The Perennial Farm in Glen Arm, Md., supplies its customers with beefy plants, essential growing information and supportive marketing tools.

What started as a landscape design and installation company morphed into a growing operation when president and co-founder Rick Watson started producing perennials for his own jobs.

“As we purchased perennials and ornamental grasses for installation, we discovered that containerized plant material was generally smaller than what we needed,” he said. “As landscapers, we wanted a more dramatic impact at the time of planting. Commercially available perennials in a quart size took longer to mature and were not as resistant to winter weather and drought.”

Instead of time wasted on searches for larger plants, the company started growing their own perennials.

“We were one of the first to grow 1- and 2-gallon containerized perennials,” he said. “We evolved into a grower as well as a landscaping company.”

In the 1990s, the company discontinued the landscape portion of the business to concentrate on growing.
“Our landscape roots have given us valuable insight into the needs of garden centers and landscape companies,” Watson said.

Those roots have helped The Perennial Farm sculpt its business plan and customer-service strategy.

Customers are partners
The Perennial Farm sells not only its namesake, but also ornamental grasses, hardy ferns, flowering vines, flowering shrubs and groundcovers. Sizes include rooted cuttings in flats of 100, peat pots in flats of 50, 4-inch pots, 1 quarts and Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5. The company sells to independent garden centers, landscape contractors and rewholesalers throughout the Northeast and the Mid Atlantic. The Perennial Farm also sells to state highway departments, golf courses, municipalities, property managers, zoos, theme parks and country clubs.

Business at The Perennial Farm is not a one-way street. The Watsons strive to create a collaborative partnership with their customers.

“We try to foster a partnership approach to doing business,” Watson said.

The company has developed “silent sales aids” for customers, created customer Web sites and 30 trifold brochures.

Grabbing a foothold
The Perennial Farm’s Treadwell brand includes groundcovers that can withstand varying degrees of foot traffic. Treadwell plants are available in 4-inch and quart sizes.

“These larger sizes offer a mature plant that can easily be separated to fit into tighter gardening spaces,” said company president Rick Watson.

The Treadwell program is supported by specialty tags, 5-by-7 waterproof cards, signs, hanging mobiles, banners and pot stickers. Plants were selected by landscape professionals for ease of planting and landscape durability. The program is available year-round.

Efficient production
The Watsons are keen on running the most efficient operation possible, which shows in the nursery’s clean, organized layout.

“We have been influenced by the European style of nursery operation, which stresses maximizing the use of all available growing space and easy access to all growing areas,” Watson said.

The nursery’s weather-tracking system helps the staff better plan and conduct spraying, production and irrigation operations. And weather conditions are displayed on a 50-inch flat-screen monitor at the nursery’s main counter for landscape customers to view.

Handheld PCs are used for inventory control, and cell phone and Motorola handheld service is made more efficient with two repeater antennae on site.


For more:The Perennial Farm, www.perennialfarm.com.