Somebody, please go plant something

Published September 20, 2010

Todd Davis

Think back to the mid 1990s.

You sold everything you grew — at list price. You spent half your day on that new “Internet” contraption shopping for luxury cars. You smoked fine, imported cigars you lit with $20 bills.

OK, maybe times weren’t that good, but in hindsight they sure seemed that way.

But who can answer this? Why were the 1990s so good for the nursery business?
A growing economy? Not what I’m looking for. A legislature that promoted small business? Not even close.

It was plain-old economics. There was more demand for nursery products than supply.

Sales boomed and you sold virtually everything you grew because plenty of people needed what you had. And my how times have changed.

Now it’s a struggle to find buyers, and when you do they’re price sensitive. The economic pendulum has swung the other direction.

Raise your hands if you potted up material or lined out field stock this year at the rate you had in the past? I didn’t think so. And there are plenty of reasons for this.

I’ve talked to B&B growers that hadn’t cleared enough field space to line out new stock. Some container growers have told me they couldn’t get a line of credit to buy liners, pots and media this year.

(And how sad is that? Growers have relied on these available lines of credit for decades and suddenly the banks say, “Not this year.” Thanks a lot.)

I’ve talked to other growers that flat-out could not get bark media to plant. Their suppliers just didn’t have any. Liner growers nationwide are telling me sales are off. So the new stock coming down the pipeline is down. So what does this mean?

It’s back to plain-old economics.

Nursery products are a necessity of life, and they always will be. Every American recognizes that trees and other landscape plants enhance our environment, reduce our energy bills and improve our planet.

So the demand for our products will not go away. We’re heading back toward an era where demand will outpace supply once again.

But a word of caution: Be prepared. Do your homework and fill your pipeline with stock that’s going to sell for profit years and years down the road.

Had growers in the South known that, in 2010, Shumard oaks would sell for twice what live oaks of equivalent size sell for — the market is flooded with live oaks — they’d have planted differently six or seven years ago.

When the pendulum swings back in the other direction again, don’t let it hit you in the teeth.