Retailer Spotlight: Ferda's Garden Center

Ferda’s Garden Center in Adena, Ohio, is in a rural and mostly blue-collar area within 20 to 40 minutes of several smaller cities. Bob and Lynn Ferda started the company in 1980.

The Ferdas’ retail lot occupies about 9,500 square feet. Open to the public from March 15 through December 30, the business has a two-story gift shop and garden shop, two retail greenhouses and a few small gardens.

Ferda’s grows many of its hanging baskets, 4 1/2-inch annuals, vegetables, mums, flats of bedding plants and herbs.

“We can guarantee the quality of the plant because we’ve had our hand on it,” said Dawn Gower, garden designer and landscape manager.

The store sells a very small amount wholesale to noncompeting garden centers.

Ferda’s also does some landscaping. The retail division accounted for about 70 percent of the business in 2007.

Based on data from the point-of-sale system installed before the 2006 holiday season, Ferda’s is changing its gift shop to focus more on outdoor living and garden décor than on general gifts.

“We believe that our customers look at us as the local experts for their gardening questions,” Lynn Ferda said.

For more: Ferda’s Garden Center, (740) 546-4467; www.ferdas.com.

Favorite products

Candles

Ferda’s has the area’s most complete selection of Yankee Candles. Yankee Candle is a known brand that sells itself. Customers like them because of the scents that are true to name. Items sell for $1.79 to $24.

For more: Yankee Candle, (800) 792-6180; www.yankeecandle.com.

Silk flower arrangements

Ferda’s does a lot of silk flower arrangements. Designer Patty Utter does a beautiful job of personalized custom arrangements for home or office, centerpieces and funerals. Ferda’s offers a popular cemetery vase program where customers place an order for seasonal changes in silk flower arrangements four times a year. “It works for us because we don’t have to store live flowers and there’s less waste,” Gower said.

Concrete pieces

“They’re whimsical and can be sentimental,” Gower said. Concrete is also cost-effective compared to resin. Concrete pieces at Ferda’s range from $3 for small birds to nearly $100 for benches. Other offerings include angels and even pigs on motorcycles. “Our client base is very diversified,” Gower said. The variety of pieces “makes it fun. They feel like they are getting the only one.”

For more: Wilson’s Country Creations. (330) 377-4190; www.wilsonscc.com.

Green goods

Deer-resistant shrubs

Ferda’s sells hundreds of boxwoods. “They’re hearty,” said Gower. “They’re low-maintenance, evergreen, not needly, and deer don’t eat them.”

For more: Alpha Nursery, (800) 293-1286; www.alphanursery.com. Imperial Nurseries, (800) 950-6051; www.imperialnurseries.com. Roemer Nursery, (440) 428-5178; www.roemernursery.com. Willoway Nurseries, (440) 934-4435, www.willowaynurseries.com.

Perennials

A favorite perennial at Ferda’s is heuchera (coral bells). “We like them because they give us a nice palette to work with in the landscape,” Gower said. “Customers like them because they’re nice colors, they’re low-maintenance, and they’re semi-evergreen.” Ferda’s grows some heuchera, but the main supplier is Millcreek Gardens.

For more: Millcreek Gardens, (800) 948-1234; www.millcreekgardensohio.com.

Japanese maples

Ferda’s loves Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Viridis’ and A. palmatum ‘Bloodgood.’ ‘Bloodgood’ is an upright small tree, while ‘Viridis’ is contorted and twisting. “A lot of our customers are coming in for foundation plantings,” Gower said. “These have great architectural elements for foundation planting and are nice accents around ponds and water features.”

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For more: Alpha Nursery, (800) 293-1286; www.alphanursery.com. Imperial Nurseries, (800) 950-6051; www.imperialnurseries.com. Willoway Nurseries, (440) 934-4435, www.willowaynurseries.com.

May 2008