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from Lawn & Garden Retailer magazine
OFA Merchandising
Competition, Part One
Tina Bemis, Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist
The Ohio Florists’ Association holds a national trade show
and educational conference every year for greenhouse growers and garden center
professionals from around the country, and even around the world. This year
they added something new: a retail merchandising competition and they asked the
publishers of four trade magazines to each select and sponsor a contestant. A
couple of months ago I was honored to be asked by Lawn and Garden Retailer
magazine to be theirs choice. There weren’t a lot of details at first, other
than it was going to be in front of a live audience, so I guessed that we would
be describing what we were doing as we made our displays. So as I made displays
all spring and summer, I was compiling a mental list of things I do when I make
displays here at the nursery that I could share with an audience.
About a month before the competition, more details
followed, and we were all going to be making a display in a 4 X 4 X 6 foot
space. Contestants were strictly limited to 45 minutes. A display bench was
going to be provided, or we could make arrangements to bring our own. We could
choose from a vast array of “extra” plant material that was going to be left
over after OFA set up their displays for their trade show, or we could arrange
to have our own plants brought to Ohio. I initially contacted a few vendors
about shipping me some plants, but about a week before the competition we were
given themes for our displays, and I was afraid that trying to match the themes
to a limited number of plants might prove too difficult, so I opted to choose
from the plants that were going to be there.
For
my first round of the competition, our theme was “Pick of the Week.” Since I
had no idea what plants were going to be available to me, I chose to make my
“pick” plants that attracted butterflies. This would leave a lot of options
when selecting plants, since so many fall into that category. If I made it to
the final round, the theme was “Plants for the Sun.” That was pretty easy, so I
figured I would just wing it with whatever was there.
We were allowed to bring our own props if we wanted to, at
our expense. Since I was travelling by plane, I was pretty much limited to what
I could fit in my suitcase, so I hunted around for lightweight things that were
easy to travel with. (As it turns out, tall butterfly nets are not so easy to
get on a plane. I had to sweet talk my way through security, because the
airline wanted $150 to put them along with a metal frame down with my luggage.)
So
I flew to Ohio on Saturday night, and left Ed to finish up with our Bemis Bucks
Customer Appreciation weekend. By the time I reached my hotel, it was 2:00 am,
and I was covered in dirt, like I usually am, so I collapsed into the bathtub,
and promptly fell sound asleep until morning. I woke up wrinkled but clean, and
went to the convention center for some morning educational sessions, and to
watch the first two contestants compete. Dan Truesdale from Rolling Green
Garden Center in New Hampshire was competing with Murphy Hendy of a Proper
Garden in Delaware, Ohio. Dan had arranged with Proven Winners to ship him some
plants, and, like me, he assumed he was creating an on-the-spot display on top
of a three-tiered greenhouse bench. So he starts potting up several lovely
container gardens, and places the ingredients all around the mannequins so
“customers” could shop from the display. While he is doing that, Murphy starts
to make his display. The first thing Murphy did was drape burlap over the top
of the sign promoting the contest, thus making his display
about 8 feet tall, instead of the 6 feet we were given. As it turns out, Murphy
didn’t bring a suitcase full of props, he brought a whole truckload, since his
garden center was close by. Dan countered the height of Murphy’s display by
adding width to his, and he ended up with a display about 10 feet across.
Neither one of them was disqualified for exceeding the limits, and Murphy went
on to win the first round of the competition with his amazing artistry.
In
the afternoon it was time for me to pick my plants. I needed to pick a whole
heck of a lot more than I was expecting to, since the two gentlemen had
effectively tripled the area in round one, and I didn’t want my display to look
skimpy in comparison. I was escorted to a huge area with all of the “leftover”
plants. There must have been 1000 of them to choose from! They were
everywhere, in all colors of the rainbow, grown by some of the best growers in
the world. I felt like I was in heaven being able to pick out my plants for the
next day’s competition. Not only were there plants to choose from, but
additional props as well. Colored pots, colored hoses and much, much more. The
closest thing I can think of to describe it is the feeling the iron chefs must
get when they are able to pick from the huge pantry in kitchen stadium to create
their dishes full of the secret ingredient. I couldn’t imagine any other place
on earth that I would rather be than where I was at that time. So I was busy
“winging it” for my design when my competitor, Scott Daly of Homestead Garden
Center in Maryland starts to unload HIS TRUCK FULL OF PLANTS AND PROPS. Holy
cow! What did I get myself into? He certainly didn’t have an advantage because
he was close…he drove 8 hours with his materials! Did Dan and I miss the memo
that said “Yeah, we will provide plants, but you really should bring your own
truckload if want a chance of winning”? I finished picking out what I needed,
and joked to Scott that I would be returning in the middle of the night to spray
all of his plants with fast-acting weed killer. Scott seemed to appreciate my
sense of humor, but there was no way anyone was getting into that room. Two
guards were watching over it at all times.
I worked on the design of my display on paper that night at
the hotel restaurant after attending the educational sessions until about 8pm.
We weren’t allowed to have any part of the display done ahead of time, but I
could tweak my props, and write my signs. I had to hand-write my signs, since I
had no idea what plants I was going to get ahead
of
time. But I thought if I wrote slowly that I could do a respectable job. I
worked into the wee, small hours of the morning to get everything ready, and by
morning, I couldn’t wait to get started. I must have gone to some educational
session in the morning, but I don’t remember. We began our competition at
11:30. I struggled for 10 minutes with the purple felt I brought as a backdrop,
and was finally able to put plants in the display. I was having a great time,
but the clock was ticking, and my equipment wasn’t cooperating. I needed to
superglue about 30 butterflies onto twigs, and despite the fact that I really
wasn’t nervous, my hands were shaking, and I couldn’t get the glue to stick. I
had to abandon the project with only about 6 butterflies done. It was more
important for me to get the signs on, because
they
tied the whole theme together. I used cartoon callouts saying “Pick me! You can
cut and dry my flowers to remember your garden of ‘09” and “Pick me! You will
inhale calming lavender scents with every breeze.” This was a key component to
my display, since the theme was “Pick of the Week.” I almost abandoned my signs
at one point, because the handwriting was not as neat as I would have liked, and
I wasn’t sure the judges really cared about the theme, but in the end I left
them. That turned out to be the best decision I made, because Scott designed
the most incredible display of herbs one could imagine fitting into a 4X4X6
space. He created a mini potting bench, the legs of which were stacks and
stacks of terra cotta pots. More clay pots created layer upon layer of
interest, where he mingled fresh and dried herbs, and all sorts of accompanying
merchandise. And his signs!!! Professionally done back at his store (he knew
he was bringing herbs in his truck.) So although I felt pretty proud of my
display, I felt that if I were a judge, I would have had to vote for Scott’s
display, as clever as mine was. (“Cute” was a word everyone kept using to
describe it. Was that good?)
