Michiel Verheul admits that he probably wouldn’t make a good tree grower, because he wouldn’t have the patience to wait years for saplings to grow into calipers. When he started High Q Greenhouses in Alberta, Canada, in 1988, he decided to focus on young plants.

“My favorite part is when large volumes of unrooted cuttings come in, and we’re sticking trays and trays of cuttings,” says Verheul, owner and head grower at High Q, which is an authorized “root and sell” grower for Selecta and Dümmen Orange. “They’re a little limp when they first go on the bench, and you water them in and come back an hour later, and they’re all standing straight up. That gives me great joy, seeing the plant’s response to what we’re doing.”

But it’s not just the speed of watching young plants grow that gives Verheul gratification. What he enjoys most about the greenhouse industry is interacting with other growers to share his expertise — whether they’re employees or customers who finish the young plants he grows.

“I love the fact that my customers are other growers, because I like talking to other growers about how they grow crops and finding out how they overcome challenges,” says Verheul, who owns the greenhouse with his wife, Ina. “We’re providing cuttings to growers that they can make even bigger and more beautiful, and seeing what our customers do with our products just blows me away.”

Here’s how Verheul is sharing his horticultural knowledge with other growers throughout the western provinces.

Family roots

A fourth-generation grower, Verheul grew up in the Netherlands, where his family grew vegetables. Naturally, he pursued an education in horticulture. He had the opportunity to work in Canada to gain experience as part of his training, and he liked it so much that he began the immigration process and moved to Canada in 1983 — soon after marrying Ina.

He worked for a wholesale grower for five years, but the goal was always to start their own business. “We were all gung-ho with a business plan, and we went to the bank they just laughed us right out of there,” he says. “So, we took all our savings and rented a facility to start our business.”

The first year, they rented 3,000 square feet of space. After moving to a larger location, they grew to 20,000 square feet within five years. Then in 1992, they finally got a bank loan and purchased their own land where they continued to grow. Now, a combination of gutter-connected and freestanding greenhouses cover a total of 60,000 square feet.

Team training

As High Q Greenhouses expanded, Verheul’s role and responsibilities changed.

“I’ve learned to delegate rather than try to do everything myself,” Verheul says. “As the operation grows, you’re finding your hands are not dirty every day. You have to learn to become a manager rather than a grower.” The businesses employs 17 people during peak season, and dips down to four during the off-season.

Over time, Verheul documented his processes and practices for seeding, watering and, more recently, distributing biocontrols, to give employees a guidebook to follow. “Documentation is important for continuity and continued improvements,” he says — especially when the employee base is so seasonal, and as growing methods and materials continue to evolve.

Customer education

Similarly, Verheul trained his office staff to handle the most frequent questions from customers, so now only about 20% of the more specific or unusual queries trickle down to him. As soon as he notices several customers asking the same thing, “we try to fix it by avoiding the question,” he says, using channels like social media and his annual catalog to educate customers. “Our catalog has gone through an amazing amount of adjustments to mitigate some of the most common questions.”

In the early days, Verheul spent hours on the phone with customers. Now, he produces a weekly email newsletter and posts regularly on Facebook to share updates more efficiently. High Q also launched a new website last year to make ordering even easier.

But those new channels don’t replace face-to-face conversation. When Verheul first started High Q, he personally delivered every order. Obviously, that’s not possible anymore, but now, a lot of customers come to him, instead.

“My customers have access to me,” Verheul says, explaining that 70% of High Q’s products ship to a few major depots throughout the region, while some customers pick up orders themselves. “The 30% of customers who come to the door, we’re able to interact with them personally. That’s what makes us successful is that personal touch. As an independent grower, I’m in touch with my customers so I’m able to educate them directly.”

Leveraging more than 35 years of growing experience, Verheul is happy to share best practices and new ideas with his customers. “If the information we’re giving is helpful to a grower,” he says, “then that’s going to make us more successful.”

The author is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Greenhouse Management magazine.

“Direct to your doorstep every month” is pretty much the retail mantra of the moment; one that holds true for the plant industry as much as any other. I’ve lost count of new online direct-to-consumer houseplant retailers that keep popping up. All that marketplace pressure, or opportunity, may have you considering shipping direct to retail customers.

With the houseplant craze still on the rise — and market disruptors such as The Sill influencing many entrepreneurs from outside the green industry to jump on the plant wagon — growers are faced with the decision of going retail to compete.

On the surface, or from the outside, it may seem like a simple enterprise to start direct shipping the plants you’re already growing. Not so. You’re creating a new profit center for your operation, which is often akin to creating an entirely new business. A new business that has very different logistical requirements than your wholesale operation. Online ecommerce capacity, inventory tracking, taxes and accounting, order pulling, packaging, shipping and so on. All these new operations require different and additional labor and costs.

If you think it’s just the logistics you’ll need to adapt and manage, think again. The marketing work that will go into targeting and engaging with the end consumer will be a whole new ball game for you. Oh, and you’ll need to staff for that work too.

Direct shipping isn’t going to be logical or profitable for all wholesale growers. For some, it could mean creating the new customer base and revenue stream they need to stay in business. Let’s look at a few fundamental considerations if you find yourself facing this decision.

Product

Before you consider going the direct-shipping route, consider your products and plant offerings. Is what you grow going to be in-demand for online plant shoppers? For example: If your current customer base is landscape contractors and your product cash cows are mostly full-flat bedding annuals, then online direct to consumer sales may make no sense for you.

If your product selection is more diverse across plant categories or unique, and you’re willing to mix and match flats and sell individual plants, then branching out into retail sales can make sense. If you are a tropical foliage or succulent grower, then your inventory is a prime target for today’s online plant consumers.

Technology

Selling product as an online retailer is going to require not only a nice modern website, but also a meaningful investment in an ecommerce platform, as well as integration with your existing inventory software and live inventory itself. Creating a new digital presence may already be a big step for you.

Legal

Obviously, there are different legal and monetary considerations when selling retail versus wholesale. Additional business licenses or certificates may need to be obtained. Taxes will need to be collected and reported differently, dependent upon where you ship. You’ll also have to make sure you manage shipping restrictions for certain types of plants across state lines.

Marketing

You’ll be creating a new profit center for your business; you should also create a new business plan or marketing plan to support it. Are you ready to start marketing to an entirely separate segment of customers? Defining exactly who you’ll be selling and shipping direct to is vital to creating effective targeted marketing. You’ll need to tailor both organic and paid marketing and advertising efforts to your new customers, as well as manage your social media engagement.

Packaging

If you’ve ever ordered plants online or from a mail-order business, you’ve probably seen all sorts of different packing styles. Some work great, some are terrible and result in damaged plants. Figuring out how to properly pack your plants so that they not only survive their shipping journey, but also show up looking fantastic, is no easy feat. You’ll need to do a lot of experimentation and invest in the right materials configuration. Not to mention, create new customer facing POP materials, such as tags, care sheets and more.

Labor

All the work that goes into shipping direct to customers will differ from your wholesale SOPs. If your sales have been declining, and your existing staff has time to burn, then it could be a good opportunity to put them back to work and grow sales. If you’re already maxed out on your labor, then you’ll need to plan for new staff to handle customer service, process retail orders, assemble orders, pack and ship, and do marketing. Don’t assume your existing wholesale staff will be able to add on retail duties or be suited to them.

Outsourcing

You may have seen a few plant “drop shipping” services pop up over the last few years. These operations plug in to your ecommerce platform, such as Shopify, and drop ship plants they grow to your customer. While I think this kind of model could potentially be useful for retailers that are not in the green industry (but want to retail plants) — or retail garden centers who don’t want to take the direct ship plunge but want to capitalize on certain retail plant trends — you are giving away a lot of control. Whatever, and however, the drop shipper handles product quality and customer service will be a direct reflection on your brand. Be prepared to keep a tight eye on quality control if you outsource your online plant sales.

We’re only scratching the surface here, as there are many other factors to consider when you’re developing a new profit center for your greenhouse operation. Direct shipping may not be right for you as a grower, but if you’re ready to jump in, just make sure you’ve done all your retail homework.

During a particularly crazy time at a recent trade show, I enlisted some help from a coworker to deal with a last-minute problem and said what I always say — “Thanks!” I was more than a little surprised when they responded, “I’m just doing my job.” While that was technically true, it struck me that this person probably hadn’t been shown a lot of gratitude.

In the day-to-day of shipping deadlines, staffing problems and making sales, it’s easy to forget to show your appreciation. But that’s when it matters most. When stress levels are high, you can change the mood at your operation by setting a good example. Whether it’s someone doing their job well, going above and beyond or working some extra hours, they’ll appreciate knowing that their efforts are noticed.

It’s like they always say, “People don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses.” Whether it’s a birthday card, a text, an email or a pat on the back, it could make the difference in someone’s day. And it could make a difference in employee performance and retention.

The topic comes to mind particularly now that the holiday season is over. It’s easy to remember to show gratitude during the holiday season when warm, fuzzy feelings are in the air, but it’s just as important during the rest of the year.

The issue is illustrated really well by food bank donations. During the holidays, food banks are inundated with donations while people are feeling generous. But when spring and summer hit, shelves get bare and people go hungry.

So next time things are getting tense or you notice a gray atmosphere around the greenhouse, try telling people they’re doing a good job. It just might bring a little holiday cheer all year-round.

It’s the middle of December. Snow is on the greenhouse roof. The weather is frigid and the growing season is almost over. A well-deserved break is just a few days away.

But the entire greenhouse is still bustling, still humid and muggy as poinsettias and other holiday crops are being finished. Once the plants are ready to serve as a centerpiece of the table or the lynchpin of a home’s holiday decorations, they’ll be placed carefully into trucks to be shipped out to nearby big box stores, independent garden centers or perhaps the grower’s own retail shop down the road.

Some of those plants, though, serve a special purpose. Those plants then travel to nearby churches, schools, sports teams and other groups that have sold the plants as fundraisers. And for many greenhouses, doing fundraisers is a core part of the business and represents a main source of revenue.

Growing for fundraisers, though, can be a challenging exercise for operations. For one, there is no easy way to know exactly how big each fundraiser will be and how many of each plant will be needed. There’s also the question of pricing — should it match wholesale or retail pricing, or should it be marked at a different rate? And how can a grower prep without knowing final order sizes when the growing season starts?

“There’s no good way to plan,” says Tim Holliday, head grower and wholesale manager of Roebuck Greenhouses in Roebuck, South Carolina. “You never know what trend is going to hit year-to-year.”

Galema’s Greenhouse, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, sells its plants to almost every corner of the industry, from fundraisers to landscapers to their own retail store. Growing in around 70,000 square feet of greenhouse space and about 20 acres outdoors, the business produces everything from young plants to poinsettias to mums and some vegetables.

According to Bev Galema, who runs the business alongside her husband, owner and founder Tim Galema, no part of the business is more chaotic than the fundraising part of the business.

“It can be a hard place to be in because if they order a pink plant and we don’t have that for whatever reason, they aren’t going to want a red one,” she says. “So, to balance what I can offer that’s unique and have enough on-hand, because it is a perishable product and I can’t grow more, is tricky.”

Galema’s was founded by Tim in 1991, a few years after he graduated from Purdue University. He had worked for a greenhouse operation and gone back to Purdue to work in a lab, but Bev says Tim had been unhappy and wanted to get back to growing. That’s when the greenhouse that had previously employed him was put on the market.

“So we looked at them and he said, ‘I helped build them. I know what’s wrong with them and how to fix them,’” Galema says. They leased some land on Tim’s grandfather’s farm and started building the business little by little. In the beginning, Tim was still working part-time at Purdue.

“That developed into one more thing and one more thing and now we’ve got space I can’t keep track of,” Bev says with a laugh. “I have a degree in accounting [from Purdue] and actually worked full time before we had kids. And then this became my full-time job.” The Galema’s three children, as well as Tim’s parents, all work for the business.

Fundraising, she says, has been part of the business almost since the beginning and accounts for roughly 10 to 15% of Galema’s overall sales. The business grows mums for fall fundraisers and poinsettias for winter ones.

“We started with small growers, so we understand the needs of small growers and know the needs of small people,” Galema says. “We are flexible to handle the needs of more hands-on people. Not everybody wants 10,000 of one thing. And even if they get 100 of one thing, they don’t want 100 of the same color.”

Fundraising for Galema’s follows that same ethos. According to Galema, the business does fundraisers with different organizations across the state with no real criteria for what kind of group can purchase Galema’s plants for them. For instance, the greenhouse began growing for around 12 fundraisers for different travel softball teams in the area after an initial team signed up. From there, word got around.

One challenge now, Galema says, is growing for fundraisers correctly without overextending the business by taking on orders that could leave the business short on plants. She says the greenhouse space is about full, so committing more space for a winter poinsettia fundraiser just isn’t an option. And even then, there is still the challenge of being able to give customers exactly what they ordered.

“For poinsettias, one thing people like that can be hard to find are Jingle Bells poinsettias, which have generally not been in a box store,” she says. “But because I can’t find it anywhere else, I can’t go to my fellow growers and ask for 50 more because the fundraiser over-ordered. So, in the past year, we have been trying to shift our customers to give us [final totals] at least two weeks ahead.”

Roebuck Greenhouses started growing for fundraisers in the late 1990s. According to Holliday, the business started working with fundraisers when a friend asked him to do one for a local middle school. From there, they developed their own brochures and started to grow that side of the business. Fundraisers take place in the winter for poinsettias and in the spring for hanging baskets.

Roebuck used to grow for big box stores like Kmart, Lowe’s and Walmart before many of those stores began sourcing all their plants from one greenhouse producer.

“We had to change our business model, so we started focusing more on the landscapers, the independents and the fundraisers,” Holliday says. He started at Roebuck in 1990 and the business only shifted hard away from big box stores in 2006 just before the Great Recession.

Currently, Holliday says fundraising accounts for around 30 to 33% of Roebuck’s overall sales from the 200,000-square-foot greenhouse. He expects that part of the business to continue growing too but says it’s the most stressful part of the job.

“It’s terrible; I’ll be quite honest with you,” he says. “The little bit of hair I have left, I’m about to pull out. We aren’t taking orders — we’ve committed to this school civic group or whatever — and their numbers are still coming in. And right now, I’m oversold based on paper. You need a good backup plan.”

The first Galema’s customer to use Farmraiser was a fundraiser run by Bev and Tim’s daughter’s school band, who agreed to do it through the platform after Bev mentioned it.

“I got to see it from both ends, how it works,” she says. “They’ve got some kinks to work out, but I think it’s going to be a good platform. It gives me an ongoing report of what’s being ordered and then spits out specific orders of who ordered what.”

Galema also tries to only work with customers they’ve worked with in the past. Additionally, she says it is important to ease in any new customers by limiting what new customers can offer in a fundraiser. It’s also important, she says, to know what plants can be sourced from another operation if substitutions need to be made at the last minute.

Substitutions are a trick Holliday uses as well and he’s upfront with fundraisers to let them know that sometimes a change must be made. Roebuck only produces 35,000 to 40,000 poinsettias each year, so a larger grower nearby often will sell him enough to fill orders that Roebuck can’t with what’s on hand. He also limits the choices for poinsettias to 6” and 8” red, pink or white poinsettias.

Typically, he says, customers are interested in supporting the fundraiser as opposed to buying a specific plant, so substitutions — say a red poinsettia for a pink one — are a reliable solution. Another tip Holliday has: be picky about taking on new customers. In Roebuck’s case, they added 12 new fundraisers this year after a nearby greenhouse closed, but only did so because they felt it wouldn’t hinder any existing business.

Both Galema and Holliday say the best way to prognosticate for the next year is to tally what sold well in the year before and to have conversations with repeat customers to gauge what worked for them and what didn’t. That, they say, is the best way to see what sells and allows them to order the right product.

The process of making fundraisers run smoothly, however, is ongoing. More than anything, successfully growing for fundraisers is about doing what you can to get ahead and make it work as best you can.

“The farther ahead we can work on new things, and start new fundraisers, the better,” Galema says.