Good help is hard to find — especially in the horticulture industry. And believe it or not, it’s an issue many in the publishing industry struggle with as well. We’re extremely lucky to have an amazing staff here at Greenhouse Management, thanks in part to the employee benefits we are able to offer and the collaborative work environment that’s encouraged.

In fact, in 2008, our parent company, GIE Media, was named the No. 1 Best Magazine Company to Work For by Publishing Executive magazine.

We’re hoping that recognition for the wonderful workplace you’ve cultivated can help your greenhouse attract top-quality talent as well. So, it is with great pleasure to announce the first annual Best Horticulture Companies To Work For study. The study is being conducted in partnership with the Best Companies Group, a research company that specializes in selecting and recognizing great workplaces.

Not only will the study look at workplace policies and practices, Best Companies Group will reach out to your employees (anonymously, of course) to see how they rank their experience in the workplace.

You can enter as either a greenhouse, a garden center or both! If you have 15 or more full-time or part-time (not seasonal) employees and operate in the U.S. or Canada, you can enter to be ranked among the “Best Horticulture Companies to Work For.” Plus, if your company makes the final ranking, you will also be featured in Greenhouse Management magazine (if you’re a greenhouse operation) or Garden Center magazine (if you’re a retail garden center).

To learn more, visit BestHorticultureCompaniesToWorkFor.com and register by Nov. 20.

I can’t wait to hear about all of the wonderful things your greenhouse is doing to make your operation the best of the best.

There’s nothing worse than an unsatisfied customer walking up to your register and demanding to know why their plant is failing to thrive. While the situation isn’t always preventable, salvage both the customer’s expectations and your reputation by creating a plant warranty policy — or in the case of greenhouses that already have one, updating your warranty. We rounded up some of the best plant warranty pointers as IGC owners head into the retail rush of spring season.

Prioritize customer success

The most important thing IGC owners should take into consideration when creating a warranty policy is fostering healthy plant growth and nurturing customer relationships. Joseph J. Kiefer, manager of Triple Oaks Nursery & Herb Garden in Franklinville, New Jersey, shares why this is the cornerstone of any good policy. “We want people to succeed with our plants” he says. “That’s the whole principle of it. The policy is there for customer success.”

Bethany Broderick, who manages the East Broad Street location of Strader’s Garden Center in Columbus, Ohio, echoes this viewpoint. “Most customers, yeah, they want to be successful with their plants and they come here so that we can help to educate as far as proper planting and care and maintenance,” he says.

Ben Polzin, vice president of retail operations at Down to Earth Garden Center, located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, says this should be top priority when it comes to mapping out a warranty strategy. “We changed our plant warranty this spring. We had kind of a more broad spectrum, very lenient program before,” he says. “We still want to stand behind our plants. We also don’t want to be taken advantage of.”

Tweak according to your brand

Most plant warranties tend to cover big-ticket items, such as trees and shrubs, but IGC owners can tweak these to what fits their needs best. Broderick says that trees and shrubs at Strader’s have a one-year warranty, with the exception of trees or shrubs on 50% markdown. They also offer a warranty for roses sold during planting season, which lasts 90 days (as long those roses are not 50% off).

Strader’s does not offer a warranty for test plants, annuals or perennials. In order to uphold the warranty, customers must first bring in their receipt, along with a sample of the plant (like foliage) or a photo of the dead plant.

“And then we will do a one-time replacement,” Broderick says. “If it’s a plant that they were not successful with because, perhaps it’s a more difficult plant to grow, or they didn’t realize it needed a certain type of care, then we may try and educate them about a better alternative.”

Similar to Broderick, Polzin and Kiefer require proof of plant death for the plant, and both agree that a photo or physical evidence will do.

Down to Earth provides a general 30-day warranty, and then customers can opt to buy a one-year extended warranty for trees and shrubs. Roses and perennials are covered for the current growing season, which ends on Oct. 15 of the purchasing year. The IGC requires customers to buy Root & Grow, along with a bag of compost, at the time of purchase as well. “If they’re buying it, they are a lot more likely to use it,” Polzin says. “So, between the watering of the Root & Grow and using the compost when they’re planting, it’s just forcing them a little bit more to care for it, get it planted correctly.”

Triple Oaks offers a six-month “cash and carry” warranty and a two-year “installation” warranty. In Kiefer’s experience, trustworthy people usually don’t make claims, but if they do, they own up to them. “Honest people will say, ‘Oh, well I didn’t water it’ or ‘The soil there is not good,’” he says. Kiefer adds they’ll replace these plants nearly every time, even if the customer is at fault. “Yeah, the thing is, if somebody’s nice and polite and friendly, that goes such a long way,” he continues. Triple Oaks will even replace perennials, which technically aren’t even under warranty. “We pretty much make exceptions for anybody who’s nice.”

Another reason Triple Oaks is so lenient with their policy is because of big box stores who provide blanket coverage for a year. “So you’re kind of in competition with that, where people have a mindless idea that they could take a plant and throw it in a fire and burn it and then take it back for warranty coverage, and that’s the big box store kind of warranty,” he says. “Because they’re not paying, the grower’s paying it.”  Kiefer says Triple Oaks plans to edit its policy on January 1. “You know every time somebody gets the best of you, swindles you out of something, you learn a lesson and put that on paper. Say ‘I’m not going to let that happen again,’” he says. However, this mentality has made the policy too complex, forcing Kiefer to reconsider. The new policy will include a $50 inspection fee and the policy will be more open-ended. That way, Triple Oaks can review claims on a case-by-case basis.

Educate customers at the front lines

According to Broderick, enforcing the warranty policy starts at checkout. From the time customers visit the register to the time they walk out of the store, their expectations should align with your IGC’s care instructions and warranty parameters. “The cashiers are trained to pay attention to the computer screen and when someone buys a tree or shrub, they’re supposed to verbally inform the customer of the policy,” she says. Strader’s has their policy down to a science, and the team doesn’t anticipate changing its policy any time soon.

Kiefer says their policy is located on Triple Oaks’ website for easy access to the public, and employees are trained to refer to it upon checkout.

“We’ve taken it all the way out to the sales yard. It is mentioned at checkout if it hasn’t already been talked about,” Polzin says. Aside from perennials, employees are encouraged to upsell the extended warranty.

Protect your reputation

According to Kiefer, it’s easier to bite the bullet and appease angry customers, even if they’re wrong. “These people clearly went and killed a beautiful, perfect plant. But if you sit there and argue with them, that could be the worst thing in the world for your reputation and word of mouth, because people aren’t experts,” Kiefer says. While it is frustrating to honor a baseless warranty claim, in the end the monetary amount is small — he estimates about 1% of people request a plant return. Both Broderick and Polzin estimate the same. It’s a delicate balance, but one that requires customer satisfaction to keep business rolling.

It’s also important to keep your warranty policy simple and streamlined, something both Polzin and Kiefer agree on. “That’s probably my number one thing, because the more complicated it is, the harder it is for the customers to understand it and want to do it, and it also can create delays in the checkout process, which is the last thing you want to do on a busy weekend,” Polzin says. He advises that your policy should be something your team can stand behind and understand.

For those thinking about creating their own warranty policies, Kiefer recommends outlining the different types and molding them to fit your brand. He suggests owners join the Independent Garden Center Forum on Facebook to gather ideas. “Now some people on there have no warranty. Some people have an amazing warranty, some people have something in between. Some people just treat it on a case-by-case basis,” he says. “And there’s merit to all the different ways.”

Fall in the greenhouse is poinsettia time. Poinsettias are the most widely grown flowering potted plant grown. With the short days of September, poinsettias will be induced to flower and start to form colorful bracts. However, bract edge burn can render crops unsalable. This article will review what causes bract edge burn, as well as what can be done to avoid it.

What causes bract edge burn?

While the word “burn” is commonly used to describe what happens when too much fertilizer or pesticide is applied to plants, that is not the case of bract edge burn. Bract edge burn is the symptom of a calcium deficiency in bracts, specifically on their margins or edges. A homologous disorder is tip burn on lettuce, where the edges of leaves are deficient in calcium. Without sufficient calcium, the cell walls on the margins of bracts will not develop fully, and the necrotic edges make the plant look like it suffered from excessive fertilizer or pesticides.

The best way to prevent bract edge burn is to stay ahead of it by monitoring nutrients and intervening before it becomes a problem. Performing nutrient analyses to measure the amount of calcium and other nutrients in the substrate is a good first step in determining whether there is sufficient calcium in the root zones or if calcium uptake could become problematic. Regardless of whether it is improving calcium concentrations or uptake, there are steps to take to finish with burn-free bracts.

Provide more calcium

If there is insufficient calcium (i.e. less than 100 ppm) in the root zone, modifying fertilizers is the first place to start in preventing bract edge burn. A nitrate-based fertilizer is a good choice for avoiding bract edge burn on poinsettias. In fertilizers with high proportions of nitrate, there will usually be more calcium than lower-nitrate or ammonium-based formulations, due calcium nitrate being the primary nitrogen source.

In addition to providing more calcium to the root zone, more calcium can be provided to bracts by applying foliar sprays of calcium chloride. When mixed up at a concentration of 200 to 400 ppm, weekly calcium chloride sprays starting at bract coloration will provide calcium directly to the bracts. Continue sprays for at least four weeks. Consider continuing applications through the rest of production until plants are sold.

Improve calcium uptake

There may be sufficient calcium (100 to 200 ppm) in the root zone, but uptake may be insufficient due to one of several reasons. First, magnesium in the root zone can compete with calcium for uptake. They are both positively charged cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) and are both taken up passively when plants take up water. If there is too much magnesium, it will outcompete the calcium and inhibit calcium uptake, resulting in bract edge burn. The recommended ration of calcium to magnesium is 3 to 5 ppm calcium to 1 ppm magnesium. Increasing the calcium in the root zone to help improve its ratio with magnesium can improve calcium uptake. Alternatively, reducing the amount of magnesium applied will also help improve the balance with calcium.

In addition to insufficient uptake from competition with magnesium, the greenhouse environment may not be conducive to optimal calcium uptake. Calcium is taken up when plants take up water, and water uptake occurs when plants are transpiring. When temperatures are warm and there is sufficient light, the stomata on the leaf surface open and transpiration occurs. However, in the fall, as poinsettia season processes, the light intensity and air temperatures decrease, which can slow down transpiration and calcium uptake. Monitor the air temperature and daily light integral (DLI) as the greenhouse changes and make sure the greenhouse environment are documented and noted.

If supplemental lighting is available, consider using it when the ambient outdoor light starts to decrease. The target DLI for a good-quality poinsettia is between 10 and 12 mol·m^–2·d^–1, and supplemental lighting will not only improve transpiration and calcium uptake, but also the final quality of finished plants. Additionally, greenhouse temperatures are slipping below target set points, so monitor often to avoid cooler-than-desired day temperatures.

As was mentioned previously, calcium chloride sprays can be a useful tool in preventing bract edge burn when there is insufficient calcium available to poinsettias, but it can also be used when uptake is a problem. Using calcium chloride sprays, poor uptake can be bypassed by applying the calcium directly to the bracts. The same procedures for application as described above should be used.

Take-home message

Don’t wait until damage is visible to start managing bract edge burn. By carefully monitoring calcium and magnesium concentrations in the root zone, as well as the air temperature and DLI in the greenhouse, the proper precautions can be taken to ensure bracts develop fully and undamaged.

Photo courtesy of Costa Farms

Greenhouse Management: With this being such an odd year, what has the market for houseplants been like from your perspective? 

Joche Smith: About 50% [of our business] is indoor houseplants with the rest being annuals, perennials and blooming tropicals. We’ve seen demand surge in the last couple of years and I don’t know if anyone could have predicted what happened this year. We all were a bit concerned in April when there were shutdowns going on and several of our markets were closed off to us. But when things opened back up in May, it was crazy. We’ve been selling [houseplants] at a pace that’s hard to keep up with and right now, we’re struggling with it. We’ve been beneficiaries for sure — beneficiaries of this demand we could have never predicted — and we are now making plans for next year trying to guess and understand how much of this demand is going to stick and how much of this demand is also just a one-time thing. People were already buying more houseplants, but I hope it gets supercharged by some new consumers that we might have picked up over the last several months. 

GM: As far as the supply chain goes, did you have any significant hiccups in getting product out?

JS: As far as the foliage side of the business, our grow times range from a couple of months to over a couple of years. So on average, it’s about six months grow time on our foliage, so it’s not like we saw demand surge in May, and we saw that we could do a heck of a lot that could affect this spring or this summer. The stock plants we have in place are programs that we have been working on for years and, frankly, it’s really hard to increase the supply in a very short period of time. We just have to deal with the decisions we’ve made over the last several years, but we’ve made big, big bets on things that we’re going to be counting on. We just couldn’t make any short-term decisions that were going to help us out for this year. 

GM: Are there specific varieties Costa Farms is betting on for 2021 or beyond? 

JS: We introduced ‘Trending Tropicals’ this year. We’ve always had a 6-inch line and then an upgraded line. But we felt like we were missing a price point and an offering that we call ‘super premium.’ In the past, we’ve been too fast in saying, ‘This is the next plant and it takes a lot of time to grow. Make it premium!’ Now, we are scrutinizing a lot, bringing in plants from a lot of different places — most of which were propagated in the Dominican Republic, some of which are brand-new introductions. But the line is the ‘Trending Tropicals’ line. We are doubling the size of that offering next year.