Abide-A-While's steps to a great container program

Customers flock to the container garden department at Abide-A-While Garden Center in Mount Pleasant, S.C., for expert design groupings, fulfilled expectations and promptness.

“It pretty much grew out of demand about five years ago,” said owner Muffie Donaldson, who together with her husband Bruce took over the store when his parents retired in 1998. They had started the business in 1943 on 7 acres just outside of Charleston.

Over the years, a system has evolved that customers can rely on to achieve the look they want through container gardening.

Currently, three well-trained gardeners and salespeople join Muffie in customizing contained arrangements.

Step 1: Client interview

The first step always is to sit down with a client and decipher all the elements that need to take root for the desired outcome. Container garden department designer Nancy McCollum leads the questioning with the all-important lighting factor.

“If the area gets less than three to four hours of sunshine or just filtered light, then definitely go with shade plants,” McCollum said.

The conversation moves to the client’s color likes and dislikes and her lifestyle, to determine what watering schedule will work for her. If a customer is not at home all day, watering becomes an issue. “Certain plants require once- or twice-a-day watering; some, less maintenance, which many clients prefer. Instead of geraniums or impatiens, they may go with sedum,” McCollum said.

Then there is the backdrop to consider for placement, whether on a patio, deck or porch, integrating the house color, existing objects in the peripheral range and the surrounding landscape. That and any particular purpose for the juxtaposition will determine the container styling, whether formal or casual, smooth or textured, rustic or polished, beach house or cottage.

“We strive to create the right feel for the customer, for whatever they request,” Donaldson said, adding that the designers are especially talented at combination techniques, mixing annuals, perennials, tropicals and nursery stock.

Step 2: Pot selection

Early on, determining the container choice narrows the focus. Selections range from a wide array of pottery to hanging baskets, hayracks, window boxes and black iron frames.

For customers who bring in their own pots, McCollum encourages starting with nutrient-rich new soil in containers with a bottom-cut drainage hole, covered with coco liner or even a coffee filter to hold the soil in during waterings.

“If there’s no bottom hole, we sprinkle in gravel and instruct how to water properly. In rain downpours, pots are best protected under an eave,” McCollum said.

“I like to get a focal point in everything I do. That’s the main structure of it that will hopefully last all year through. I work with that unless they want a pot of color, then I just go seasonal,” McCollum said.

The container shape influences the contents. “A low bowl is a great thing for herbs,” McCollum said.

Step 3: Design the container garden

Collected data in hand, McCullom begins her design process, which is in no way a random concoction. “For those that are very specific, I set it up right then and there for them to decide if they like it.”

Designing is the challenge and the fun and it flows quickly once all the requirements are in place.

Allocating the plants takes time. McCollum spreads the soil in the chosen container and “goes shopping,” scanning the nursery, gathering an intriguing blend, setting it on the soil, then stepping back to assess her selection. Once pleased, she finalizes the arrangement.

Step 4: Pricing

A detailed scale devised to calculate the price of the finished product, within a regional context, includes the custom design fee based on the diameter of the pot, amount of time for the designer to receive and fill the order, cost of container contents, plus a standard delivery and pickup fee.

And if that kind of custom service is still not appealing, there’s always the readymade grab-and-go assortments. Spec pots of color planted by designers and put out for sale range from $9 for a full planting of annuals to $500 for a pot with topiary and underplantings of seasonal color.

Designers complete massive amounts of arrangements in the popular hayracks that present a Charleston look.

Added services keep customers happy

Customers appreciate the department’s turnkey process. It’s not unusual, Donaldson said, for a customer to devise a plan with a designer and then reveal she wants it the next evening. “Our strengths lie in completing the customer’s order within their time constraints. We take the stress out of the process for the customer, and we have become known for that.”

As an added benefit, Abide-A-While delivery staff will return to customers’ homes for heavy containers and return them to the store for designers to replace the plants when they’ve finished blooming.

Custom pots enhance store’s reputation

“ Nancy’s expertise is knowing what looks right when it grows in,” Donaldson said. “From day one, her designs produce an instant effect. They look like they’d been nurtured for weeks, yet they were just done. Customers come in on a Monday or even a Thursday for a party Friday and it looks perfect, like it’s always been there.

“As the department continues to grow we find what works,” Donaldson said. “People continue to get our designers to do their containers so they don’t have to, and the designers are successful because what they do is so beautiful.”

For more: Abide-A-While Garden Center, Mount Pleasant, S.C., (843) 884-9738; www.abideawhilegardencenter.com.

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- Clare Adrian

Clare Adrian is a freelance writer in Columbia, Mo.

July 2008