Young company is backed by experience

Even though the Phoenix real estate market experienced a major decline in home sales and construction during 2006, a lot of commercial development and building is still going on.

“The builders are still building even though there is a surplus of homes on the market,” said Pearl Crum, chief financial officer of Dream With Colors Inc. in Phoenix. “Our business has increased every year.”

Crum and her business partner, chief executive officer and president Jose Vega Sr., opened the wholesale growing operation in July 2000. The company sells annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs and shrubs to landscapers and independent garden centers.

“When we started, we had two small facilities in north Phoenix that we leased the land and that had greenhouses on them. The second year we leased a 20-acre location in Marana, Ariz., which is north of Tucson. And the third year we purchased that facility. We added additional greenhouses (in Marana) and expanded production there to 320,000 square feet.”

In September 2006 the company opened a new 84,000-square-foot greenhouse facility on 7 acres in south Phoenix.

“When we got the chance to buy this parcel in south Phoenix, it was perfect for us,” Crum said. “We have some security with this piece of property. We don’t have to worry about whether the owner might some day want to sell it.

“When Jose and I worked for Perry’s and then Color Spot, we worked in south Phoenix. For the last six years we knew we needed a facility in south Phoenix for landscapers. Last fall was the first season of having two yards for our customers to go to. There are landscapers all over the valley so they can decide where they want to make their pickups.”

Although the company has landscape customers who drive in and pick up orders, Crum said 90 percent of landscape sales are delivered to the jobsite.

“We do have a lot of people who drive in and pick up their orders, but delivery is a good thing for the landscapers because we make the drop right to the jobsite,” she said. “There are also a few landscapers who have their own holding yards who want their orders delivered there. Then they disperse the plants to their crews.”

Keeping sales strong

About half of Dream With Colors’ plants are sold to landscapers and the other half go to independent garden centers and grower-retailers. Most of the plants end up at resorts, homeowner associations and commercial businesses through landscapers, Vega said.

Vega said Arizona doesn’t have the typical gardening consumer that is found in other parts of the country.

“In Arizona you don’t see a lot of gardeners. Most of the landscapers do the gardening for the people who live in upscale cities like Paradise Valley and Scottsdale.”

One of the concerns about homeowner associations is that an increasing number want their residents to only use certain plants, specifically drought-tolerant plants, because they are focused on water conservation, Crum said.

“Some of the cities have also implemented programs that give the residents financial incentives to use less water,” Vega said. “Cities are offering anywhere from $500 to $1,500, and the citizens are willing to take it.

“Our biggest concern in Arizona is whether we’re going to have any (flower) consumers here in the future. Is people’s thinking going to change as they go from their 20s to their 30s? Are parents teaching their kids about flowers and how to use them? If only 50 percent of our generation teaches their kids about flowers and the next generation only teaches 50 percent of their kids about flowers and so on.”

Selecting the best

Even with water-conservation incentives being offered by cities, Crum said her company’s landscape customers have not faced any restrictions on type of plantings, size of plantings or plant species or varieties that can be used.

“Our color is the biggest crop (about 80 percent of production) with shrubs making up the balance,” Crum said. “Most of our color is produced from seed plugs that we buy in. We also have a smaller line of vegetative color called Dream Select that includes bacopa, angelonia and calibrachoa. We called it that because we have included plants from different breeders.

“When we find something that works and our customers like it, then we keep it in our program. We basically select the best for our customers.”

Crum and her daughter Samantha Elaine Robinson, who also works for the company as executive assistant, attend California pack trials every year looking for new plants to trial.

“No matter what we see in California, we still have to trial the product here because we have a totally different climate,” Crum said. “We also go to different industry functions during the year where we can see new products. We’ll have vendors that will tell us that this plant will do real well for us. Normally we’ll receive a small amount of product to try to see how it does. Our vendors keep an eye out for new plants that will do well in hot, dry weather.”

If a new plant performs up to company standards, the company will work with some of its customers to trial it in commercial plantings.

“Jose and I have dealt with many of the landscapers for over 20 years,” she said. “We’ll ask a few to try it and tell us how they like it. Sometimes we’ll take it to our independent garden center customers and ask them to trial it in their own yards. We want feedback from our customers because even if we can grow it to meet our standards and produce a nice plant, it doesn’t mean that our customers are going to have a use for it.

“We only take something out of production if it doesn’t perform or if our customers don’t like it. Also, if there’s a problem with the plugs or cuttings, then we won’t grow it. We’ll add new varieties whenever we get a chance, whether it’s something that we find or if we have a customer ask for something. We do have customers who will ask us for plants that we don’t normally grow, but if we can find the plugs, cuttings or liners and we can produce it, we’ll give it a shot. If it works, then we’ll do more, if people want it. If they can’t sell it, we don’t need to grow it.”

Locally grown plants

Since Crum and Vega have more than 20 years of experience growing under Arizona conditions, they have a good feel for what plants will work for customers.

“Our job as grower is to tell them that a plant will not do well here,” Crum said. “I dealt with landscape architects while I was at Perry’s who requested plants that I told them they couldn’t use in Arizona. Jose and I are not going to grow something that we know isn’t going to perform. It’s not good for us or for our customers.”

One of Crum and Vega’s goals when they started their business was to provide customers with locally grown product.

“We knew what it was like when product was brought in from California to Phoenix during June,” Crum said. “It’s not pretty. The plants aren’t acclimated. Even trying to ship them in and then acclimate them after they arrive isn’t as good as producing the plants locally.”

During fall, the weather is not as big of an issue. “We still like that our product is locally grown and so do our customers,” Crum said.

One of the advantages of having worked with their customers for so long is that 80-85 percent of the plants are pre-ordered.

“We’re basically contract growers,” Crum said. “We already know where most of the plants are going before they’re even planted. There are changes from year-to-year, like the color schemes change. But we have some customers that basically use the same thing year after year. Some don’t deviate much at all.”

Professional grade

Crum said the landscape companies that Dream With Colors deals with are very professional.

“The majority of our landscape customers have been in this business for a long time and they know what they want,” she said. “They do residential properties, commercial businesses, resorts and golf courses. Some of the resorts and golf courses have their own in-house landscape crews.”

Vega said his company, like many of his customers, belongs to the Arizona Landscape Contractors Association.

“The association has monthly meetings where they cover three to four topics including irrigation, pest control, pruning, plant problems and bedding plants and color,” Vega said. “We also belong to the Arizona Nursery Association.”

For more: Dream With Colors Inc., P.O. Box 8540, Phoenix, AZ 85066; (602) 266-1814; fax (602) 266-6092; dreamwithcolors@cox.net.

Dream With Colors Inc.

Founded: July 2000 by Jose Luis Vega Sr., president and chief executive officer, and Pearl Crum, chief financial officer.

Locations: Phoenix and Marana, Ariz.

Size: Three facilities in Phoenix and one facility in Marana with a total of 240,000 square feet of greenhouse production and 150,000 square feet of outdoor production. The most recent greenhouse was built in September 2006 in south Phoenix. It is a 84,000-square-foot, double-polyethylene-covered structure.

Crops: Annual bedding plants, perennials, vegetables, herbs and shrubs.

Customer base: Wholesale to landscapers and independent garden centers within a 200-mile radius.

Employees: 25 full time and 25 seasonal.

Family offers steady labor

Dream With Colors’ chief financial officer Pearl Crum said it’s a continual challenge to retain employees.

“We haven’t had a problem hiring employees, it’s more a matter of turnover during certain times. This is hard work, especially during the summer.”

Crum said the seasonality of the business has made it appealing to some employees.

“Some of our employees like being able to take off time during slower periods in the summer and around the holidays,” she said.

Chief executive officer and president Jose Vega Sr. is especially concerned about the low wages paid to workers in the industry as a whole.

“The kids who are 20-25 years old, these are the ones who have to grow into the business. But the money is not there,” he said. “How are you going to motivate individuals to work in our industry when they can go and work in air-conditioned buildings?”

Crum and Vega both feel fortunate that their children have followed them into the business. Crum said one of the biggest challenges for her and Vega is having enough time to get everything done.

“Having the kids working with us, we’re trying to give them more responsibility,” Crum said.

Vega’s 28-year-old son Fernando, who is resource manager, has worked for the company ever since it started. “He makes deliveries, he sells and he builds,” Crum said. “When we started working on the south Phoenix facility, Fernando oversaw the setup of this operation.”

Vega’s youngest son, Jose Luis Jr., 20, has been with the company for three years and is vice president of operations.

Vega’s 24-year old daughter Monica is the customer service manager. She’s been with the company for four years.

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Crum’s daughter Samantha, 20, started working for the company full time two years ago. She’d worked part time while attending school.

- David Kuack