Sid Raisch, founder of Horticultural Advantage, an Ohio-based consultancy firm in the US, has spent time in Japan helping companies to improve and increase their long-term profitability, and the first thing he noticed on a recent trip, was that Japanese garden centres generally allocate a limited amount of outdoor space for yard plants.
Sid Raisch (right) with a new friend he met at Takamatsu School, Mr. Hitoshi Taketani, the Japanese Horticultural Cowboy.
“Here in the US we have a lot of what we call landscape-sized plants sold in garden centres because we have typically larger yards and gardens."
“Part of the reason the Japanese garden centres are small is because they have small gardens around their homes… They are very tiny, and often with no soil,” he says.
Japanese garden centres facing difficulties
Raisch’s interest in the Japanese industry began several years ago when he met Hidemi Takamatsu, the owner of Takamatsu Trading Ltd, a Japanese plant distribution firm; and this year he was invited to be a guest speaker at the 7th annual Takamatsu School event.
Small plants which fit in the small Japanese gardens
The workshop event was held at the Joyful Honda Garden Centre in Japan, and the programme was designed to help retail businesses find new ways to increase and improve their long-term revenues because many garden centres have faced financial difficulties during the long recession.
Low birth rates also contributed to the country’s economic woes, and although population levels are now more stable, Japan’s garden centre industry (like the US) still struggles to find new ways of attracting younger generations to gardening.
Expansive product lines
Although the American population is three times bigger than Japan’s, Raisch believes there is plenty the US could learn from their garden centre industry, i.e. the tendency to offer expansive product lines.
A wide assortment of seeds in a Japanese garden centre
“The largest stores feature very wide assortments of almost everything, and small stores choose one or two areas to excel each season. This encourages customers to collect a wide range and to get more involved in their gardening hobby.”
Spatial limitations around the Japanese home, mean that container plants and potted bulbs are also very popular (especially in the spring) with the nations’ garden centres typically offering a ‘huge variety’ of spring flowering bulbs.
Products like hellebores, garden seeds, vegetable starts, fruit trees, flower bulbs, seed potatoes, orchids, succulents, and roses are all very popular, as is the hardware for training plants. And this year Raisch thinks that succulents, in particular, will be ‘all the rage’ in Japan.
Especially in the spring, potted bulbs are very popular in Japan
Breeding and growing
Similarities between the US and Japanese industries extend to their plant import habits, with Sid Raisch taking a keen interest in the plant producers and growers as well.While the US generally buys plugs and liners from growing operations in South America, Japan mainly sources their plant stock from European breeders and Asian and African growing operations, with young plants finished off by growers in Japan, before they are shipped to their respective retail centres.
“Yes, it’s a small part of my business,” he acknowledges, “but those [grower] clients are important to me because I have a background in that part of the business and I enjoy it a lot; also my retail garden centre clients depend on the growers.”
The background he refers to is his previous career as a Sales Manager at Bailey Nurseries in Minnesota, one of the largest wholesale nurseries in the US, and a major supplier of liners to other wholesale nurseries.
Improve communication between growers an retail
It’s the communication between growers and the retail side that he would like to see improved upon, everywhere.“Today the growers’ success is limited by the retailer’s success, and for a grower to become more successful they will need to engage the retailer more.”
“Many retailers see it this way also and they are going towards the grower and trying to create a better situation but when they have an unwilling grower who just wants to grow and ship, get paid and nothing else, that makes it more difficult.” He concludes.
For more information:Horticultural Advantage
Sid Riasch
937-302-0423
[email protected]
www.advantagedevelopmentsystem.com