HortiTrends Weekly Comment and News Digest - March 25th

It can be hard to remember sometimes just how enthused you were, by all things horticulture as a fresh faced student. In Irish Final of the Young Horticulturist of the Year, 2013 Results the competitive streak remains strong between the colleges in Ireland and the UK. Its part of some of the important work of carried out by the IOH. The competition is currently under the stewardship of Dr Paul Fitters at the College of Amenity Horticulture at the Botanic Gardens. Keeping it real, they took the competition out to the workplace with the finals held at Johnstown Garden Centre. A good practical move that will invigorate the competition for the future.

In Helleborus - John Lord carries on his popular series of articles looking at the plants that we use in our day to day work. He gives his unique prospective as a plant lover retailer and designer/landscaper looking at the pros and cons of each variety. If you want to see how John has put his words into action then you should take the time to visit his display gardens at Rathoath garden centre, weather allowing of course!

In John Stanley's Practical Retail Solutions - March 2013 he talks about the 'Dark Store' as being the next development of online retailing. It mimics the high street retailers stores product wise and is where the retailer builds a warehouse to only act as an online store. In the many conversations we have with garden retailers you do get a sense, that their expectations about the potential benefits for their business are too high. For most businesses (90%) the main benefits of an online presence are for brand/reputation building, show casing their customer service ethos and highlighting offers to get consumers in-store to experience the customer service that they have been raving about. Don't disappoint them by ignoring them when you actually get them in the door, because you are too busy planning your takeover of the online marketplace.

Tully Nurseries Plant Centre Trade Catalogue 2013 is another step in the right direction for the Tully families online strategy. You can have it in paper or as an electronic flip book. The problem with paper or an e-catalogue is that they can be out of date quite quickly. One of the annoying things for landscapers and designers are plant substitutions which could happen quite frequently at many of Ireland's Nurseries. With the launch of the new online e-commerce site that day is now, more of less gone at Tully Nurseries as the site is linked to the stock and POS system. It shows in real time what the stock levels actually are.

This will keep the people at the upcoming GLDA Seminar 'Simply Gardens...Design Inspiration for Your Soul' very happy. No more substitutions! Once again the GLDA have managed to put together another exciting lineup for the 17th annual seminar. It is the dedication of the members themselves who are all volunteers that has allowed this uninterrupted span of seminars to carry on. There is also the welcome return of trade stands at the event. A chance, just like HortiTrends to connect with your target audience. With 250 expected to attend the day, remember its not the quantity, it's the quality.

Looking to connect with consumers online? Let us do all of the work for you. Why not check out our newly launched site www.gardenguide.ie Got some news, want to run a competition or juts want to advertise. You can have it all.

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