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Horticulture in an Omnichannel World ft. Rich Christakes

In a conversational episode, host Bill Calkins and his guest (and friend) Rich Christakes cover an extremely wide range of topics related to the modern greenhouse and garden center industry rooted in the goal of providing perspective and opportunities for action. Rich, CEO of Alsip Home & Nursery (a grower-retailer with two locations in Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland) and founder of the Ship My Plants online marketplace, has a unique perspective on garden center retail, variety selection, business management, the importance of peer groups and creating exceptional customer experiences.

 

Bill and Rich start by covering spring 2023 and new ways to meet the needs of today’s shoppers and then start talking plants—focusing on improvements to best sellers and the importance of new breeding. Then they change gears and address labor. Rich shares how Alsip has benefited from H2A and H2B labor sources and the importance of training and staff development. He explains some recent shift in Alsip’s purchasing strategies and ways they’ve set new goals for buyers and managers, which has resulted in significant revenue gains.

 

Then Rich and Bill spend time talking about ways to inspire key emerging customer bases by allowing them to shop however they prefer, from in-store and traditional delivery to online and even on Amazon. New shopping approaches provides a perfect segue into Ship My Plants, an innovative online platform for buying and selling plants. Think of it as “DoorDash or Uber Eats for plants” because it’s a multi-vendor marketplace that allows shoppers to order plants from local garden centers. This means garden centers maintain their store name and brand while engaging new customers and gaining another avenue for sales.

 

Before closing, Rich and Bill express how thankful they are to work in an industry that reflects positivity at a time when it’s so needed. Plants make people happy, benefit the Earth and improve mental health—and as green industry professionals, there many reasons to be proud and extremely grateful.

 

Be sure to listen all the way to the end of this episode! There are a ton of actionable ideas for everyone.

 

RESOURCES:

• Ship My Plants: https://www.shipmyplants.com/
• Ship My Plants Director of Business Development, Clint Albin: clint@shipmyplants.com
• Alsip Home & Nursery: https://www.alsipnursery.com/

 

Audio Files: Sanitation & Preparation—Starting Strong

SANITATION & PREPARATION: STARTING STRONG

FROM THE FEBRUARY 2021 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY PAUL PILON

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

Many growers take for granted the benefits of having a strong start, and when less-than-ideal conditions are present from the beginning, they often struggle to stay ahead of these issues throughout the crop or the entire spring season. A strong start likely has different meanings for different growers, but here’s a few methods I like to employ to get my growing season started off the right foot.

 

Read the digital edition of GROWERTALKS Magazine—February 2021: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_21_02/index.aspx

Audio Files: Vertical Farm Site Selection

VERTICAL FARM SITE SELECTION

FROM THE NOVEMBER 2023 ISSUE OF INSIDE GROWER MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY DAVID KUACK

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: A major consideration when starting an indoor farm is site selection, which can have a direct bearing on efficiency and profitability. There are lots of factors to take into consideration, from the physical location to the utilities available, nearby neighbors and more. Here we break down what to think about before your next retrofit or build.

 

Read the digital edition of Inside Grower Magazine—November 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/ig_23_11/index.aspx

Audio Files: Common Propagation Mistakes

COMMON PROPAGATION MISTAKES

FROM THE NOVEMBER 2023 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY LYNN GRIFFITH

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

Horticulture is an art as well as a science. Propagating plants vegetatively is even more of an art than growing in general. Sure, there’s research data on propagating the more common ornamental plants. However, variables such as variety, season, geography and structures can make large differences in what works and doesn’t work.

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—November 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_23_11/index.aspx

Audio Files: Floral Packaging Evolved

FLORAL PACKAGING EVOLVED

FROM THE OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY SARA EVENSON

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

I’ll be the first to admit that navigating sustainability is complicated. It’s not enough to depict mountains of legal documents I’ve gotten lost under while trying to decipher the best path forward. Is it better to recycle or better to compost? What does post-consumer content even mean? What can I recycle at my house? I’ll even admit I spent the better part of two years tossing a container in my recycling bin only to later discover it wasn’t on the shortlist of items my city recycled. I, an ardent supporter and passionate advocate for all things “recycling and sustainability,” was guilty of contaminating the recycling stream! With so much stacked against us, how do we choose the best path forward?

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—October 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_23_10/index.aspx

Audio Files: Poinsettias, The Final Step—Shipping

POINSETTIAS: THE FINAL STEP—SHIPPING

FROM THE OCTOBER 2010 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY DR. P. ALLEN HAMMER

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

Poinsettia growers have a responsibility for the post-production longevity of the plants we offer to consumers. Growers can’t afford to simply be happy to have the plants out of the greenhouse door. Satisfied poinsettia consumers make for repeat customers. As a poinsettia producer and marketer, you can do a great deal to maintain the potential postharvest beauty and longevity built into the modern poinsettia cultivars.

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—October 2010: https://www.growertalks.com/Article/Archive/Publication/?pubid=619

Audio Files: Digital Crop Templates

DIGITAL CROP TEMPLATES

FROM THE OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY BILL CALKINS

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

Remember when the walls of your greenhouse office were lined with file cabinets? Maybe they still are … but perhaps at least a few have been tossed to the curb with the contents now residing on computers and phones. Some of those drawers, no doubt, held files on past crops and your growers could pull a folder and see some notes from years gone by. Unfortunately, there was usually very little consistency and plenty of gaps (not to mention the inability of new growers to decipher another person’s handwriting). Those challenges (and space restrictions) are, thankfully, a thing of the past with new tools like Google Docs and other file-sharing platforms. The system used for storing and sharing crop template files really doesn’t matter, as long as it can be organized, easily updated and shared online for access via mobile devices.

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—October 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_23_10/index.aspx

Audio Files: Perfecting Perennial Propagation

PERFECTING PERENNIAL PROPAGATION

FROM THE JANUARY 2020 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY CHRIS FIFO

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

My earliest memory of plant propagation was in second grade. I was taking cuttings off my mom’s Swedish Ivy and sticking them in a glass of water. I loved watching them grow roots. My passion for propagation had evolved by the fifth grade and I was propagating spider plants and giving them to teachers. I’ve come a long way since then and my career has focused on perennial propagation and production.

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—January 2020: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_20_01/index.aspx

Audio Files: Good Questions! (So-So Answers)

ACRES & ACRES: GOOD QUESTIONS! (SO-SO ANSWERS)

FROM THE OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY CHRIS BEYTES

NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR, CHRIS BEYTES

 

EXCERPT: Chris Beytes, as the editor of a horticultural trade publication, you have a unique perspective on industry trends. What recent developments in the horticulture sector do you believe will have the most significant impact on businesses and professionals in the coming years?

 

I guess my answer is that we’re a maturing industry, and we can’t expect major breakthroughs or developments to come along. Instead, we get small, incremental changes that are hard to recognize until after the fact. Think about this: Houseplants were hot in the ’70s, then they went away. Why? And why did they come back? It wasn’t anything we did. My question is, “What is the next thing we do that will fall out of fashion, or come back into fashion, and how do we recognize it?”

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—October 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_23_10/index.aspx

Audio Files: A Wake-Up Call for Baby Boomers

A WAKE-UP CALL FOR BABY BOOMERS

FROM THE OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY AMY MORRIS

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT:

The work ethic of Baby Boomers was deeply rooted in their experiences of economic struggle, as many of them grew up during times of scarcity and uncertainty. This instilled in them the value of hard work and the importance of saving for the future. As a result, they often put in long hours and were willing to make personal sacrifices to achieve their career goals.

 

The children of Baby Boomers, spanning multiple generations, have grown up in a vastly different world. The advent of technology and the rise of the Internet have transformed the way people interact, communicate and work. This has led to a divergence in work ethics, as the younger generations have been exposed to new opportunities and challenges that their parents’ generation could not have fathomed.

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—October 2023: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_23_10/index.aspx