Increase your business and customer relations with GreatPlants!
Customers who want greenery without a lot of care will find many GreatPlants’ "Plants of the Year" to be water-wise, drought-tolerant plants. Show them how easy they are to care for and let them know that more will be offered each year. Help customers who’ve heard about GreatPlants® find them by grouping them together in one area of your business, advertising this area with a banner, using plant labels and/or descriptive display cards. We’ll even provide the marketing materials to you at a small price. Use the order form at arboretum.unl.edu/greatplants If you create theme tables of plants with similar cultural requirements or dazzling color combinations, the customer feels like they are buying from a garden. This helps them buy a concept – several plants – versus just a single plant. Some customers look for themes or type of plants and GreatPlants fit right in. Some effective themes using the GreatPlants® might be “New Perennials”, “Drought Tolerant”, “Native Plants”, “Blue Ribbon Plants”, “Winter Garden”, “Groundcovers”, or “Long-Bloomers.” If you have customers who want to be known for the newest plants, or like to have something different than everyone else, talk to them about how they can incorporate brand-new GreatPlants products into their garden. Hold a “preview party” with your top customers invited in to see what’s new this year, including the new “GreatPlants.” Make it an annual event that gardeners in your area will want to be seen at and go to. By incorporating plants that use less water and very few chemicals around your business, you’ll show your customers your commitment to environmentally friendly landscaping and market the plants at the same time. (If you’re using perennial selections of the GreatPlants program, remember they have extensive root systems and extreme care must be taken not to overwater a 3" cell plug in young or dormant stages. Plants growing in larger containers can tolerate overwatering and will produce a fuller plant for summer or fall sales.) Start a “Great Plains/GreatPlants Patriot” program with GreatPlants® Releases, Introductions and "Plants of the Year" that are native to Nebraska or the Great Plains. By highlighting these Midwest plants, which are known to be well-adapted to the Plains climate, you help your customers show support for their state and their area of the country. This can be as simple as a “made in the Plains” display or plant list beside the register. Customers enjoy being patriotic to their area and being made to feel special. “Great Plains/Great Plants patriots” can be designated a special group with inexpensive rewards, such as a punch card with the 10th Great Plains/GreatPlant plant purchased at 50% off. Market the GreatPlants® for summer sales to help increase traffic flow during this slower period. Grow these showy plants in your display garden to demonstrate their ability to thrive during the hot, humid summer months. The GreatPlants Gardener, banners and book markers can be great handouts for your customers. Highlight or point out plants that you routinely sell or that are growing in the business’ garden and encourage customers to use the extensive plant lists to boost their garden (and your sales) throughout the season. Finally, plan exciting promotions for year-round enthusiasm! Conduct a Perennial or Plant of the Week sale.
Contact the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum for more information or to provide GreatPlants® Feedback--Please call Bob Henrickson at 402-472-7855 or e-mail rhenrickson2@unl.edu to comment on the program and to let us know how we can help your business.
The goal of the GreatPlants program is to bring superior ornamental landscape
plants into commercial production to meet the challenging growing conditions
of Nebraska and the Great Plains. We need your help in developing a list
of candidates for consideration as "Plant of the Year" candidates.
Your suggestions are important to the success of the program. The plants
should:
Be an underutilized tree, shrub or herbaceous perennial
Exhibit superior qualities for Nebraska landscapes: hardiness, adaptability
and appropriate for general landscape use
Be available from Midwest wholesale nurseries
Be available in landscape size stock.
Please take the time to submit your nominations for GreatPlants by filling
out the following form and returning it to: Bob Henrickson, University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, P.O. Box 830715, Lincoln, NE 68583-0715. Fax to 402-472-8095
or e-mail rhenrickson2@unl.edu
Tree of the Year
Comments/Experience with Plant
Shrub of the Year
Comments/Experience with Plant
Perennial of the Year
Comments/Experience with Plant