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GCA Tour Early-Bird Discounted Rate Ends May 31 - Sign Up Now for Incredible Savings!

Indie garden center retailers from all across the country will get a jolt of retail inspiration on the 2019 GCA Summer Tour, June 23-26, in Nashville. The Music City-bound tour holds a dynamic mix of IGC retailers, eye-opening educational sessions daily and more opportunities for networking with owners and managers at each store than ever before. 

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With the 16th annual event fast approaching, the early-bird discounted rate for GCA Summer Tour Nashville ends May 31, so sign up now before time runs out! Register and read more about the featured destinations here.

 

Adding even more educational value this year are daily container-building demos with Sharon Hadden, who wowed audiences at the IGC Show last summer with her energetic workshops. She will reveal her latest recipes for Grab & Go container sales that will turn a fast profit at your store.

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Here are the specific topics Sharon will bring to life during her demos:

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Planting for Summer: Join Sharon as she demonstrates how she designs and plants multiple Grab & Go containers during the busy summer season. She will focus on sun-loving plants and varieties in this warm-weather-focused session.

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Sharon will invite some audience members to join her as she builds the container designs. She will demonstrate how she plants at speed to maintain stock for her busy Grab & Go department but also how to be consistent. Sharon will showcase the most popular looks for her garden center and what her customers keep coming back for. 

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Within the Grab & Go department, start at 10 inches and go up to 20 inches. Customers often purchase multiple containers to accommodate their needs. Sharon will show how to add plant material to your design recipe card as the range increases in size, so her customers can buy containers that follow a consistent design pattern even if they are multiple sizes. 

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We will see how her designs have led to the success of Allisonville's Grab & Go department, which continues to expand with a fourth year of increased growth.

 

Planting for Shade: â€‹Last year, the biggest increase in sales in Allisonville's Grab & Go department was in shade containers.
Sharon says, "We changed the way we looked at shade containers - people wanted more color, so we gave it to them and it worked, the complements keep flying in. We realized that no one was providing containers for shade or the ones we saw were boring so we took it as a challenge to see how much growth we could aim for and it worked."


Sharon is going to demonstrate how you can pack shade containers with color so they do not feel cheated and think that all they can have are shades of green. She will use interesting textures and colors to achieve bright designs that her customers

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are coming in to buy.

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Sharon will talk about varieties that she has been using and where her successes and failures were last year. She says, "Not everything worked, but we learned pretty quickly what was going to fly out of the door."

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Leave with lots of new ideas that will bring some changes to the way that you and your customers think about shade containers.

 

Using More than Just Flowers - Planting with Edibles: It was evident in 2018 that there was a shift toward using vegetables and herbs in container planting. "Many new varieties were shown that spoke to us to be incorporated in our Grab & Go containers," says Sharon. "We decided to put together some designs using vegetables and herbs for the container program for 2019."

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There is a trend toward vegetables being grown at home but not in the garden. Sharon will demonstrate where she is using herbs and vegetables in her container program and also as companion planting. She believes this is a growing trend and wants to stay ahead of the game for her customers by offering them the choice of having herbs and vegetables in planting combinations.

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Sharon uses conifers in many of her larger Grab & Go designs and will demonstrate how she incorporates them in her designs but also keeps her profit margins high.


This will be a fun demonstration as you learn to look at vegetables and herbs with new eyes and not just for sale in the "kitchen" section of your nursery.

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IGC retailers are encouraged to make their reservations at the Sheraton Grand Nashville Downtown now. Nashville is a popular summer destination and books up quickly, and hotel rates will quickly climb to $350 or higher. GCA Summer Tour Nashville is open to GCA members and non-members alike. Register today and enjoy early-bird savings before they run out on May 31 at www.GardenCentersofAmerica.com.

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AMERICA'S ONLY ASSOCIATION DEDICATED SOLELY TO THE NEEDS OF INDEPENDENT GARDEN CENTERS

Together We're Better!

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THE 2020 GCA SUMMER TOUR IS HEADED TO BOSTON!

Click HERE to Register!

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