Class Act

Ellen C. Wells

It’s January and many garden centers have gone quiet either from a lack of customers or from shutting their doors for the two slowest months of the year. This is not the case at Homestead Gardens with locations in Davidsonville and Severna Park, Maryland. Gene Sumi, Homestead Gardens’ educational coordinator and staff horticulturist, explains that the store’s educational programming is seasonal, just like the garden center business in general. But their busy time, session-wise, starts when other garden centers may be closed.

“We basically use this time for our pre-spring winter workshops,” he says. “People are suffering from cabin fever, and that’s exactly the time they want to sit down and learn before they go into the next growing season.” Gene says the standard set of winter educational sessions—pruning, vegetable gardening, edible fruit and so on—brings in newer gardeners. In addition to these classes, he makes sure to schedule in some new and different topics. “We take advantage of what’s hot, what’s of interest to people,” he says. Workshops on terrariums and fairy gardens held by the staff container specialist are popular during the winter months, too. “Those are the sorts of things ‘shut in’ people like to do,” he adds.

Once spring begins, Homestead Gardens highlights special events nearly every weekend in the spring and often during the summer and fall. Featuring topics from herbs and veggies to outdoor living to fall festivals, Homestead offers some type of session, workshop or DIY container planting coordinated with each theme.

The Golden Group
When asked about opportunities for growth in garden education programming in the face of a changing garden consumer, Gene immediately said Golden Spades. This is a monthly group meeting of folks 50 years old and older that began 8 years ago at the suggestion of older customers. “They said, ‘We are retired but we aren’t sitting around doing nothing. We’re quite busy and one thing we like to do when we have the time is garden,’” Gene explains. Being 50-plus opens the group up to affluent people and to a generation who appreciates gardening.

Each meeting has between 35 and 50 attendees, with new people coming each time. It’s a “down-and-dirty” 45-minute pre-planned program, Gene says, followed by a popular Q&A session, with folks bringing samples of sick plants and photos of insects. “This is what they love,” Gene says. “It has to be informal and non-restrictive. They don’t want to be part of a garden club. They want to know that next month they can come and hear something that sounds interesting and can bring stuff that I can give them advice on.”

Gene describes the Golden Spades as a captive audience. “Our marketing people have an opportunity to say a little bit about a new program and they ask what they think about it,” Gene explains. “It’s easy for them to get good and honest responses because these people know our store and each other.”

Jumping the Hurdles
Running an educational program is by no means simple. “The biggest issue is having a proper venue,” says Gene, referring to sessions that can draw up to 200 people. “We have to set up temporary tents to accommodate some programs and make the customers as comfortable as possible.” Workshops on terrariums and fairy gardens are less than 30 attendees, and those are often held in the greenhouse near the appropriate plants and accessories. Another challenge Gene faces is gauging how many people will attend. Pre-registration is encouraged, as it helps to allocate labor prior to the event.

“The biggest thing for us in the independent garden center business is to help the customer succeed,” says Gene. “The education program at Homestead Gardens strikes at the basic need of the customer who wants to know, who wants to trust and who wants to succeed—and he wants to do it face to face.” GP