Why Accurate Plant Pricing Is Good for Everyone

We all want the best for our customers, but there are budgets to contend with. Landscape designers are all too familiar with that dance in which they attempt to balance the free flowing aesthetic aspirations of a landscaping project against the hard edges of the budget.

For growers specifically, the challenge is to figure out how we give the most value at a price that reflects the true cost of producing our products--and at a price point that is acceptable to the customer. That means the landscape designer or plant buyer must  be able to make the case to their customer that a better plant may cost a bit more than they expected it would.In both cases however, we must clearly define the concept of value--especially for the higher priced material, the specialty material, the hard to find material. And that is a good discussion to have with customers because it brings transparency to an issue nobody is eager to talk about. 

The first thing we need to understand about plant pricing is that many growers do not price correctly. And that makes it difficult for all of us to establish a standard that infuses the question of price with an understanding of value as it relates to price. If we were selling widgets on Amazon, it would be different. But we are not selling commodities. We are selling works of art. A landscape design is a work of art. A fully finished, meticulously cared for landscape plant is a living work of sculpture. Pretentious? A little bit, maybe. But think about it. What we sell to our customers is beauty and enjoyment that has lasting value to them. We are not in the commodities business and our interactions are not purely transactional. 

We all stand to benefit from high value plant material sold at prices that honestly account for what it takes to produce that value.

We hope that, by reading this short ebook, you will gain a fresh perspective on what goes into the making of a valuable landscape plant, and gain the insight needed to assess that value with confidence. 

The point is to be able to collect all the information needed to price different plants according to their differing costs of production. Some are fairly easy to produce. Others are risky and take more effort. It is imperative to have the facts in hand to make that distinction, rather than bundling it all up into an average cost that does not accurately reflect the individual value of individual plants.

When the grower has clarity on these building blocks of plant pricing as they relate to specific groups of plants in their inventory, it becomes possible to price each according to what they actually cost to produce. Obviously,  insects, disease, drought, too much rain, or other weather-related effects can put a dent in the best of pricing strategies. These wild card factors are important to acknowledge but no excuse for ignoring the question of fair and accurate pricing. Inaccurate pricing does a disservice to all of us.

Grower inconsistency is one of the biggest issues that is talked about in the industry. Buyers want a clear expectation year over year ordering the same plant. It should be as good this year as it was the year before. When a grower is able to achieve that, the price of the material takes second place to the value. There is tremendous value in that consistency that more than justifies the price.

Seeing value independently from price

It is important to develop the ability to see value separately from price--and there are only two ways to do that. Examine the plant at a show, or see it in the field during a nursery tour. And in both cases, interviewing the grower and asking the right questions is essential. 

When you speak with a grower, you will want to ask about how they manage inventory and the role that automation or technology plays in their operation. Indications of efficiency and a well- organized, systematic approach to all phases of production is what you want to hear. You’ll want to ask about...

How do you take inventory? Inventory is a massively time consuming endeavor that can involve many staff persons.  The results can be adversely affected due to multiple steps in the process being executed by different people who may not all be working from the same playbook. At Waverly Farm we found we were able to consolidate tasks and improve efficiency by contracting to have a cellphone application developed. Now, when we take inventory in the field, it  is uploaded directly to our website database.  Instantaneously, our inventory process became more streamlined and less time consuming. The margins for error in our plant pricing system were greatly reduced and the results more reliably  accurate. 

How do you manage productivity? When the correct equipment is chosen to reduce manpower, it offsets the negative effects of increasing labor costs and decreasing labor availability.  Planting, harvesting, and culling tasks can be accomplished more effectively and in less time. Larger growers can easily justify large investments in mechanization.  Smaller growers may feel they cannot play the game but with thoughtful integration of machines over time they can increase efficiency and productivity.

How do you ensure consistency?  It is a good sign if a grower has made investments in technology to make operations more efficient and sometimes more failsafe. At Waverly Farm we made the decision some years ago to invest in a remote-controlled wireless irrigation system. The system allows us to produce better plants while reducing water consumption and labor costs.

The grower’s process: all plants are not equal

To be able to justify plant pricing, you’ll want to find out as much as you can about the growing process. Once again, the only sure way to get this background information is to carefully quiz your grower at a plant show or, better yet, on a nursery tour.

You all know a beautiful well formed plant when you see it. But what you really want to know is can you get that quality every time, every year. That’s when the background knowledge helps you out. Knowing how the plant is produced and knowing how that grower operates is the key to valuation.

So. That plant that’s caught your attention--is it worth it? If your selection criteria is based on your customer expectations, the project specifications, and first hand knowledge of the grower you are ordering from--yes.

It is worth it because you aren’t just making a one-time purchase. You will see that accurate plant pricing represents the consistent quality you want. It means being able to return to that same grower each year and expect plant material of equal value.