Follow your heart, customers will follow too
April 27th, 2008On Friday, the sun was gleaming and there was a stiff breeze blowing.
I sat on the second row at the grand opening of the Fort Valley Nursery and Garden Center. Most often when people are attending events, they choose to sit near the middle or back. I guess 20 years of reporting took away any bashfulness. I like being able to see and hear everything.
On this day, I was treated to a beautiful setting. The garden center is covered and open at the same time. The speaker’s podium was decorated with beautiful spring flowers and in the background were rows and rows of flowering trees and shrubs just waiting to be planted.
Friday was Arbor Day and the State Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, Bob Bloxom, came to Woodstock to the nursery to speak at their grand opening. The new site has been open since late last year, but this was the official opening.
Others also spoke - the Fogle brothers, Terry and Randy, and Warren Schennum, are the co-owners of FVN. They all handle different parts of the business, but they all spoke with enthusiasm, gratitude and humility. They are hard-working people who always have time for their customers. Terry spoke of the people who frequent their establishment not being ordinary customers. “They are as excited and proud as we are,” he said to a warm affirmation from many of those gathered at the event.
Bloxom told the crowd that horticulture and nurseries, as well as wineries, are among the fastest growing segments of agriculture. Shenandoah County is the fifth most agricultural county in the state. He applauded the creativity of the folks at FVN who have combined nursery, landscaping and garden center with a cafe and unique and interesting retail items for decorating home and garden.
Customers can shop for plants and shrubs. Buy organic pesticides and garden tools. And if they grow weary, they can sit for a spell and enjoy the surroundings and an excellent cup of coffee and a homemade cookie or pastry.
Terry told me that when they started considering moving their business to a larger area, they investigated garden centers all over this country and others. They observed that several successful garden centers also offered food and drink (and the really successful ones created a partnership instead of trying to do everything themselves.)
What they have created at the Garden Center is a destination - a place for people throughout the Valley and beyond to come. From the knowledgeable and friendly staff to their extensive offerings, it is the place to go for answers to questions you don’t even know you have.
I took my parents there the next day and Mom not only found out why her lilac has bloomed for 10 years (not enough sun), but was able to purchase an organic product that Terry swears will keep the deer out of her flower beds. The deer have eaten her tulips so thoroughly the last few years that they didn’t even come up this year.
I think Terry and the rest should call themselves counselors. I worked with John for about a half hour one Saturday trying to determine what would be happiest in the flower bed in front of my home which gets afternoon sun filtered by a large oak tree. My limelight hydrangea not only bloomed, it thrived there.
I am pleased with the success of this venture because I have supported it as a customer and because I think that their initiative may spur others to consider options that stretch beyond what we expect and bring us something we didn’t even know we wanted. They followed their hearts and led straight to the hearts of their customers. That is what business should always be about.