GARDEN CENTERS OF AMERICA, LLC
DUNEDIN, FLORIDA

The national nursery industry used to be very oriented to growers, which was not unusual since most of the members in the late 40's and 50's were growers or a combination grower/retailer. The words "garden center", as applied to a nursery operation, were coined in the mid 50's and only came into their own in July 1972 when the Garden Centers of America formally became a part of the American Association of Nurserymen. Jack Schneider, owner of Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, California, was always very active in the local chapter of the California Association of Nurserymen and later served as President of the CAN. After the completion of his new garden center in 1956 he became well known in the national industry because of the innovative design of his garden center. Orchard Nursery was one of the first retail nurseries to sell garden furniture and start Christmas merchandising. The main purpose of the diversification in the late 50's was to fill the months when the plant business was very slow or nonexistent. It is important to remember that in the 50's there were not many vendors who sold items referred to as hard goods. Mr. Channing Jones of Ortho Chemical (formerly Standard Oil) sold agricultural chemicals; being more or less a neighbor to Orchard Nursery, and a customer, he realized the potential for having the Ortho products in a garden center. I believe credit goes to Mr. Channing for creating nationwide sales of the Ortho products. In addition, he was responsible for writing and distributing a booklet that described garden center designs based on new garden center projects that were done in the 50's. As time went on other vendors entered the garden center market helping to make the garden center more diversified and less seasonal. In February of 1958 John invited a group of garden center operators to his home in Dayton for a full-day conference. To the best of my knowledge the participants were: John Siebenthaler; Larry Bachman, from Bachman's in Minneapolis, MN; Frank Cornelius, from Cornelius Nurseries in Houston, TX; Merton Natorp, from Natorp Co., in Cincinnati, OH; Louis Hlllenmeyer, from Hillenmeyer Nurseries, Inc. in Lexington, KY; and Jack Schneider, from Orchard Nursery, in Lafayette, CA. During that meeting the seeds for Garden Centers of America were sown. The committee wrote a report to be presented to the Board of Directors at the AAN Convention in Dallas in July of 1958 that included the following items: Larry Bachman, Jack Schneider, and Its Uenaka, Cupertino Nursery, Cupertino, CA were the next chairmen. For over ten years Jack Schneider coordinated retail programs from his garden center office in Lafayette. The committee met at the AAN Convention, at the Refresher Course in Columbus, OH, and at times at the Mid Am Show, the retail program was presented at these AAN functions, all arranged by the committee. In response to the efforts of the Garden Center committee, more and more garden center operators attended the AAN meetings, and started networking when they realized they needed to become a strong organization under the AAN. After functioning for about 16 years as the Garden Center Committee, in July 1972 the committee became the official organization known as Garden Centers of America. Beginning in 1972 the ANLA provided administrative services, and provided a Director for the GCA. A good many people served as Director, almost everyone knows Clint Albin, who faithfully held the position for many years, and Nancy Jacks Montgomery, who served the industry in many capacities, followed him. We are grateful to these people and the leadership roles they performed. One of the first major accomplishments of Garden Centers of America, with the participation of the National Landscape Association, was to establish the Management Clinic in Louisville, Kentucky. As all of us know this yearly event has grown, with up to 1200 person now participating. In the first years the GCA Board of Directors did all the programming for the retails section and National Landscape Association (NLA) took care of the landscape programs. As time went on other groups participated, which was important because it allowed retailers to meet with growers and landscape people, and the industry began to be more unified as a group. GCA then arranged a joint Board meeting at Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, California, with the Wholesale Nursery Growers of America (WNGA) with the purpose of having the growers and retailers get to know each other to establish a better understanding about the others' business. This was highly successful, because both organizations need to learn about each other to survive in today's market. This interest in what others are doing has been demonstrated during the wholesale tours at the annual convention, when many retailers attend the wholesale tour. GCA also saw the need for improvements to the retail facilities and arranged for lecture on Garden Center Design. During Bob Lederer's terms as Executive Director of the then AAN, GCA arranged to have a two-day Garden Design Seminar prior to the Louisville Management Clinic and the Annual Convention. These seminars were given by my partner, Jack Klemeyer, and myself, and were so successful that they were also co-sponsored by the state nurserymen associations in various regions of the country. This GCA idea of having seminars prior to the start of main events became a standard for ANLA meetings, and has included an Ian Baldwin University Class. The GCA Board also spent a lot of time on how to benefit from computers and the subject of bar coding. They brought in experts to the Management Clinic to show their ware at a small trade show type exhibit and explain the various uses. We all know how important computer technology has become in the daily operation of today's garden center operation. The GCA Board of Directors, with the help of GCA members, developed a number of booklets on subjects such as Company Policy, Establishing and Operating a Garden Center, Operating Cost Studies, Retail Nursery Kit, Interviewing and Hiring Employees, Guide for New Employees, Orientation Manuals, Garden Center Job Descriptions, and a number of other subjects. The reader must realize that in the seventies and early eighties much of this information was not available for garden center operators. Our office has designed garden centers for 50 years; during that time the garden center industry has developed tremendously, and I think that GCA can take major credit for helping the industry grow. Two great achievements of GCA were the development of good programs for the various meetings, including speakers from various aspects of the retail industry and from other countries, and the Garden Center Tours.