For some time it has appeared the busiest stall at the local arboretum sales has been the one offering tomato plants. Sunset Publishing web site is listing altsroemeria hybrids, Abelia x grandiflora, lettuce and tomatoes as the most asked about kinds of plants.

Last year or so a major independent garden center here brought in a big line of Iseli conifers, set them up near the main entrance to the outdoor plants area. I haven't kept a written inventory but my general impression is that these have been a hard sell.

I went to a talk there by an Iseli rep. Afterward I heard a man out looking at the dwarf etc. conifers that had been moved to be near the speakers area harrumphing to his wife that he wasn't going to pay $89.00 for a shrub (he was looking at a maybe 3 gallon pot sized - I don't remember now - dwarf Korean fir cultivar that had been shown and talked about by the Iseli salesman).

Even small operators selling to a small segment of the gardening public have to be getting a certain minimum number of orders in order to stay open. Garden plants are subject to variations in tastes and availability of disposable income. For any given era it is actually possible to link kinds of plants with period architecture, as at the same time that everyone was building a certain style of house or hotel they were planting the same certain kinds of plants.

This post was edited by bboy on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 20:52

All three where past or close to retirement age. Eitherway all three are iconic conifer pioneers.

For the most part Iseli and Buchholz do a good job at the retail level.

Then you have Stanley, Conifer Kingdom and Western Evergreen as the mail order power houses for collectors.

Otherwise there is a mirad of other mail order companies that offer run of the mill selections and sometimes some very interesting gems.

I just hope the prices for conifers don't continue to inflate. A not so rare 1 gallon plant can run you $45-$50 shipped.

Song Sparrow is officially off their rocker selling a 2.6 qt conifer for $45 before shipping...wow.

I think this sort of marks the end of an era. Bob, Don, & Dennis are legends in the field, who made a huge impact. However, these nurseries were very old school, especially when it came to mail order. Because we all love conifers, it was never an issue to work through the two payment's of checks to cover the costs, but was never a scalable business model. This is where Conifer Kingdom has flipped the industry upside down. They have made it so easy and affordable for the enthusiast, collector, and retailer to easily pickup top quality, rare plants.

It seemed the sentiment in the industry has always been that mail-order was not profitable. One of the top local plantsman around here, told me back in 2011 that business was drying up. He said before the recession ordinary home owners had the equity to burn, and only wanted the best. They would request that there landscaper pickout unique plants that no one on their block would have, spending $20k sometimes. Since then, he claims everyone is just looking for the biggest, cheapest green blob they can find. He told me even Iseli was struggling at that point.

CK was very new to me then, but Brent had recently visited his nursery and we were talking about it. I asked him why he didn't try to focus more on the mail-order, since the large volume orders from wealthy home owners had washed up. I have no idea what % of CK's business comes from mail-order vs. retail/wholesale, but I would imagine it makes up a fair amount. They really are becoming the Amazon of the online plant business (good prices, low shipping costs, high quality, accept credit cards, easy payment, ect).

Also, saw a full, color page ad on the inside cover of Fine Gardening magazine the other day for Conifer Kingdom...looked great.

In recent years the Willamette Valley has had many acres of overgrown, unsold woody nursery stock in view, because it has been a down time for sales of woody plants in general. I am sure the small selections of large, cheap conifers that have been appearing each year at local big box stores are coming from Oregon fields that are being cleared of stock that did not sell at the usual prices.

A few independent garden centers here are still stocking and turning over full lines of trees and shrubs, including at least one that does not mark things down. Elsewhere these seem to be window dressing - as though the employees in charge of ordering haven't responded to the changed market - or instead a large part of the woody plant line has clearly been dropped. One chain store here has been offering mostly herbaceous plants in its plant departments for at least a few years now.

This post was edited by bboy on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 2:50