Gardening Generations!

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Gardening Generations!
 

Industry debates how to make the youth of today into the gardeners of tomorrow and formalises 'Home Garden Group'


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The second International Home Garden Conference hosted by Fleuroselect in Leiden, The Netherlands on September 27th & 28th attracted 79 participants from 15 countries. Delegates ranging from packet seed wholesalers to pictorial packet printers to vegetable & ornamental breeders were assisted by world class speakers in debating the question: 'how to reach the younger generation?'


Alexey Suetin of NC Corporation
advised the conference that the Russian retail market is still relatively young, but developing at a rapid pace offering huge new opportunities  with consumers in all age groups eager for the latest novelties. He outlined the challenges faced in distribution in such a large geographic market.

Suttons Seed’s David Arnold clearly showed the opportunities to grow the gardening market in the UK through attracting and educating individuals in the 'marginal gardener' category. 41% of people would like to do more gardening and 64% of novice gardeners would like to do more, but feel intimidated by the gardening retail environment and their lack of knowledge. David reported on Suttons’s success with school gardening and suggested that gardening should be a key part of the school curriculum.

Guerrillagardening.org founder Richard Reynolds
showed how excitement can be generated through 'guerrilla gardening' which attracts young but also more experienced gardeners to cultivate neglected plots in urban areas. Actions such as 'pimp your pavement' grab media attention and raise awareness.

Social Media experts Daphne Medik, and Petra de Boevere shared success stories to illustrate how the power of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can aid communication with consumers and grow business. They also stressed the lower cost of promotion and the opportunity to develop new products and ideas through the network via 'Crowd Sourcing'.

Richard Flood of Seed Developments presented 'simplified sowing' for inexperienced, less skilled gardeners through the use of seed tapes, mats and discs. 'Making gardening easier' was identified as a key area for attracting youngsters and less confident consumers.

The design of packaging and the inherent wonder and value of seeds were the themes of trend watcher Sandra Kőnings' motivational talk. She encouraged the industry to 'wake-up' and modernise seed packet design whilst accusing retail seed houses of 'selling gold cheaply'. Number expert Simon Grindrod spoke of the huge opportunities for volume sales and innovative products with multiple retailers reporting that to appeal to younger audiences the term 'gardening' is perhaps better replaced by 'growing stuff'.

Promoting Home Gardening as being fun, easy, economical and valuable was the Logo Fleuroselectfinal goal set by the delegates who agreed on the formalisation of a Home Gardening Group hosted by Fleuroselect. A special membership rate for companies who have not yet joined the organisation will be available. For more information contact: info@fleuroselect.com.

The third International Home Garden Conference will be held in September 2012 at the Floriade Exposition in Venlo, The Netherlands.