September 2012 Landscape Trades

PM40013519

September 2012 VOL. 34, NO. 7

landscapetrades.com

Are your snow prices competitive?

Non-competes:Limited protection better than none Cutting corners risks cutting profits

New perspectives on

RETAILNew perspectives on

RETAILMarket to today’s generationPOS investments that payAdapt display ideas: A portfolio

Market to today’s generationPOS investments that payAdapt display ideas: A portfolio

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INSIDE: Special Expo Preview section

SEPTEMBER 2012 | LANDSCAPE TRADES | 3

This month Landscape Trades focuses on ideas to help build a better business for your retail garden centre.

contents

SEPTEMBER 2012 VOL. 34, NO. 7

PUBLISHER Lee Ann Knudsen CLP | [email protected]

EdItORIAL dIRECtOR Sarah Willis | [email protected]

EdItOR Allan Dennis | [email protected]

WEB EdItOR Robert Ellidge | [email protected]

ARt dIRECtOR Kim Burton | [email protected]

GRAPHIC dESIGNER Mike Wasilewski | [email protected]

ACCOUNtANt Joe Sabatino | [email protected]

SALES MANAGER, PUBLICAtIONS Steve Moyer | [email protected]

COMMUNICAtIONS ASSIStANt Shawna Barrett | [email protected]

AdVISORy COMMIttEE Gerald Boot CLP, Laura Catalano, Hank Gelderman CHT, Marty Lamers, Jan Laurin, Warren Patterson, Bob Tubby CLP

Landscape Trades is published byLandscape Ontario Horticultural trades Association7856 Fifth Line South, Milton, ON L9T 2X8Phone: (905)875-1805 Email: [email protected]: (905)875-0183 Web site: www.landscapetrades.com

LANdSCAPE ONtARIO StAFFDarryl Bond, Laura Brinton, Tony DiGiovanni CHT, Denis Flanagan CLD, Sally Harvey CLT CLP, Helen Hassard, Jane Leworthy, Heather MacRae, Kristen McIntyre CHT, Kathy McLean, Linda Nodello, Kathleen Pugliese, Paul Ronan, Ian Service, Tom Somerville, Martha Walsh

Landscape Trades is published nine times a year: January, March, April, May, June, July/August, September, October and November/December.

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All rights are reserved. Material may not be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Landscape Trades assumes no responsibility for, and does not endorse the contents of, any advertisements herein. All representations or warranties made are those of the advertiser and not the publication. Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the association or its members, but are those of the writer concerned.

ISSN 0225-6398 PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES AGREEMENT 40013519RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO:CIRCULAtION dEPARtMENt LANdSCAPE tRAdES MAGAZINE7856 FIFtH LINE SOUtH, MILtON, ON L9t 2X8, CANAdA

FEATURES6 diamonds in the roughA retail portfolio: Repurposing great business ideasBY DAVID DOMONEY

8 technology boosts business performanceInvesting in a POS system is a wise management moveBY JOHN STANLEY

12 Idea exchangeLay the groundwork for next spring at Expo 2012

14 Reach your target marketBuild business by telling a great story through social mediaBY DOUG GREEN

18 tips on marketing to millennialsOFA short course gives attendees a competitive edgeBY SARAH WILLIS

COLUMNS 34 SUStAINABLE LANdSCAPING Underused fall foliage starsBY SEAN JAMES

38 MANAGEMENt SOLUtIONS Find the sweet spot in snow bidsBY MARK BRADLEY

36 LEGAL MAttERS Enforcing a non-compete clauseBY ROBERT KENNALEY

40 ROAd tO SUCCESS Shortcuts don’t pay dividendsBY ROD McDONALD

DEPARTMENTSGREEN PENCIL 4INDUSTRY NEWS 22NEW PRODUCTS 32PROVINCIAL NEWS 43

CNLA NEWS 24COMING EVENTS 44CLASSIFIEDS 44WHERE TO FIND IT 46

In this issue:EXPO SHOW PREVIEW

Pages 25-31

LANDSCAPE TRADES: EXPO 2012 SPECIAL | 1

OCTOBER 17 & 18, 2012 TORONTO CONGRESS CENTRE, NORTH BUILDING, TORONTO, ONTARIO CANADA

www.loexpo.ca

Moving your business forwardCanada’s fall show for the Garden and Floral Industry

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Focus on RETAIL

4 | SEPTEMBER 2012 | LANDSCAPE TRADES

By Sarah Willis

greenpencil

Canadian industry stays one step ahead of the curve

New thinking for 2013

By Sarah Willis

I’ve sat in on enough meetings to know the horticulture industry is made up of small busi-ness owners who are independent thinkers. Gather a group of business owners, and you will rarely get a con-sensus on anything.

However, everyone agrees that our markets are changing. The service industry is operating in a new

paradigm, and many entrepreneurs are unsure where to go.

An afternoon-long summit at the OFA Short Course in July, fea-tured four eloquent and influential industry speakers, trying to corral the ideas of over 100 entrepre-neurs. The session was moderated by green industry economist Char-lie Hall of Texas A&M University. As the afternoon progressed, it struck me how much work Canadian

green industry leaders have already done, and how much they are getting right.

Brian Minter, of Minter Country Garden, in Chilli-wack, B.C., is an outspoken critic of the industry, yet has a wealth of ideas and suggestions for success. He said, “Every business in the country is changing and looking for new growth opportunities.” Not limit-ing his examples to green industry companies, he cited McDonalds as daring to change up its offerings and creating McCafes to appeal to a different audience, and increase market share.

Minter says our job is to make plants matter to people, adding the opportunity is there, it’s ours to lose. He thinks the best recession-proofing any of us can do is to position plants as necessities in people’s lives, not luxuries.

To that end, Minter asked his U.S.-based audience, “What is the green industry doing in terms of consistent messaging?” His answer, “Nothing, we are a bunch of

independents too stubborn to work together.” However, in Canada nine provincial horticultural trade associa-tions have worked together to adopt the Green for Life brand, and their members now collectively promote the same message across Canada in everything they do.

Another panellist, retail consultant Stan Pohmer, suggested we need to connect within our own communities. Important takeaways were getting to know customers personally, keeping a record of their past sales and capturing contact information, so it can be used to reach out personally, efficiently and electronically. A POS system is the best way to capture all that information, and is a great business management tool as well. If you are one of the 49 per cent of Canadian garden centres currently not using POS, read John Stanley’s article on page eight, and take the plunge.

An audience member suggested working with lo-cal schools to connect with your community. We’re one step ahead of you in Canada. The CNLA’s National Tree Day initiative matches up schools with a local member willing to donate and plant a tree on Septem-ber 26, 2012.

Marvin Miller, market researcher with the Ball Horticultural Company, spoke about providing custom-ers with an authentic experience. Make plants matter to people and tell your story, he said. Doug Green offers a lesson on presenting your authentic story with social media on page 12.

Miller wrapped up his thoughtful presentation by noting we’ve forgotten about customer service. His ad-vice was to share our passion for this industry. “Passion is infectious,” he noted. “Passion can be quiet or loud. Quiet passion can be inside, exude from every pore. Passion can influence and inspire customers. If cap-tured, quiet passion would make for an authentic place of business.” And that, we can all agree on. LT

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A simple stand selling birdhouses and birdfeeders. What really brings the idea to life is a recorder playing birdsongs hidden be-hind the merchandising rack. Whilst you’re walking around the shop, you hear this birdsong, you are naturally drawn towards it and when you arrive, it is selling the products to attract them into your own garden, which is a very clever idea. At the front there is also a little video square that shows the different birds you’re hear-ing, and also recommends the ideal bird house to attract them into your own garden.

U.K. retail expert presents a wealth of new ideas for your storeBY DAVID DOMONEY

Stage a retail

David Domoney’s keynote presentation at Expo 2012, features varieties of retail ideas from America, Italy, Dubai, Egypt, India, Russia and a whole host of other countries, packed with anecdotes and clever ideas for you to be able to adapt and take back into your own business. It’s an immensely amusing, energetic presentation. His TV show Love your Garden attracts an estimated 4.5 million viewers as it creates stunning gardens for deserving people.

Don’t miss David’s presentation at Expo 2012, at 7:30 a.m. on October 17. Registration is open at www.loexpo.ca.

U.K. garden designer, television presenter and garden retail expert David Domoney looks for effective, inspirational ideas from his travels, that can be adapted as clever marketing or sales initiatives in garden centres. With an extensive background in garden centre management, Domoney believes that answers to business conundrums, sales drives and marketing are out there, just waiting to be stolen or adapted from retailers, businesses and leisure organisations in other sectors. All you need is the vision to spot these diamonds in the rough.

To help bring this fresh new outlook to garden retailers, Landscape Trades is sponsoring Domoney’s keynote presentation, Diamonds in the Rough, at Landscape Ontario’s Expo 2012.

To give readers an idea of what to expect, Landscape Trades asked Domoney for a preview of some inspirational retail initiatives he’s spotted on recent trips in and around the U.K.

the next idea is seating. Inside this stylish café, serving juices and milkshakes, they’ve actually got the back end of a motorised scooter to act as a seat. It’s funky; it’s energetic, its eye catching and always draws the crowd. It’s innovative thinking to create something chic and inspirational.


this is a garden shed pharmacy. Instead of having nor-mal sterile racks for garden chemicals, the garden retailer has a plant advice centre inside a cupboard. When somebody brings in a plant problem, be it a pest or a disease, the retailer identifies the problem, and then with a touch of theatre opens up the pharmacy cabinet, revealing a whole host of cures.

Check out this water butt, in the shape of a butt. It’s all about bring-ing energy to your store and look-ing at new innovative ideas, and this particularly caught my at-tention. A water butt in the shape of a butt, equipped with its own tattoo saying ‘butt’ with a few Celtic bands at the top and the clever positioning of the tap makes it a great deal of fun. It’s all about the attitude and amusement into the garden, and I felt that this one certainly caught the attention of passers by.

Bringing entertainers into retail has often been identified as great fun. It turns the retail unit itself into some form of theatre. This guy here is a juggler and comedian, and he travels around the centre balancing various vegetables on his nose, fill-ing his mouth with water and acting as his own water feature. He is full of other tricks packed into the basket to entertain both adults and children, effectively bringing an element of fun to a day out. It’s about enjoying the whole experience of retail, also creating a noticeable splash of marketing without spend-ing too much money.

there are many noticeable examples of this around the world, where eye catching displays, merchandising and sales signage has been highlighted by a bit of imagina-tion. An example here in a shop where the autumn range has been highlighted by a series of four umbrellas and the word ‘sale’ painted on the top. It’s fun, innovative and in-expensive and adds a touch of daring designer to highlight the retail activity. LT

this retailer called Hot topic is selling a variety of collectables. The whole front of the store is decorated as an Alice in Wonderland entrance. Before you even step inside, you have enhanced the cus-

tomer’s expectation and it’s all about effectively using the front door as the draw into your business.

toilets are perhaps some of the most unimaginative sections of any form of retail or business. We think ourselves, if the facilities in a restau-rant are clean and tidy, the restaurant feels fresh. If it’s not, we get the re-verse effect. This picture was taken in Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, where they have created these beautiful warm walls of tulips to, shall we say, give an element of chic and style even in the most discreet places.


SOLD on POS systems

Technology investments will boost business performance

BY JOHN STANLEY

I went to a shop recently where the sales assistant made the sale, and then wrote down the article she had sold before she handed it to the consumer. The consumer stood there and got frustrated while she managed her stock control system by hand. I, for one, would avoid that retailer in the future.

The irony is that in 1879, when Dayton, Ohio, in-ventor James Ritty invented the cash register, he was not intending to improve the customer experience. He invented it to stop staff stealing the money.

We have come a long way since then, and now my local hardware store has a self-scanning system.

If yOu CANNOT MEASuRE, yOu CANNOT MANAGEEvery retailer is aware that retail is detail. Detailed information that can be measured, and provides in-formation to run the business, is valuable in these more difficult trading periods.

Modern retailing is a combination of the art of

Retailing is one of the oldest trades known to mankind. I remember the days when some retailers used to collect money, place it in a shoe box, and then count it up at the end of the day. As long as the business stayed small, they kept in touch with the transactions and had an understanding of the business.

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display and the science of retail manage-ment.

The Point Of Sale system (POS) is vital to running a business. It has long moved on from a piece of equipment solely used for taking money. Like the smart phone, many people will argue that the thing they do least on it, is to phone somebody. The POS is exactly the same.

The right point of sale system is not a cost to the business, it is a saver of money. No point of sale system should be looked as a cost. If it is, it is the wrong system, or is be-ing used in the wrong way.

Before you purchase a system you need to list the things you want it to do. Only then can you talk to an agent and get the advice you need to ensure you are getting the sys-tem best suited to your business.

MAxIMISING STOCK TuRNHow many products have you got in stock, how many have you sold, and how many do you need to buy? This is one of the real chal-lenges of a retailer. In the old days, the only

way of getting a real picture of what was go-ing on was to go out and physically count items in inventory. This was laborious, time wasting and rarely accurate.

This is one task that can be made a lot easier. The key is to make sure you are input-ting accurate information, and then you can get accurate information out. I have clients who tell me that they reduced their stock-holding by at least 20 per cent, once they had introduced a POS system that could monitor nursery or garden centre stock management. This is a substantial saving, and means that product also looks fresher, as the slower movers are identified and man-aged accordingly.

MANAGING One of the easiest ways of improving perfor-mance in your business is to know how you are performing.

Once team members can work out the average sale per customer and the average sale per square metre, they can put actions into place to increase those performance


indicators. I remember working with a gar-den centre where the owner did not believe that the staff should be provided with per-formance figures. His concern was that they might tell his competition. After convincing him that it was essential to let the team know the figures, he told the team and planned to introduce a training program. Once the team knew the figures, and even before he introduced the training program, the aver-age sale went up 15 per cent. The team had a measuring stick they could use, and start-ed wanting to help customers more, and watched the customer count and average sale increase.

BENCHMARKINGRetailing today is tougher that it has ever been. Retailers need to be able to share ideas and information to judge how they are per-forming in comparison to the overall indus-try. This is where benchmarking is such a valuable tool. Once you can measure your-self against the rest of the industry, you have reassurance of how you are performing. If you are underperforming, you can instantly do something about it.

Benchmarking is one of the most valu-able tools that you can have as a business. It helps and reassures you that you are per-forming at peak performance.

To the retailers who have not developed a point of sale system for their own busi-ness, there is good news and there is bad news: The good news is that you must have a system to move your business forward, and the system is an investment that will save you a lot of money over the years. The bad news is, that for the first year, it takes a lot of time and effort to get to where you want to be. “Do not give up” is the only advice I can offer.

The longer you leave it before you jump into a POS system, the more difficult it be-comes. If you have not jumped, my advice is, “jump now.” LT

John Stanley is a consultant, author, trainer

and speaker specializing in perishable retailing.

Many of his clients have gone on to win industry

awards after his coaching.

18598 Advent Road

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Canada, V3Y 2G8

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FONT DISCLAIMER: The fonts and related font software included with the attached electronic mechanical are owned (“Y&R Proprietary Fonts”) and/or licensed (“Y&R Licensed Fonts”) by The Young & Rubicam Group of Companies ULC. They are provided to you as part of our job order for your services, and are to be used only for the execution and the completion of this job order. You are authorized to use the Y&R Proprietary Fonts in the execution of the job order provided that any and all copies of the Y&R Proprietary Fonts shall be deleted from your systems and destroyed upon completion of this job order. You warrant and represent that you have secured the necessary licenses for the use of Y&R Licensed Fonts in order to execute our job order and will abide by the terms thereof.

B26406 REV 1

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Thought leaders and new products on tap

Spring of 2012 is over; it’s time to revitalize your retail strategy at Expo.

Depending on what part of the country you are in, the weath-er was a boon or bane to business. However, weather is only one factor affecting who shops at your store, when, and what they buy. On Oct. 17 and 18, Landscape Ontario’s Expo 2012 provides two days of total business immersion for garden re-tailers, florists and interior landscapers.

“Every year brings something new to Ontario’s vibrant horticulture and floriculture industry,” says Heather MacRae, Landscape Ontario’s director of events and trade shows. “For those in the industry, Expo is the ideal opportunity to begin marketing efforts for 2013 and discover the emerging trends that will be in demand at garden centres, florist and mass mer-chants next spring.” The show takes place in the North Build-ing of the Toronto Congress Centre.

The schedule for this year’s show is jam-packed with infor-mative seminars and special events beneficial to garden, floral and nursery businesses. It kicks off at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, with a powerhouse presentation by U.K. gardening guru David Domoney, who will use ideas gleaned from his travels to illustrate how you can set your retail operation apart by giving it personality. See his article on page 6, for a sneak peek of some great ideas you can repurpose within your own company. Accompanying Domoney’s presentation will be the Garden Centre and Grower Awards of Excellence ceremony, honouring successful marketing initiatives, merchandising and expertise in growing.

The following day will feature an intense yet entertaining session on Planning for Profits presented by two dynamic

women, Jill Jensen founder of Jill Jensen Botanical Specialties, and Sue Blaney of Lechuza Canada, a lifetime entrepreneur and international traveler. Garden centre retailers and florists, as well as interior, floral and landscape designers will find this session inspiring.

Jensen and Blaney plan to sow the seeds of future profitabil-ity within their audience, noting that difficult challenges face many in the floriculture and interior landscaping industry. “The goal of achieving and sustaining enhanced profitability in a diverse and competitive marketplace can be helped by im-proving how we address some of these challenges internally within our companies.” explains Jensen. “For example, adapt-ing to, and incorporating into sales, new and cutting-edge gar-dening and interior design trends, effectively communicating to customers and staff about the range of products, services, industry standards and best practices available, and the on-going application of such resources, knowledge and skills to improve the consumer’s experience provides opportunities open to all industry professionals to improve company per-formance and competitiveness.”

Throughout both days, dynamic half-hour demonstrations run at Destination Inspiration Theatre, including sessions on Urn your profits, Contain-er your tropicals and Marketing musts.

Expo 2012 is an ideal venue for people from every segment of the floriculture/horticulture industry to gather to find in-spiration, creative merchandising concepts, and participate in professional development programs to enhance their knowl-edge and career opportunities. Take the opportunity to meet and get advice from leading industry experts and vendors who offer innovative ideas, fresh approaches, new products, tools and connections that will help grow your business.

To register for Expo or one of its associated events, visit www.loexpo.ca. LT

The ambience at ExPO is unique, with overhead lights turned off, and over 250 exhibitors in the spotlight.

http://www.horttrades.com/expo-2012-for-loexpoca---schedule

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Eighteen months ago I gave a failure of a talk to a group of nursery and garden centre people; in my opinion, it bombed spectacularly. I was asked to talk about social media, and led them through a process for success, but it was only when I got to the last step they perked up. This was the step that was the actual activity; the Facebooks, YouTube, etc., and what they wanted were the tips to succeed with activities. The point I couldn’t get across properly, and I want to make clear here, is that unless you’re using social media in the right way, with some understanding and method, then the “how” you use it won’t work as well as you’d like.

My first seminar point was and is the most impor-tant, “It’s all about the story.” What story you tell and how you tell it, is the single most-critical aspect of your social marketing activity.

PICTURES wITh wORDSLet me give you an example. When I had a nursery, my story was that, “if another garden centre had it, it was too common for us.” We were the place to go for the new, the rare and the unusual. We were also the place to go if you wanted incredible quality, as we grew it all ourselves — charging accordingly. And, if you wanted colour co-ordinated baskets to match the Color Council, we were

Cut through the chatter surrounding success in social media: truth and colour will actually get you there.

The right strategy is as old as the craft of storytelling. BY DOUG GREEN

Crafting a good tale

the place. My story was about being unusual and help-ing gardeners to grow it, being new, with plants nobody had, and exclusive colour combinations and sizes you couldn’t get elsewhere. And most importantly, we lived our story — we helped, we demonstrated our plants and how they grew in trial and test gardens, we taught gar-deners the basics and the advanced skills. Note pricing wasn’t part of our story, as we charged more 20 years ago than many garden centres are charging now.

We filled a church hall every year with a seminar that sold out within 24 hours of being announced, and ev-erybody brought their own lunch and extra cookies to share with the leading plant experts I brought in. The cookie table along an entire wall of the church hall was a groaning board delight, and that, too, was part of the story. We were real people who liked cookies and my kids (who ran the door and helped out) were let loose with the leftovers (again part of the story of the day).

We told our story in our advertising and print news-letter that was sent out to customers who signed in dur-ing the spring. The spring edition would have a cou-pon in it for returning customers for a free “new plant” introduction (I bought cartons of cuttings of one of the new varieties and customers left clutching a plant that nobody in their neighborhood had) but that was the ex-

16 | SEPTEMBER 2012 | LANDSCAPE TRADES 16 | SEPTEMBER 2012 | LANDSCAPE TRADES

tent of the “selling.”It was about the story we told and the

story we presented when customers came to our family nursery: 20,000 square feet of greenhouses and an equal-sized outdoor re-tail area, stuffed with 1,600-1,800 varieties of perennials and 600-800 varieties of annuals, together with the newest and rarest (and yes, the bread and butter) plants you could get within 200 miles.

CONTENT IS kINgIf I were still in the nursery business today, that’s the story I would be telling in social media. I’d be telling how to grow things,

how to do things, how to solve gardening problems. I’d be adding a ton of value to my customer base.

It’s the kinds of things I try to do as a writer as well. My story is different now — a bit of a curmudgeonly, plant-expert, shar-ing 35 years of in-the-trenches type of gar-dening. Somebody who’s been there, grown and killed that, sharing the vast resources gathered over a lifetime of professional gardening, presenting it all with a sense of humour.

The fun thing — both stories are true. Both ring with authenticity. I don’t have to “market” and promote in the advertising manner because my stories to my readers are true and represent my brand as a writer. My only challenge is presenting the “me” hon-estly and openly without compromising my need for privacy in this day of instant access, as well as trying to respond to the demands for information from the large audience of readers that has resulted.

When it comes to the practical, I took a leap of faith dropping the prepared video (and associated editing) while substituting my cell phone for in-garden quick videos

of specific plants and things I’m doing. For something I need two hands for, I use my iPad on a tripod, and if I’m being formal, I use the Teleprompter App with my iPad. But the amount of editing I do is next to noth-ing. I show weeds, I show mistakes, I show great plants and what’s going on without the benefit of fixing it all up or taking angled shots to make things look great. What you see is what you get — indeed it’s cinema verite in the garden. But I get away with this because of my brand — my story is about being a plantsman and sharing real garden-ing information. It’s not about the studio, it is about me being me and sharing real information. Some viewers comment they want more polish and more professional-ism. Okay, some readers don’t like my writ-ing either. Move on, they’re not going to be my fans.

Here’s the most important part. Unless you create a story, indeed a unique story dif-ferent from your competitors, and live that authentic story, your customers will decide what your story is (there’s always a story). And, if they decide your story is the same as your competition or the same as the big box store … well, then you have a problem.

TOTAL EXPERIENCEFinally, if you think advertising tells a story, you aren’t paying attention. The story is started the instant the customer sees your sign, the lead sentence is your parking lot and everything she does between then and the final period as she pulls back out into traffic is your story. Your challenge is to both tell an authentic story, one that will be true in your garden centre, and one that will want to make her hear more. To be authentic, your advertising has to reflect your story. If there’s a disconnect between the two, again your customer will write your story for you.

I understand this isn’t traditional adver-tising and marketing, but this is the essence of what the new social media is about. If you intend to use social media as part of your marketing mix, then you have to get your story and your in-store customer experience to line up. LT

Doug Green is an award-winning garden writer

who ran his own nursery in Athens, Ont.,

for over 20 years. He now operates an online

gardening publishing company at

www.simplegiftsfarm.com.

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The Ohio Florist Association Short Course is held ev-ery July in Ohio. The event is produced for nursery and greenhouse growers, florists and garden retailers. It fea-tures more than 200 seminars and workshops, a seven-acre trade show floor, as well as tours of local businesses.

MARKETING TO MILLENNIALSThis year’s keynote speaker was Joe Lamp’l, a U.S. garden media personality. Lamp’l spoke about his quest to draw the Millennial demographic, those between the ages of 17 and 34, to gardening. After hosting several network garden shows, Lamp’l decided to produce and write his own television show that would appeal to this younger generation. Growing a Greener World is now in its third season, and Lamp’l shared some of the lessons he’s learned.

First of all, he let the Baby Boomers in the room (him-self included) know that they are “has beens.” The Mil-lennials, also known as Generation Y, are now the mov-ers and shakers of society, and as they are a large cohort and our future customers, all sectors of the industry need to learn how to market to this group. “We are all in this together,” he said urging cooperation within the sector groups.

First we have to understand the Millennials, which Lamp’l says operate differently than any other genera-tion. Lamp’l cited a study by the Pew Research Center which shows that, as a group, the Millennials are marry-ing later in life, are well-educated, community oriented and self-expressive. They use art, decorating, cooking, and piercing and tattooing as methods of self expression. They have a positive outlook on life; however, they have

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more debt and therefore less disposable in-come. This is concerning because they are our future customers.

Lamp’l explained that his research showed he needed to use a different ap-proach to reach the Millennial cohort. They aren’t really interested in gardening, but are passionate about cooking and sustainability, so he realized he had to “come in through the back door with his message.”

The gardening industry needs to learn from the food industry, which Lamp’l says has studied and embraced its customers. “It has created rock stars out of chefs and made cooking sexy and hip. Research shows Millen-nials want to slow down and experience life, and cooking creates a total sensory integra-tion that appeals, and is marketed, to them.

“We need to make plants and gardens cool, sexy and hip,” says Lamp’l. “The media is not helping, so we need to do it ourselves. We need to create the ‘foodie’ of gardening.” Lamp’l admits to having a difficult time coming up with the perfect, simple descrip-tive word that will embrace a love of garden-ing just like ‘foodie’ describes an apprecia-tion for food. Any suggestions?

The Millennials love a good story. They like to build local connections and we need to capitalize on that – to create community, tell our stories, and make our names known. Lamp’l says people buy a difference, not a similarity, so reach out and demonstrate how you are different from the mass mer-chandisers.

Millennials have embraced the expres-sion, “the joy is in the journey,” and want to slow down – rejecting their parents’ worka-holic lifestyle. They are looking for projects and causes. We need to remind them that gardening is an ideal outlet for self-expres-sion. They can grow their own fresh local food, prepare, share and enjoy it.

Millennials can be reached primarily through mobile technology. They are always online through their smart phones, which are rarely used for talking. Lamp’l suggested that all sectors need to create mobile mes-saging to draw this group to the garden.

BEyOND BASIC CONTAINERSAnother presenter at the OFA Short Course was Christina Salwitz, known for the fabu-lous containers she builds at garden centres

on the west coast of the U.S. In addition to being a container designer, Salwitz is a per-sonal garden coach and teaches retailers how to create and sell stunning containers.

Salwitz shared some of her tips for in-creasing container sales, accompanied with a pictorial presentation of her work that wowed her audience.

At the garden centres she works with, Sal-witz suggests three levels of containers: small, simple, but effective grab-and-go containers for under $20 that someone might pick up for a hostess gift or a centrepiece; mid-range containers for $25-$80; and, high-end con-tainers that start at $100.

For fabulous containers, Salwitz says you must start with a great pot — chose some-thing with style. She tends to work with black, dark green and teal pots. She recog-nizes that west coast designers can take ad-vantage of better container pricing, as they don’t have to incur the costs of transporting heavy shipping crates across the country. She explained her teal pot theory, saying it is a “happy marriage colour,” as it goes with everything. “I dare you to find a plant colour that doesn’t go with teal.”

Good container design follows the rule of threes: three textures, three colours and three heights in each container. As many pot collections come in various sizes, Salwitz will often design three different sized containers and sell them as a poppa, momma and baby.

She also designs groups of containers with specific demographics in mind. Con-tainers for young families will incorporate edibles, while containers for singles in a con-dominium will be more architectural and low maintenance.

Salwitz has yet to meet a plant she can’t use in a container. Annuals, perennials, trop-icals, evergreens, edibles and shrubs are all creative fodder. She uses one-gallon nursery stock in many of her pots, and notes it can increase larger shrub sales, since customers often want to plant the same shrub in their garden as they have in their patio containers.

For the do-it-yourselfer, she creates a huge display dummy pot and makes sure the plants used in the design are all merchan-dised around it. If a customer wants the con-tainer planted up, she adds 15 per cent to the retail cost of the plants as a rule of thumb.

To see some of Christina Salwitz’s favou-rite designs, find her on Pinterest, pinterest.com/growcoach/container-gardening-ideas/.LT


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Greenleaf Nursery, Co. (800) 777-5172 OKMonrovia (800) 999-9321 CAPrides Corner Farms (860) 642-7535 CTSheridan Nurseries, LTD. (905) 873-0522 ONSpring Meadow Nursery, Inc. (liners) (800) 633-8859 MIWilloway Nurseries, Inc. (866) 934-4435 OHBailey Nurseries (651) 768-3373 MNBylands Nurseries, LTD. (250) 769-4466 BCCanadale Nurseries, LTD. (519) 631-1008 ONClinton Nurseries (800) 399-3000 CTEuro American (760) 731-6029 CAFisher Farms LLC (503) 985-7561 ORFour Star Greenhouse, Inc. (734) 654-6420 MIHopewell Nursery (856) 451-5552 NJHackney Nursery (800) 622-8605 FLImperial Nurseries, Inc. (860) 653-4541 CT

Leo Gentry Wholesale Nursery (503) 658-6324 ORLoma Vista (800) 313-7010 KSMariani Nurseries (866) 627-4264 ILMedford Nursery (800) 443-3314 NJMidwest Groundcovers (847) 742-1790 ILMori Nurseries (905) 468-3217 ONOverdevest Nursery (856) 451-3179 NJPleasant View Gardens (603) 435-8361 NHRobert Baker Nursery (860) 668-7371 CTStudebaker Nurseries (937) 845-3816 OHTri B Nursery (918) 772-3428 OKVan Belle Nursery (604) 853-3415 BCVan Essen Nursery (541) 258-3626 ORWillowbend Nursery (440) 259-5472 OHWolke Nursery (217) 844-3661 ILZelenka Nurseries (616) 844-9414 MI

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industrynewsNew products, networking and professional development opportunities on tap at Canwest hort Show BC Landscape & Nursery Association warmly wel-comes you to Western Canada’s premier horticul-ture trade show, CanWest, to be held September 19 and 20 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. New show hours this year run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A stellar lineup of speakers tackling the issues, challenges, and newest opportunities today will help build your business and boost your profes-sional development. Source new suppliers at more than 350 booths, and spend valuable networking time with colleagues. Check out the latest prod-ucts and take advantage of show specials and a chance to win a $3,000 dream vacation! Enjoy a post-show tour of Vancouver’s Landscape Awards of Excellence winning projects or the Edible Gar-den Project, or unwind having fun on the Fraser Valley Wine Tour.

CanWest has made every effort to help make travelling to and staying in Vancouver affordable for exhibitors and delegates. West Jet is offering a 10 per cent discount on flights. Call 1-888-493-7853 and quote CC7454. Reasonable rates have been secured with a number of hotels. Check out the CanWest website at www.canwesthortshow.com for a list of hotels offering preferred rates.

wCTA and STA announce strategic partnershipThe Western Canada Turfgrass Association (WCTA) and Sports Turf Association (STA) are pleased to announce the formalization of a partnership agreement between the two organizations.

The WCTA mandate includes the promotion of further education, turfgrass research, and the exchange of information related to turfgrass man-agement, and recognizes within its membership a Sports Turf Managers Group. By partnering with the STA, these members will now have greater ac-cess to specialized education, professional devel-opment and resources in this sector niche.

The Sports Turf Managers Group will be able to complement the benefits offered by their regional association by enjoying reduced membership rates in the Sports Turf Association, the non-profit professional association dedicated solely to the promotion of better, safer sports turf. Moving for-ward, the WCTA will be the conduit for STA mem-bership originating in the provinces of British Co-lumbia and Alberta. The associations will explore joint educational and professional development opportunities.

Plan to profit in 2013 by attending hNAHardscape North America, to be held October 25 and 26 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky., is the tradeshow for hardscape con-tractors and distributors. Its format allows you to build a show schedule around your specific busi-ness needs. Again this year, the co-location with GIE+EXPO will create one immense marketplace for this growing industry.

With more than 750 exhibits to see, HNA allows you to research products that will add productivity and profits to your business. Looking for the latest innovations that the industry will be buzzing about in 2013? The New Products Showcase features products from some of the industry’s leading sup-

pliers with tested brands, as well as new companies look-ing to make a big splash. A 19-acre outdoor demo park is located just steps away from the indoor exhibits and will give you the chance to kick the tires and “test drive” the products of more than 100 suppliers for two full days.

Your HNA trade show reg-istration includes access to two days of hardscape-spe-cific installation demonstra-tions, where you’ll learn the latest best-practice secrets and techniques shared by

experts in the field. Visit www.hardscapena.com for more information or to register.

European Union campaigns for better soil protectionSoil sealing, covering the ground with an imper-meable material, is one of the main causes of soil degradation in the European Union (EU). Soil seal-ing affects fertile agricultural land, puts biodiversity at risk, increases the risk of flooding and water scarcity, and could contribute to global warming. According to the European Environment Agency, since the mid 1950s the total surface area of cities in the EU has increased by 78 per cent, whereas the population has grown by only 33 per cent.

The European Commission proposes that by 2020, EU policies take into account their impacts on land use, with the aim to achieve no net land take by 2050. A study of land take and soil seal-ing trends resulted in guidelines on best practice to limit, mitigate or compensate soil sealing. The guidelines collect examples of policies, legislation, funding schemes, local planning tools, information campaigns, and many other best practices imple-mented throughout the EU.

The best practice examples collected in the report’s guidelines show that smarter spatial plan-ning can limit urban sprawl. Making use of the development potential inside urban areas, such as the regeneration of abandoned industrial regions (brownfields), is one way to do so. And, the prac-tice of limiting soil sealing should take priority over mitigation or compensation measures, since soil sealing is an almost irreversible process. Mitigat-ing measures include using permeable materi-als, supporting green infrastructure, and making wider use of natural water harvesting systems. An English language version of the guidelines can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/pdf/sealing/publication.pdf.

Boxwood blight confirmed on pachysandra in U.S.In June, plant pathologists from the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station (CAES) confirmed a natural infection of pachysandra in the landscape by Cylindrocladium pseudonaviculatum, the box-wood blight fungus. A CAES inspector collected the pachysandra sample while making a follow-up visit to a property containing newly planted box-wood plants. The CAES confirmed the boxwoods were infected with the blight one week prior to the visit. The foliage of an established bed of pach-

Strategic Partnership Meeting of WCTA and STA representatives, in Victoria, B.C., in January, 2012.Back row (L-R): Tennessee Propedo, STA Vice President; Paul Gillen, STA President; Tab Buckner, WCTA President; Jerry Rousseau, WCTA Executive Director; Brian Holl, WCTA DirectorFront row: Lee Huether, STA Executive Manager; Scott Mitchell, WCTA Past PresidentAbsent from photo: Trevor Smith, WCTA Director

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ysandra adjacent to the infected boxwood had unusual symptoms. A sample was collected and taken back to the lab where the C. buxicola infes-tation was confirmed.

garden centres recycle more than 90,000 pounds of horticultural plasticCustomers visiting their local independent garden centre between June 22 and July 1 quite likely saw piles of old garden pots stacked high. This year an estimated 91,229 pounds of plastic was collected during the Canadian Nursery Landscape Associa-tion’s (CNLA) National Plastics Recycling Event. Fifty-six garden centres in eight provinces participated by acting as drop-off points for their community’s used garden pots and trays. With a 40 per cent increase in participation and plastics collected, this year’s event was a resounding success.

This was the third year for the program, which was launched in 2010 when just six garden cen-tres collected more than 53,000 pounds of plas-tic. Last year more than 40 garden centres par-ticipated, collecting 63,150 pounds. The National Plastics Recycling Event is scheduled to return in 2013. Recyclers who can offer free pick-up of un-sorted garden and agricultural plastics, and gar-den retailers who wish to participate, are asked to contact the CNLA.

STA publishes Second Edition of the Athletic Field Construction Manual The Sports Turf Association has released the sec-ond edition of its popular Athletic Field Construc-tion Manual, a staple reference for those in the sports turf industry. The manual, written by Dr. R.W. Sheard in conjunction with an editorial com-mittee of professionals, brings uniformity to the construction of grass athletic fields.

“The reputation of the first edition published in 2008 has led to its approaching out-of-print status,” says Dr. Sheard. “Rather than simply re-printing, we took advantage of the opportunity to make subtle revisions to this edition.” The opening pages have been restructured to improve read-ability. Classifications based on the root zone material for categories three and four have been more adequately defined, as have the tolerances for grade control, and depth of the stone layer and root zone material. Additional changes are of only a clarifying nature.

The second edition of the Athletic Field Con-struction Manual is now available for purchase, in both print and electronic PDF format. Visit www.sportsturfassociation.com for all the details. LT

The Best Fleet Program just got Bigger & Better.The newly updated Fleet Advantage® Program rewards your commitment to ECHO and Shindaiwa quality with product discounts and “no-hassle” financing. This flexible program allows you to combine equipment, attachments and accessories.With two levels of discount you will save more as you bundle your purchases - including BOTH ECHO and Shindaiwa products.

• Discounts start at 16%!• Discounts apply on ANY combination of ECHO and Shindaiwa products, attachment and accessories. Once qualified the savings get even bigger. Enjoy Fleet discounts on all ECHO Bear Cat units and accessories.• Low qualifying purchase – only $2,500 – higher discounts apply at $5,000.• Fleet discounts apply up to 12 months.

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cnlanewsNational Tree DaySeptember 26 is National Tree Day. Join with fellow Canadians to celebrate the benefits that trees provide. CNLA has teamed up with Tree Canada to help join schools with industry members. This is a great opportunity to become involved and help teach the next generation the values of the green industry.

Signing up for National Tree Day means that your company will be matched with a school in your area, and you will lead the students in a planting demonstration. By donating a tree, and an hour or two or your time, you will not only help the environment, but will also demonstrate your involvement in your community.

Over 200 schools across the country have already signed up. What are you waiting for? Register at www.cnla-acpp.ca/nationaltreeday today!

garden centre inspections and consultancyGarden Centres Canada has been offer-ing retail inspections and consultancy, through Eve Tigwell, to its members since 2009. A wide range of centres of all sizes in most provinces have taken up this of-fer. Some garden centres have developed an ongoing relationship with Eve to ben-efit their business.

Inspections include an on-site discussion and report, and provide garden centre and retail nurs-ery owners and managers with practical informa-tion on how to improve and grow their businesses. There is usually a wide range of improvements that can be made, from small details to major projects.

Pauline Intven-Casier, owner of Canadale Nurs-eries, St. Thomas, Ont., said, “The Garden Centre Inspection program is a great exercise for any garden centre to go through. In our case, it was a motivator to get all the staff — including the front-end workers, team leaders, office staff and managers — focused on one goal. The timing is perfect, right after the busy spring gardening sea-son. It helped us to look hard at ourselves from different perspectives to maximize sales and profit for the softer summer season. It was encourag-ing to improve our outcome every year. Now we have a clearer vision of where we want to be and future improvements to work toward. The staff

has a more unified vision with several detailed ideas on how to keep our garden centre vibrant and profitable. With each inspection, we ‘set the bar’ a little higher and try to maintain that level throughout the year.”

Where do centres that have improved go next? Clearly they need to maintain and continue to improve their standards in the inspections. They should also consider starting the more detailed work of managing their centre such that profit-ability can be maximized, ideally with minimum capital investment. This is not part of the inspec-tion program, it involves working in detail with Eve Tigwell and your centre’s figures, your inventory and methods of retailing. This service is also avail-able through Garden Centres Canada, so please contact CNLA if you would like further details.

get the recognition you deserveWe all know it to be true — Canada has some of the finest growers of nursery stock in the world.

The good news is that there’s no longer any need to hide these talents under a bushel. In fact, thanks to the CNLA’s Grower of the Year Award, Canada’s nursery growers have the opportunity to promote their products and especially their exper-tise, to their peers not just within Canada but also around the world.

Bylands Nurseries of Kelowna, B.C., winners of the first-ever RBC Grower of the Year Award, went on to claim international fame as the first place en-trants of the International Horticultural Producers Association grower of the year program. Sheridan Nurseries, of Georgetown, Ont., is now entered in this prestigious international competition, as winners of CNLA’s second annual Grower of the Year Award.

The deadline for the 2012 program is Fri., Nov. 30, but the time to get out your camera and start taking pictures is now, while your plants and your nursery are at their best! Entry criteria can be found on the CNLA website (www.cnla-acpp.ca) under the Growers Canada tab.

Landscape OnSitesBeing a good instructor isn’t restricted to the classroom. In fact, your crew will learn the most from you on the job. Taking time each week to re-instill good safety and work habits will prepare your business for a better future. CNLA’s Land-scape OnSites provide the framework for short, basic training sessions with your staff, designed to fit into your busy schedule. We believe this booklet is such an important tool, that we have provided it for free on our web-site. The topics in this book are designed to give a quick overview of a skill, technique or safety practice that will be useful for both the new and seasoned crew member. Some of the 58 topics are: aera-tion, circle checks, grading and drainage, pruning, WHMIS, and interlocking paving stones.

Download your free copy today at www.cnla-acpp.ca/onsites LT

The Canadian Nursery Landscape Association

is the federation of Canada’s provincial

horticultural trade associations.

Visit www.cnla-acpp.ca for more information.

Participants in National Tree Day demonstrate their stewardship by improving the environment and educating others on steps they can take to help.

http://www.cnla-acpp.ca/nationaltreeday

http://www.cnla-acpp.ca/nationaltreeday

http://www.cnla-acpp.ca/onsites

http://www.cnla-acpp.ca/onsites



www.loexpo.ca

Moving your business forwardCanada’s fall show for the Garden and Floral Industry

An initiative of

growing green


SHOW PREVIEW



2 | LANDSCAPE TRADES: EXPO 2012 SPECIAL

n SHOW DATES & HOURS Wednesday, October 17 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thursday, October 18 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

n LOCATION Toronto Congress Centre, North Building, 650 Dixon Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9W 1J1

n EXPO SHINES The spotlights will be focused on the products, plants

and flowers all designed to provide inspiration.

n AISLE 500 Eye candy! Stroll through the artistic aisles

as created by the show’s creative team.

n NEW PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Discover new trends, products and plants for 2013.

n DESTINATION INSPIRATION THEATRE Watch and learn from the best in the industry — visit the Main Stage for power breakfasts and other inspiring demonstrations.

Your Invitation to Expo 2012Join us on October 17 and 18, 2012 as Canada’s leading retailers gather for unmatched idea exchanges and professional development opportunities on growing green.

Growing Green InvitationLandscape Ontario’s Expo, Garden & Floral Expo, is growing green. What does that mean for today’s retailer? Growing green is about how to develop and nurture ‘sustainable’ thinking within the business environment. We invite you to look at your current business processes and discover how to make them more efficient, effective and relevant.

At Expo 2012, you’ll find a wide variety of new products and services required to help make a lasting impact

on both your customers and store profits. Products purchased at the show will positively influence the environments in which your customers live, work and play.

Spotlighted plants and products illustrate how your store design can create an ambience that fosters customer engagement and purchases. Let Expo’s vendors inspire your own creativity.

There is nothing better than exchanging ideas and discussing solutions to help with your professional growth. Expo 2012 is a must-attend event for green industry professionals to get inspired and plan your future successes. Expo offers an incredible opportunity to see all that our industry offers and shows how the next generation can get more involved in the horticultural community.

EXPO 2012 is your invitation to inspiration, creative merchandising, industry trending, rejuvenation and professional development. Register by October 1st to save time and money for your entire team.I’ll see you at the show!

Beth Edney CLD, Chair, Show Committee



Register online today at www.loexpo.caExpo, your annual industry event for inspiration, creative merchandising and rejuvenation. You can’t afford to miss it! See the exhibits, listen to impressive and dynamic professional development sessions.

Schedule at a Glance

Wednesday October 17n 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. BREAKFAST EVENT — ticketed.

‘Diamonds in the Rough’ presented by David Domoney, David Domoney TV UK

Including the AWARDS of EXCELLENCE CEREMONY for Garden Centres and Grower Program.

Destination Inspiration Theatre

n 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Trade Show Floor Open

— included with registration. Halls I & J, North Building n 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Urn Your Profits

— included with registration. Destination Inspiration Theatre

n 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. The British Invasion


n 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Contain-er Your Tropicals


n 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. WELCOME RECEPTION


Thursday October 18n 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. BREAKFAST EVENT — ticketed. ‘Planning For Profit’ presented by

Jill Jensen, Jill Jensen Botanicals and Sue Blaney, Lechuza Canada

Destination Inspiration Theatre

n 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Trade Show Floor Open

— included with registration. Halls I & J, North Building n 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Urn Your Profits


n 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Marketing Musts


n 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Contain-er Your Tropicals


AISLE 600 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 700 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 800 (10' WIDE)


AISLE 400 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 300 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 100 (9'-3" WIDE)

AIS

LE 1100 (10' W

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HALL "H"HALL "I" HALL "J"

ENTRANCE/EXITHALL "H"

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LOADINGDOCK

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2x0.90m W x 2.45m H3'-0"W x 8'-1/2"H

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AISLE 400 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 300 (9' WIDE)


AIS

LE 1100 (10' W

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HALL "H"HALL "I" HALL "J"

ENTRANCE/EXITHALL "H"

ENTRANCE/EXITHALL "J"

DRIVE-IN

LOADINGDOCK

EXIT

EXIT

EXIT

EXIT

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/EXITWEST WING LOBBY

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LOBBY

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WOMEN W.R. MEN W.R. MEN W.R. WOMEN W.R. WOMEN W.R. MEN W.R.

DRIVE-IN

10 DOUBLE DOORS @

2x0.90m W x 2.45m H3'-0"W x 8'-1/2"H

LOADING DOCKS LOADING DOCKS

DRIVEIN

McKENNIT RM 1

McKENNIT RM 2

McKENNIT RM 3

McKENNIT RM 7

McKENNIT RM 8

McKENNIT RM 9

McKENNIT RM 10

AISLE 200 (9' WIDE)

20' WID

E A

ISLE

AISLE 900 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 600 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 700 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 400 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 300 (9' WIDE)

AISLE 200 (9' WIDE)

MUNRO RM 1

MUNRO RM 2

MUNRO RM 3

MUNRO RM 4

MUNRO RM 5

MUNRO RM 6

MUNRO RM 7

MUNRO RM 8

MUNRO RM 9

MUNRO RM 10

McKENNIT RM 6

McKENNIT RM 5

McKENNIT RM 4

FLEX. MEETING ROOMS

10' WID

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6'

10' WID

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10' WID

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NEW PRODUCT SHOWCASE

BUSINESSCENTRE SHOW OFFICE

STAGE

REGISTRATION

STO

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DESTINATION INSPIRATION THEATRE

SHOW ENTRANCE



David Domoney’s presentation will be preceded by the Garden Centre and Grower Award of Excellence Ceremony which will announce the 2012 retail winners.

URN YOUR PROFITS Stage Presentation11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Join the excitement as Neville Mackay directs two designers as they go head-to-head to arrange beautiful seasonal urns — one a container arrangement, the other fresh cut florals. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about urns!

Sponsored By

THE BRITISH INVASION Stage Presentation1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Denis and David, both originally from the UK, will share some great ideas on how to engage youth in horticulture and get them involved at retail locations. David will highlight his ‘Young Gardeners of The Year’ program that has received personal attention from HRH Prince of Wales, and Denis will highlight winning strategies from across Ontario.

CONTAIN-ER YOUR TROPICALS Stage Presentation2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Watch the experts show you how container and plant combinations can enhance and increase the value of your plant installation with stylish and innovative ideas.

Wednesday, October 17DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH Breakfast Event7:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Ticket purchase required. Join David Domoney, noted gardening guru, as he highlights innovative ideas how you can set yourself apart from the rest, and give your business personality and identity. He will provide stunning visuals, looking at inspiring business gems that can be adapted into your business and make it a destination for new customers.

David is a UK television personality and his current TV show draws over 3 million viewers. With more than 3 decades in the horticulture industry, he combines sound business acumen with a polished touch of show business.

Registration fee includes breakfast and an EXPO 2012 trade show badge. The Landscape Ontario Awards of Excellence Ceremony for the Garden Centre and Grower Programs, held during breakfast is also included.

Hosted by Landscape Ontario’s Garden Centre Sector Group

Sponsored By

Supporting sponsors

Media Partner

Engage Inspiring networking events and creative ideas delivered by powerful keynote speakers and top-notch industry professionals to help you create growing and sustainable businesses.

David Domoney

Neville Mackay

Denis Flanagan David Domoney

Jill Jensen Sue Blaney

FREE with show registration








WELCOME RECEPTION Networking Event5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m

Join your peers for some refreshments at the ‘Destination Inspiration Theatre’ and strengthen new and existing business relationships in a welcoming social setting. Trade show badge is all that is required to attend.

Thursday, October 18PLANNING FOR PROFIT Breakfast Event7:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.Ticket purchase required.

Plan to maximize your profit through innovative sales and marketing initiatives with containers and plant material.

Understand how to better utilize them to generate sales and create awareness of the health benefits. This interactive session will drill-out solutions and help you grow your business.

Presented by Jill Jensen and Sue Blaney. Jill is the founder of Jill Jensen Botanical Specialties, supplier of tropical plants to the interior landscape and retail market of Ontario.

She is the former manager of sales and marketing for both a Canadian and American nursery, specializing in interior landscape design, sourcing, installation and maintenance, including tropical plants for interi-orscape and the retail market.

Sue Blaney, of Lechuza Canada, is a lifetime entrepreneur and has traveled internationally. She has been owner of a successful graphic design and print production company since 1993, Pinnacle Communications. Labatt, Sleeman, and Corby Distilleries were among her clients. She has produced POS and business materials; shipping worldwide.

This is a must-attend event for retailers and interior, floral and landscape designers.

Registration fee includes breakfast and an EXPO 2012 trade show badge.

Hosted by Landscape Ontario’s Interior Plantscape Sector Group

Sponsored ByPresenting sponsor

Supporting sponsors

Media Partner

URN YOUR PROFITS Stage Presentation11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Join the excitement as Neville Mackay directs two designers as they go head-to-head to arrange beautiful seasonal urns — one a container arrangement, the other fresh cut florals. Don’t miss this opportunity learn about urns!

Sponsored By

MARKETING MUSTS Stage Presentation1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Where are the customers? If you find yourself uttering those words this ses-sion is for you! Learn tips from your peers how to draw in the public – includ-ing print, radio and in-store marketing initiatives.

‘CONTAIN-ER YOUR TROPICALS’ Stage Presentation2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Watch the experts show you how container and plant combinations can enhance and increase the value of your plant installation with stylish and innovative ideas.


Perry Grobe

Neville Mackay







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Exhibitor List as of July 27, 2012

Three ways to registerONLINE:

www.loexpo.caMAIL:Please make cheques payable to Landscape Ontario and mail to:Expo 2012 c/o CONEXSYS, 7050B Bramalea Rd, Unit 34, Mississauga, ON, L5S 1S9 orFAX: Toll free (855) 329-5656 or (800) 628-8838

LOCATION INFORMATION:Toronto Congress Centre, North Building650 Dixon Road, Toronto ON, M9W 1J1 Canada

Hotel AccommodationMake direct reservations, by September 27, 2012, with your preferred hotel. Quote “Expo 2012” to receive special rates. You may cancel your reservation until 6:00 p.m. on your scheduled arrival day with no penalty. Reservations cancelled after 6:00 p.m. on the scheduled day of arrival or no-shows will be billed one night’s room and tax charges.

Doubletree by Hilton Toronto AirportRate: $138 Single or Double Reservations: 416-244-1711655 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J4Group Code: EXP Group Name: EXPO 2012

Crowne Plaza Toronto AirportRate: $125 Single or DoubleReservations: 416-675-123433 Carlson Court, Toronto, ON M9W 6H5Group Code: EXPO2012

Radisson Suite Hotel Toronto Airport$141 Deluxe or $161 Executive Deluxe SuiteReservations: 416-242-7400640 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J1Group Code: EXPO

ALL TREAT FARMS LTD ....................................422AMAIZEINGLY GREEN VALUE PRODUCTS ULC .............................................262APEX ELEGANCE INC .......................................508AQUASCAPE DESIGNS INC .............................252ASB GREENWORLD LTD ..................................539ATLAS POLAR COMPANY LTD .........................249AVK NURSERY HOLDINGS INC .......................440BAYVIEW FLOWERS .........................................362BIG BEAR TOOLS INC ......................................419BLUE SKY NURSERY LTD ................................209BONADEA GARDENS .......................................234BOREAL AGROMINERALS INC ........................506BOTANICO LTD ..................................................353BRAUN NURSERY LTD .....................................406BROOKDALE TREELAND NURSERIES LTD.....401BROWNRIDGE GREENHOUSES ......................361BURPEE CANADA .............................................314BUSINESS CENTRE ..........................................742CANADA POWER TECHNOLOGY - CPT .........256CANADALE NURSERIES LTD ...........................568CANADIAN GARDEN CENTRE/ CANADIAN FLORIST .......................................320CANADIAN HYDROGARDENS LTD ..................709CANADIAN SUNLIGHT ENTERPRISES LTD .....200CANADIAN WOODENWARE MANUFACTURERS (THE) .................................................................418CJ MARKETING LTD .........................................114CMC WHOLESALE WAREHOUSE ....................357COMPOST COUNCIL OF CANADA (THE) ........738CONNON NURSERIES/NVK HOLDINGS INC ..608COPPER EWE COMPANY ..............................1105COSMIC PLANTS INC .......................................663CRABTREE & EVELYN .......................................274DERCO HORTICULTURE INC ...........................214DIRECT SOLUTIONS FORMERLY AGRIUM ADVANCE TECHNOLOGIES ............136DON MARJAMA NURSERY CO, INC ................341DOWNHAM NURSERIES INC ...........................472DRAMM CORP ..................................................307DSD INTERNATIONAL INC ................................245DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY ......................457ECO WOOD PRODUCTS LTD ...........................365ED'S CONCRETE PRODUCTS LTD ..................563ENDERLEIN NURSERIES LTD...........................142ENVIREM ORGANICS INC ................................640ESERRO INC. .....................................................257EUROPA LANDSCAPING PRODUCTS .............641FAFARD ET FRERES LTEE ................................230FAIRFIELD TREE NURSERIES INC ...................449FERNLEA FLOWERS LTD .................................240FIRST CONCRETE LTD .....................................414FLORAL DIMENSIONS ......................................309FLORAL EXPRESS INC .....................................268FLORIDUS DESIGN IMAGES ............................623FLOWERS CANADA RETAIL - TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR SPONSOR ......................................769FOLIERA.............................................................753FORPOST TRADE INC ......................................354FOX HOLLOW FARMS ......................................507FREEMAN HERBS INC ......................................549

FRENSCH (C) LTD .............................................515GARDEN CITY GROWERS ................................518GARDEN MAKING MAGAZINE .......................1115GARDENA CANADA LTD ...................................144GARDENLINK INC .............................................416GARDENS CENTRAL MAGAZINE (CORNWALL PUBLISHING CO) ......................421GLOBAL ARCH INC...........................................564GOLD HILL NURSERY SALES ..........................635GORMWOOD INC .............................................337GREEN PLUS NURSERIES ...............................548GREENFIELD GARDENS INC .........................1109GREEN'S YOUR COLOUR ................................719GREENSTAR PLANT PRODUCTS ....................222HANEY POTTERY SALES LTD ..........................120HG SPECIALTIES INC........................................434HIGHLAND EVERGREEN SUPPLY LTD ............358HILLEN NURSERY INC......................................264HORTA-CRAFT LTD ...........................................514HORTICOLOR CANADA INC.............................318HORTICULTURAL MARKETING AND PRINTING ................................................352HORTPROTECT - THE INVESTMENT GUILD...761HOWE PRODUCTS ...........................................519IDEL SRL ............................................................269INLINE NURSERIES (2010) INC ........................372INVADING SPECIES ........................................1111JC BAKKER & SONS LTD..................................622JILL JENSEN BOTANICAL SPECIALTIES .........500JRT NURSERIES INC ........................................348JUST DIRECT PROMOTIONS .........................1125JVK LTD ..............................................................450KAM'S GROWERS SUPPLY ..............................260KATO'S NURSERY (2007) LTD ..........................741KIRK CO / CINCO PLASTICS / TEUFEL ...........714LAGUNA (A DIVISION OF ROLF C HAGEN INC) ............237LANDSCAPE ONTARIO RESOURCE CENTRE .648LANGENDOEN NURSERIES INC ......................319LECHUZA CANADA INC ...................................662LEO GENTRY WHOLESALE NURSERY INC ....208LES ENTERPRISES ANISSTONE ......................469LIVINGSTON SEED INC ....................................534MAPLE LEAF NURSERIES LTD .........................342MAPLE LEAVES FOREVER ...............................642MAR-CO CLAY PRODUCTS INC ......................462MARSOLAIS ENTERPRISES INC ......................236MARTIN FARMS LTD .........................................540MASSARELLI'S ..................................................652MELDAN ............................................................453MEX Y CAN TRADING .......................................771MORI NURSERIES LTD .....................................468MULTIPOST RETAIL SYSTEMS ........................552NATURAL INSECT CONTROL ...........................430NORTH SHORE IMPORTS ................................456NUTRITE ............................................................335ONTARIO FLOWER GROWERS CO-OPERATIVE LTD ........................................743ONTARIO SEED CO LTD ...................................619ORCHARD PARK GROWERS LTD ....................375ORCHID GREENS ..............................................618

OUTFRONT PORTABLE SOLUTIONS - A DIV OF ALL COVER PORTABLE SYSTEMS ................556PACIFIC NORTHWEST PROPAGATORS ..........503PACIFIC RIM BRACKETS LTD ..........................509PALACE PERENNIALS ......................................343PAN AMERICAN NURSERY PRODUCTS INC ..415PARIDON HORTICULTURAL (1979) LTD...........501PARIS GLOVE GROUP OF COMPANIES ..........455PEETERS (JM) NURSERIES LTD .......................542PEFFERLAW PEAT PRODUCTS INC ................148PICKSEED CANADA INC ..................................140PIEPER NURSERIES INC ..................................438PINEBUSH HOME & GARDEN ..........................521POTERIES BARRO INC ...................................1024POTTERS ROAD NURSERY INC ......................553PREMIER TECH HOME & GARDEN - IGC ........322PRIME NUTRIENTS ...........................................520PRINS GROW INC .............................................668QUALITREE PROPAGATORS INC .....................669QUALITY FERTILIZERS INC ..............................241R2B XTREME INC ..............................................660RAVENSBERGEN (P) & SONS LTD ...................715ROCKART NURSERY INC .................................675RTF WATER SAVER CANADA ...........................621SCOTTS CANADA .............................................631SECOND NATURE DESIGNS LTD .....................604SESTER FARMS INC .........................................537SHERIDAN NURSERIES ....................................330SLAPPENDEL GREENHOUSES ......................1131SOMERVILLE NURSERIES INC ........................644SOURCE ID ........................................................535SPEARE SEEDS .................................................420SPECIMEN TREES WHOLESALE NURSERIES LTD ......................614STAM NURSERIES (2009) INC ..........................369STAR ROSES AND PLANTS/ THE CONARD-PYLE CO .................................436SUN GRO HORTICULTURE CANADA LTD .......448SUSTA: THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES TRADE ASSOCIATION .....................................306SYLVITE AGRI-SERVICES LTD ..........................152TANDESKI ASSOCIATES INC ............................538TAPIS WAVES CARPETS INC ...........................315THOMAS ALLEN & SON....................................259TRISTAR POTTERY ............................................261TROPICAL EXPRESSIONS ................................452TSC - COUNTRY PRO SERVICES ....................336UNITED FLORAL DISTRIBUTORS INC .............253VALFEI PRODUCTS ...........................................368VALLEYBROOK GARDENS (ONTARIO) LTD .....248VAN BELLE NURSERY INC ...............................543VAN NOORT BULB CO LTD ..............................531VANHOF AND BLOKKER LTD ...........................615VASERIE PLP CANADA LTD ..............................649VRE GREENHOUSE SYSTEMS ........................630WESTLAND GREENHOUSES ...........................638WILLOWBROOK NURSERIES INC ...................130WINKELMOLEN NURSERY LTD .......................522WIRECRAFT INTERNATIONAL ..........................108ZWART SYSTEMS .............................................643



2012 Registration FormCOMPANY NAME: ____________________________________________________________________________

FIRST NAME: __________________________ LAST NAME: _________________________________________

ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________________________________________

TITLE: ________________________________________________________________________________________

CITY: _______________________________ PROV./STATE: ______________ POSTAL/ZIP: ______________

BUSINESS PHONE: _____________________________ BUSINESS FAX: _____________________________

EMAIL: _______________________________________________________________________________________

I am a member of: m Landscape Ontario m Flowers Canada Retail m Canadian Nursery Landscape Association

m Send information on membership with Landscape Ontario

Your badge will be mailed to you if your registration is received prior to 5:00 p.m. on October 1, 2012. Otherwise, your badge will be available for pickup on-site.

CODE: DMEXPO12

Three ways to registerONLINE:

www.loexpo.caMAIL:Please make cheques payable to Landscape Ontario and mail to:Expo 2012 c/o CONEXSYS, 7050B Bramalea Rd, Unit 34, Mississauga, ON, L5S 1S9 orFAX: Toll free (855) 329-5656 or (800) 628-8838

LOCATION INFORMATION:Toronto Congress Centre, North Building650 Dixon Road, Toronto ON, M9W 1J1 Canada

Hotel AccommodationMake direct reservations, by September 27, 2012, with your preferred hotel. Quote “Expo 2012” to receive special rates. You may cancel your reservation until 6:00 p.m. on your scheduled arrival day with no penalty. Reservations cancelled after 6:00 p.m. on the scheduled day of arrival or no-shows will be billed one night’s room and tax charges.

Doubletree by Hilton Toronto AirportRate: $138 Single or Double Reservations: 416-244-1711655 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J4Group Code: EXP Group Name: EXPO 2012

Crowne Plaza Toronto AirportRate: $125 Single or DoubleReservations: 416-675-123433 Carlson Court, Toronto, ON M9W 6H5Group Code: EXPO2012

Radisson Suite Hotel Toronto Airport$141 Deluxe or $161 Executive Deluxe SuiteReservations: 416-242-7400640 Dixon Road, Toronto, ON M9W 1J1Group Code: EXPO

TICKETED EVENTS INCLUDE TRADE SHOW ADMISSIONAll fees listed include HST (#R119005049) EARLY-BIRD RATES AFTER DEADLINE & ON-SITE Before October 1 After October 1 Member Fee Non-Member Fee Member Fee Non-Member Fee

TRADE SHOW OCTOBER 17 & 18 m $10.00 m $15.00 m $15.00 m $20.00 EXPO EXHIBITS ONLY (NO TICKETED EVENTS) Trade Show Purchase includes Daily Stage Presentations and Welcome Reception Admission BREAKFAST EVENT OCTOBER 17 m $55.00 m $75.00 m $65.00 m $85.00 DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH Purchase includes Awards Of Excellence Ceremony and Daily Stage Presentations and Welcome Reception AdmissionBREAKFAST EVENT OCTOBER 18 m $55.00 m $75.00 m $65.00 m $85.00 PLANNING FOR PROFIT Purchase includes Daily Stage Presentations and Welcome Reception Admission

TOTAL $

PAYMENT OPTIONS m Cheque m Master Card m VISA m AMEX

CARD #: ___________________________________________________________________ EXP. DATE: _______/_______

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AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE: __________________________________________________ DATE: _________________ CHEQUE – Please make cheques payable to ‘Landscape Ontario’ and mail to: EXPO 2012, c/o CONEXSYS, 7050B Bramalea Rd, Unit 34, Mississauga, ON L5S 1S9 or FAX: Toll free (855) 329-5656 or (800) 628-8838 Your badge will be mailed to you if your registration is received prior to 5:00 p.m. EST on October 1, 2012. Otherwise, your badge will be available for pickup on-site. REFUND POLICY: No refunds will be issued unless event is cancelled by Landscape Ontario Show Management. EARLY BIRD DEADLINE POLICY: No extensions to the deadline will be granted.

PRIMARY AREA OF BUSINESS: m 1. Event/meeting planner m 2. Gift store or boutique m 3. Greenhouse grower/operator m 4. Hardware department, mass merchandiser, convenience or discount store m 5. Interior designer m 6. Interior plantscaper m 7. Landscape contractor m 8. Media m 9. Others allied to the trade m 10. Retail florist m 11. Retail garden centre m 12. Supplier to the trade m 13. Wholesale nursery grower/distributor m 14. Other: _____________________

PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITY: m 1. Owner/Partner/Senior Manager m 2. Supervisor/Manager/Foreman m 3. Sales/Marketing m 4. Administration m 5. Purchasing m 6. Field Technician m 7. Government Official m 8. Teacher m 9. Studentm 10. Other : _________________

FREETrade Show PassAvailable from Expo ExhibitorsListings at www.loexpo.ca

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newproducts

garden mum nettingGarden mum netting from GroLink keeps fragile mum stems from bending or snapping. Installed when the plant is 70 per cent of its final size, the branches grow up through the netting and create a more stable structure. Available in two sizes, 17-inches for 8- and 10-inch pots and 23-inches for 12-inch pots and larger. An automated netting cutter is also available. It is powered by a variable speed drill that allows up to 5,000 pieces to be cut in an hour.GroLink www.grolink.com


Liquid spreadersThe Epoke Virtus AST liquid spreader is designed to distribute liquids at the optimal height and angle to ensure broad and even coverage at speeds from 1 km/h to 90 km/h. It is capable of following the traffic flow everywhere, including main roads, parking lots and highways. Coupled with the Spraytronic nozzles that allows coverage up to 11 metres wide, the Epoke Virtus AST Liquid Spreader ensures an even spread of brine solution on all surfaces. The maneuverable Epoke City Sprayer handles quick and efficient spreading of salt solutions on bike paths, footpaths, pedes-trian streets, and town squares. Width-step adjustment of the nozzles provides variable spreading widths, ranging from one to six metres. It has a liquid tank capacity range from 700 to 2,100 litres. Joe Johnson Equipment www.jjei.com

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Light duty pusher for skid steer The SSET-XX light duty pusher is perfect for use with smaller skid steers or where a heavy-duty pusher is not required. The steel blade is driven by powerful extension springs to provide a superior cleaning performance. Floating shoes allow the operator to plow without worrying as much about holding the box level. A steel trip edge scrapes even hard-packed snow to the pavement, while riding back fully to clear solid obstacles. Height: 30 inches; fits sizes 6 to 12 feet. Avalanche www.avalancheplow.com LT

De-Ice Backpack SprayerThe Chapin backpack sprayer features a four-gallon capacity, comfortable straps, waist belt, and lumbar support. A four-stage filtering sys-tem helps reduce nozzle clogging and speed up productivity. Excellent for applying de-icer to sidewalks or other hard-to-get-to areas.Rittenhouse www.rittenhouse.ca

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sustainablelandscaping

I can never get over how half of the customers I meet with ask for burning bush in their landscapes. It’s not that they’re not impressive in October and November. It’s simply that they only offer a few weeks of ‘kaboom,’ and nothing else. Better plants do exist — plants which offer multiple seasons of interest.

In my garden, red chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia ‘Brilliantissima’, is brilliant red in November, then reveals bright red berries in the winter and has many white flowers in the spring. The locally native black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa, has a similar white flower then complex orange/yellow/red fall colour and black berries which also attract birds. Many seasons of interest beats a few weeks.

Another beautiful native is fringe tree, Chionanthus virginicus, which has beautiful white flowers in the spring and large, yellow leaves in the fall.

One of my surprise and rare treats is a special cultivar of moose-wood maple, Acer pensylvanicum ‘Erythrocladum’. It offers its tradi-tional striped bark in the summer, and large leaves which turn soft yellow in the fall. In October the bark turns pink and by November and through winter, the bark is bright red.

The white flowered, white berried, grey-twigged dogwood, Cor-nus racemosa, has a rich glossy purple fall colour and then, when the leaves fall, the peduncles form a red haze over the bush lasting for another month. If you can plant it in masses, it’s subtly, incredibly powerful. In addition, this, like many natives, feeds pollinators and a huge variety of wildlife, sheltering them and even helping them survive throughout the winter.

Outside my office window is a larch which I never noticed until it was in fall show and it looked like a Forsythia tree! (OK, it’s actu-ally a Larix.) I have a trembling aspen which also lights up gold. My Fothergilla is a riot of different reds, yellows and oranges.

It’s always best, even with traditional burning bush, to choose these plants when they’re in their fall glory so you be sure you have the best. Even with cultivars, there are differences between speci-mens. If I were able, I’d visit a nursery in October and November, buy a bunch of beautifully fall-coloured shrubs and trees and keep them in a hoop house over the winter so I’d be sure I’d have plants with great interest just before they drop their leaves.

The point is that variety is desirable. Whenever we use lots of one plant (ash, euonymus, daylily, hosta, juniper, black pine, paper birch), some insect or disease is going to come along and knock

Better than a burning bush; Amazing fall interest with native shrubs BY SEAN JAMES

things down. The more different types of plants that we use, the less that’s likely to happen, and the more interesting our landscapes will be. It’s called biodiversity and it’s very good! At our company, we try and use at least one type of plant outside our regular palette in every design. Your customers will appreciate the diversity, the longevity of their landscapes and the increased number of birds and butterflies visiting their landscape.

Incidentally, many of the plants discussed are, honestly, coinci-dentally, native. LT

Sean James is owner of an Ontario-based environmen-

tally-conscious landscape design/build/maintenance

company. In addition, he is an eco-consultant and a

popular speaker.

Fothergilla major in fall lit up in reds, oranges and yellows.

ROB LIEVESLEY

7172 Concession B & C RR#5 , Orillia ON L3V [email protected]

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legalmatters

Employers who put time, effort and money into training their employees will understandably want to ensure that the knowledge and skills they pass on, at their expense, are not unreasonably used against the employer later on.

There are generally three ways an em-ployer will look to do this in an employ-ment contract. First, confidential infor-mation clauses can be used to ensure that information that comes into the employee’s possession, and that he or she could not ob-tain elsewhere, must remain confidential. Second, employers will want to ensure that their employees do not solicit work from the employer’s past, current or prospective cli-ents. Lastly, the employer may wish to take efforts to ensure that after they leave the em-ployer’s employ, the employees do not start up their own businesses and compete with the employer.

The employment contract can provide that the employee shall not, while employed or after, unreasonably or unnecessarily dis-close confidential information, other than in the normal course of his or her duties while employed. The contract can further require the employee to acknowledge that disclosure of the information would cause damage to the employer and would be cause for termi-nation if made while the employee was still employed.

Employers may generically describe con-fidential information as any information or documents that come into an employee’s possession and which otherwise would not be available to the employee. For clarity, however, the employer may wish to define

Non-compete, non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses

in employment contracts BY ROBERT KENNALEY

the confidential information to include doc-uments and information that are particular to their business, which might include, for example, client lists, price lists, bidding or marketing strategies, construction method-ologies, OHSA and other policies and, of course, financial information.

Solicitation difficult to proveBy reason of his or her employment, an employee may develop a close working rela-tionship with his or her employer’s past, cur-rent and potential clients. Employers may accordingly wish to include non-solicitation clauses in their contracts. “Solicitation” is generally understood to be direct communi-cations initiated by the former employer to the clients and prospective clients. General advertising to the public at large does not generally fit within the definition. Similarly, where the former client contacts the former employee, solicitation by the former em-ployee does not occur. It can accordingly be difficult to prove that solicitation by a for-mer employee has occurred. Often, evidence of solicitation will have to turn to an assess-ment of phone records or the testimony of clients, for example.

Non-competition clauses are drafted to preclude a former employee from compet-ing with his employer for a certain period of time following the end of employment. The non-competition, of course, is generally lim-ited to the same type of business conducted by the employer. Also, the non-competition is generally limited to a specific geographic area where the employer had conducted its business.

The extent to which these clauses can be enforced will depend on a number of fac-tors, including where the contract arose. First, in all of the Canadian provinces except Québec, employment contracts will be gov-erned by employment standards legislation and by the ‘common-law’. The common-law comprises legal principles that have been established by the courts, going back to old kings in England.

In Québec, the common-law has no ap-plication, as the province is governed by a civil system under which all laws are cre-ated by statute and none have their origin in judge-made law. While we understand the Québec civil legislation takes, for the most part, the same approach taken by the common law in relation to these clauses, we do not practice in Québec and cannot comment further in that regard. Readers in Québec would have to have reference to the Québec Civil Code to determine the clauses’ applicability in particular circumstances.

In the provinces outside Québec (i.e. the common-law provinces), the provincial laws governing employment will govern, to the extent that they speak to the scope or en-forceability of the clauses. In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act has no applica-tion in that regard and, accordingly, the con-tractual provisions will only be tempered by the judge-made, historical common-law. Although we are not aware of employment legislation that will temper the application of the clauses in the other common-law provinces, we don’t practice in those juris-dictions, and reference would have to be had to the provincial employment statutes for confirmation.


Non-solicitation provisions recommendedWhere, like in Ontario, the provincial stat-utes don’t speak to non-solicitation and non-competition, the common-law will have an impact in that regard. First, employees will generally be under an obligation, at com-mon law, to not solicit business from their former employer’s clients and prospective clients. In other words, there will generally be no need in a common-law province for a non-solicitation clause to be included in the contract. Rather, the employer is entitled to enforce the employee’s non-solicitation obligations, as of right. Employers should nonetheless consider including these provi-sions in the contract, as they will ensure that the employee is aware of the obligation and may otherwise provide additional incentive to the employee in that regard.

The situation is different, and perhaps re-versed, when it comes to the enforceability of non-competition clauses in the common-law provinces. Simply put, the common-law does not like to enforce non-competition. The courts have historically been very re-

luctant to take away an employee’s right to make a living, after the employee moves on. Accordingly, such a provision will only be enforced (if at all) where the competition would be very detrimental to the employer and where its scope, as to geographic loca-tion and duration, is no more than it would absolutely have to be. In the end, the reality is that such provisions are commonly, if not usually, struck out as being an unreasonable restriction on employee’s ability to make a living. This does not mean, of course, that employers in the common-law provinces should not include non-competition clauses in their contracts. This is because, notwith-standing what the common-law says, such a clause might provide incentive to the em-ployee not to compete side-by-side with the employer.

In the end, regardless of the rule of pro-vincial legislation, it is usually a good idea to include non-competition, non-solicitation and confidential information clauses in employment contracts. However, the real-ity is that very few employers would choose to incur significant legal fees in an effort to

enforce such provisions. Accordingly, their utility probably lies in making the employee aware of the employer’s position on the is-sues and hopefully deterring a former em-ployee from using or disclosing confidential information, soliciting clients or competing directly, side-by-side, with the employer. LT

Robert Kennaley has a

background in construction

and now practices construc-

tion law in Toronto and

Simcoe, Ontario. He speaks

and writes regularly on

construction law issues and

can be reached for comment at 416-368-2522

or at [email protected]. This material is

for information purposes and is not intended to

provide legal advice in relation to any particular

fact situation. Readers who have concerns about

any particular circumstance are encouraged to

seek independent legal advice in that regard.

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managementsolutions

Find the sweet spot in pricing snow BY MARK BRADLEY

I could be wrong, but I believe we’re in for a buyer’s market when it comes to pricing snow and ice work. The economy is filled with questions, we’ve had a few light winters in a row (at least in the Toronto area) and snow companies by and large suffered last year, which means they’ll be hungrier this year. It’s likely we’ll see a very competi-tive market for snow this year, where cus-tomers will enjoy a stronger position during price negotiations.

For your snow business, this means a few things:l You must absolutely know your costs

and be confident on your costs, break-even, and profit. This confidence will

come across during negotiations and help you win more jobs.

l You must also ensure your prices are competitive, but that you can earn a profit at these prices.

l It’s the second point that I want to expand on, and for this you need to understand a very handy number and what it means for your business.

Gross Profit is the selling price of the work minus the costs to get the work done. That’s all. Overhead and profit are what’s left over, but they aren’t counted in gross profit. Gross profit, for snow work, is the price you want to sell the contract, minus the cost of the labour needed, minus the cost of equip-ment needed, minus the cost of salt/de-icing materials needed, and minus the cost of sub-contractors needed.

The Gross Profit Margin is gross profit divided by the selling price, then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.

Let’s look at a simple example. You have a snow contract that you want to sell for $10,000. The estimated costs (per season) are as follows:l Labour costs (plow operators, shovel-

lers): $2,000l Equipment costs (trucks, plows, salters):

$2,000l Material costs (rock salt): $2,000l Total estimated costs: $6,000

To figure out the estimated gross profit on the job, you simply subtract the estimated costs of the job ($6,000) from the estimated Selling Price ($10,000). That would leave you with a gross profit of $4,000. That’s not your actual profit — you still have company overhead to cover, but that’s gross profit.

Now to calculate gross profit margin, you simply divide gross profit ($4,000) by the es-timated selling price ($10,000) to get a gross profit margin of 40 per cent.

Meaningful number?You might be asking yourself, “What is so useful about this number? If it doesn’t tell me my overhead, and it’s not really my take-home profit, then why do I care?”

It’s important because gross profit can be one of the best benchmarking numbers for your business and can help you ensure you’re competitively priced — especially on bids and tenders where you don’t get a sec-ond chance to revise your pricing.

Look at it this way … let’s say 10 contrac-tors priced the job we did in the example above. All 10 contractors are going to have different overhead and different profit ex-pectations — sometimes very different. However, all 10 contractors will have similar, not exact, but similar, costs to do the work.

There are differences in what we pay our people, but they’re not huge differences. Usually they range a few dollars per hour. The people who are paid more also work faster (more experience, more motivated) so even when there are differences in pay, the difference in productivity (time spent on the job) can often erase the difference in total labour costs.

As contractors, we all pay similar prices for our trucks, plows, and snow equipment. Bigger companies might negotiate bet-ter pricing on new equipment, but smaller companies tend to get longer life out of used equipment. Fuel, insurance and parts and repair costs don’t differ significantly from company to company. Equipment costs only differ significantly based on utilization – the more hours we can bill for our equipment, the lower our cost per hour.

Salt prices also have only minor differ-ences. Bigger companies can negotiate bet-ter pricing (bulk discounts) and may be able to stage salt at the yard. You can’t ignore the cost difference — and it’s often why large companies can enjoy a cost advantage — but between contractors of similar size, this dif-ference is negligible.

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So costs to clear snow will be different from company to com-pany, but rarely will they be very different. Assuming 10 contractors are pricing the job using similar equipment, and are paying a fair wage with proper government reporting, the costs to do the work will be quite similar.

If we all estimate using similar (not exact, but similar) costs to do the job, then looking at the Gross Profit of your bids, and even your competitors’ (you’ll have to estimate their GPM using your costs, but you can look at their prices on winning bids) will show you where your market is pricing work, ignoring the differences in overhead and profit between companies.

If you’re pricing work at a 40 per cent gross profit margin (as in the example above) and not winning any work, it’s likely that you aren’t pricing competitively. Perhaps your overhead and/or profit is too high to be competitive. Drop your next few bids down to 38 per cent or 35 per cent gross profit (assuming you can do this and still cover overhead and profit!) to get more competitive.

Keep track of the gross profit margin on your winning and your losing bids. Look for a pattern, or a gross profit margin where your hit rate goes up. This is the gross profit that is competitive in your market. Since snow contractors have similar costs, knowing the aver-age gross profit margin in your market at which losing bids turn to winning bids will help you identify the sweet spot in your market.

Value over timeGross profit margins will also help you see trends. When gross prof-it margins start to increase, contractors have the upper hand and prices in your market are rising. When gross profit margins decline, it’s the customers that have the advantage and price competition be-tween contractors is getting tougher. Knowing which way the market is moving can keep you out in front of shifting economies, and sell-ing work while others bang their heads against the wall wondering where their sales have gone.

As valuable as gross profit margin is, it’s very important to re-member all of this is useful if, and only if:l You know, accurately, the costs of doing the work. You need to

know what it costs per hour for your staff, your equipment, and what your material and subcontractor costs are.

l You know your company’s overhead and net profit.

If you don’t know what it costs to run a pickup and a plow per hour, you can’t possibly calculate your gross profit accurately and therefore, gross profit won’t be a meaningful benchmark for you. Even worse, if you don’t know your company or your snow division’s overhead and net profit, your gross profit might be competitive, but you’re waking up at 2:00 a.m. and plowing snow just to lose money on the work you did win. LT

Mark Bradley is president of The Beach Gardener

and the Landscape Management Network (LMN),

based in Ontario.


roadtosuccess

No shortcutson the road to success BY ROD McDONALD

Everyone wants to be on the fast track for the quickest route to success. I get that. I am as impatient as any of my readers. I also raised three sons and I am quite familiar with the question, “are we there yet?” This is perhaps the shortest intro I have ever writ-ten, as I am known for six-hundred-word starts. Don’t expect brevity every month, af-ter all, I have an Irish grandfather.

To be succinct or blunt, there is no short-cut to success. That is the bottom line. Suc-cess is an obtainable goal that can only be reached through layers of repetitive, ethical behavior. There must also be quality work-manship and products to support the ethical behavior, but the two are often linked, arm in arm.

STORY TIME: I mentor a few young people within the trade and a couple of others call on me, now and again, for advice. One young man, just starting out, called me regarding a new lawn he was to install to replace an old one. The problem was that the old lawn was filled with couch grass, which is often incor-rectly called quack grass in our area. It is an invasive perennial, wide-bladed grass that, once rooted, is difficult to control in a lawn. The only way to carry out the job, as a true professional, is to spray the existing lawn with Roundup or another non-selective herbicide. Then give it a week to ensure there is an effective kill. The prep work can begin for the new lawn only after it is certain the couch grass is dead. The young man did not want to wait the week. He had promised the customer he would have it finished by the week-end. “Can’t I just rototill it extra deep?” I

explained to him that rototilling divides the roots of the couch grass, and that within six weeks he would have it grow-ing through his new turf. “What should I do?” It was almost the bleating of a lamb. I explained to him what I am telling you. There are no shortcuts to success. “You have to tell your customer that in order to give her the best job possible, you will have to change her completion date by a week to ten days. Most people do not want a continuing problem with couch grass or any other weed, so you need to sell her on the benefits of slow-ing it down.”

As young men and women, we are often in too much of a hurry to finish a job. I know. I qualified as one of those people in my twen-ties and thirties. I had a mentor a few years before I met my wife. One day when we were visiting him in Langham (northwest of Sas-katoon), my wife asked my mentor what I was like before she had met me. Dieter said, “He was always in a hurry. He ran every-where. When I would tell him to slow down and walk, he would walk quickly. He had to get everywhere right away.”

Thirty-five years have passed. My desire to get everywhere quickly has sublimated itself due to maturity. Also, having a bum left knee has really helped to slow me down, as well.

What I did not understand in my twen-ties was the importance of layering. Layering is my favorite word for landscaping, cooking and life itself. I have observed that the best gardens, friendships and soups are built by a layering process. Starting with good foun-dations in a landscaping project, which in-cludes plenty of topsoil and the right granu-

lar bases for the brick work, we then begin to add on. When we are approaching the finish of a project, I often use the word ‘pol-ish’ with my staff. “We need to polish up the front yard and make it shine.”

When we work in layers, and it is more time consuming, then the end result is al-ways better than when we rush. Rushing a job is rarely the right answer.

STORY TIME: When I was in my twen-ties, there was a landscaper in my area who did really fine work. He would prep his beds, installing a close to final grade for the turf. Then he would turn on the sprinklers, giving the prepped soil a good soaking. He would wait four or five days for the bed to dry out and then, do one final raking and leveling before the sod was installed. I asked him why he did this extra step that no one else did. He explained that nothing showed your low and high spots quicker than water. He went on to tell me that by soaking the subsoil, the sod itself took off much quicker than if it were laid over a dry bed. From my perspective, being young and knowing everything, I thought he was just adding in an extra five to seven days to his jobs. As I got older, I saw the wisdom of his methodology.

Today, and for many years now, that is how I prep for a sod bed. I always allow for an extra week to get some water down and it is amazing how he was ever so right. When your eye tells you that you have a perfect grade, the water lets you know that you have a slight rise over here and over there, there is a small dip.

One of the young men who I mentor

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asked me to inspect his jobs in progress when he was first starting out. He wanted to ensure that he was getting things right, and a quick site visit would often head off po-tential problems. In the middle of his second season, he was up to his proverbial butt in alligators. He had just about everything fin-ished on a high-end job. The shrubs, trees, perennials and brick work were all in place, as was the sod bed. All he had left to do was to install the turf. It rained the night before, soaking everything. The sod bed did not have its final grade and due to the rain, lay-ing the sod would have left major footprints as the crew worked. His sod was sitting there on the pallets, waiting for installation. He was anxious to get it down, before it dete-riorated. I told him that there was absolutely no way he could carry on with the job. He would have to wait three, perhaps four days before resuming work. He was concerned that he would have to write off the sod. I

told him that he was at a turning point in his career. “Do you want to be just another hack, or do you want to do it right? That is your choice. This is one of those defining moments in your career.” It turned out for the best. He called the sod farm and they had someone else who wanted his order, so he was able to get fresh turf, five days later. The customer got a better job and he passed one of those tests that we are presented with in life.

Every now and again, I will spot an ad in a magazine or a newspaper that has a head-line that reads ‘The Lazy Man’s Way to Easy Riches’ or some such nonsense. The ad will be for some course or business whereby the purchaser will be able to get rich by doing virtually nothing. Fortunately for the world, there are not too many people who buy into that program one hundred per cent. Sadly, there are several people who buy into that attitude to some degree. They believe that

there are opportunities to succeed with very little effort. They often tell stories of some-one they know who started a business, did very little work and “now he just shows up to collect the profits.” A very interesting story.

I have been well ensconced within the business community for close to forty years, and I have not met anyone who did very little work and reaped major benefits. The success-ful ones I have met paid attention to the de-tails, morning, noon and night. Perhaps, after several years, their businesses had a momen-tum, that churned the dollars, but without hands-on management, that progression usually faltered.

Shortcuts should never be confused with efficiency. They are two totally sepa-rate words and concepts. One will benefit you, the other will not. Shortcuts should be avoided in all aspects of your business, from hiring, to bookwork and installation. Over the years, I can write with absolute confi-dence, short cuts to success cost me money.

For my epilogue, I leave you with this: I wrote earlier in this column that my beloved mentor noted that I moved too fast for his liking when I was young. I was in too much of a hurry. Time passes. I am now a men-tor. An established business person watched with keen interest, my interactions with one of my young mentees. When we were by ourselves, the businessman spoke. He said, “I think your main job, as a mentor, is to keep him in check, otherwise he goes off in too many directions. Am I right?” He was right. A good mentor takes that youthful enthusi-asm that says, “I can do anything,” and chan-nels it in the right direction. Avoid shortcuts, embrace efficiency, learn the difference, and stay on the road to success. LT

Rod McDonald owned and

operated Lakeview Gardens,

a successful garden centre/

landscape firm in Regina,

Sask., for 28 years. He now

works full-time in the world

of fine arts, writing, acting

and producing in film, television and stage.


landscapeontarioupdateLandscape Trades devotes space in each issue to provincial association news. This issue features news from Landscape Ontario.

A prolonged cold and wet spring in 2011, followed immediately by searing summer heat, made for a challenging year for Landscape Ontario members. However, our members are resilient and resourceful, so in response to the difficulties encountered through hostile weather and sluggish economic news, LO hosted a number of think-tank meetings. These sector-specific events featured excellent speakers and consultants from the U.S. and Canada. The grower and garden centre think-tanks sparked some terrific idea sharing and creative exchange.

Several years ago, LO responded to the slower economy by redirecting resources into public messaging in order to stimulate demand for mem-bers’ products and services. This year, our director of public relations, Denis Flanagan, continued his work across the province with countless speaking engagements, radio and television appearances and print articles promoting Green for Life.

Canada Blooms co-locationIn 2011, Canada Blooms signed a co-location agreement with the National Home Show. Both shows ran side-by-side for 10 days in March 2012 at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. Canada Blooms is still owned by Landscape Ontario and the Garden Club of Toronto, and operates independently of the National Home Show, but the co-location draws greater audiences by allowing entrance to two shows for the price of one, and increased marketing efforts through combined advertising. Next year’s show runs alongside the National Home Show from March 15-24, 2013.

Community involvementThe volunteer gene within all our members means LO chapters are always looking for opportunities to give back within their own communities. Many chapters create special community gardens that provide a respite for people in need. The Ottawa chapter organizes an Annual Day of Tribute, where mem-bers volunteer their staff and services to help beautify and clean up Canada’s National Military Cemetery each fall. Other chapter projects include the Wind-sor hospice garden, the Community Living sensory garden in Trenton and the London chapter’s Veteran’s Memorial Parkway tree planting project.

St. James Park rejuvenationIn December 2011, LO members, along with the Ontario Sod Growers As-sociation, performed a two-day renovation of Toronto’s St. James Park, left in poor condition by Occupy protesters. Over 150 volunteers worked together to aerate and amend the compacted ground, resod the entire park, and mulch and prune damaged shrub beds. The workers received many thanks from grateful residents, as well as the mayor. Spearheaded by Kyle Tobin and Alan White of our lawn care sector group, the entire project from conception to completion came together in just one week.

Salt rate researchA great deal of work has been done in many northern countries to determine ideal salting rates for roads, but there is a gap in the understanding of rates for parking lots and sidewalks. The Snow and Ice Sector Group of LO is sup-porting research at the University of Waterloo to develop a broader knowledge


base of conditions to allow for the optimum selection of materials, application rates and techniques. Ironically, lighter than normal snow conditions for the past two years have slowed the results of the study.

Trial garden at LOThanks to the tireless efforts of Rodger Tschanz and his helpers, the Trial Gardens at LO continue to expand. This year, 800 rose bushes have been planted for trial alongside the annuals, perennials and vegetables. The Trial Gardens are located south of the building and can be seen from the 401, Canada’s busiest highway. In August, Landscape Ontario hosts an open house for industry members, and on a second day invites the public to see how the plants perform. Thanks also go to John Hewson, Gro-Bark, Putzer Nurseries and JC Bakker & Sons Nurseries, for their help with the gardens this year.

Toolkit for employersLandscape Ontario, Humber College and the Ontario Parks Association re-ceived funding from Employment Ontario to develop a human resources toolkit for horticultural businesses. Called The Growing People Resource, it provides guidance for employee recruitment and selection, employee reten-tion, a template for a policy and procedure manual and as well as an em-ployee manual. Thanks to Sally Harvey for spearheading and managing this valuable and useful project. Over 100 templates are available to download at http://www.horttrades.com/HRtoolkit. LT

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comingeventsSeptember 17-19, GLEE, Birmingham, U.K. www.gleebirmingham.com

September 19-20, CanWest Hort Show, Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, Vancouver, B.C. www.canwesthortshow.com

September 19-21, 22nd Annual National Compost Conference, Delta Centre-Ville, Montreal, Que. www.compost.org

September 19-22, IPPS Western Region Meeting, Ventura, Calif. www.ipps.org

September 20-21, IIDEX/NeoCon Canada, Direct Energy Centre, Toronto. www.iidexneocon.com

October 2-4, 10th Annual Canadian urban forest Conference, London Ont. www.cufc10.com

October 3-4, Canadian Greenhouse Conference, Scotiabank Convention Centre, Niagara Falls, Ont. www.canadiangreenhouseconference.com

October 10-13, IPPS Eastern Region Meeting, Brandywine Valley, Pa. www.ippseastern.com

October 10-13, Communities in Bloom 2011 National Symposium on Parks and Grounds and Awards Ceremonies, Edmonton, Alta. www.communitiesinbloom.ca

October 17-18, Expo 2012, Toronto Congress Centre, Toronto, Ont. www.loexpo.ca

October 17-20, CitiesAlive: 10th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, Congress Plaza, Chicago, Ill. www.citiesalive.org

October 25-26, Green Industry and Equip-ment Expo + Hardscape Expo, Kentucky Expo-sition Center, Louisville, Ky. www.gie-expo.com

November 4-6, International Irrigation Show, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. www.irrigationshow.org

November 14-16, fIHOQ Expo, Hotel des Sei-gneurs, Saint-Hyacinthe, Que. www.fihoq.qc.ca

November 15-16, Green Industry Show and Conference, Edmonton Expo Centre (Northlands), Edmonton, Alta. www.greenindustryshow.com

November 19-21, HortEast Conference and Trade Show, Halifax, N.S. www.horteast.ns.ca

November 27-29, GrowCanada Conference, The Weston Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. www.grocanadaconference.ca LT


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ACO Systems Inc 20 877-226-4255 [email protected] www.acocan.ca

AGCO Corporation 39 800-767-3221 [email protected] www.agcocorp.com

Atlas Polar Company Ltd 37 888-799-4422 [email protected] www.atlaspolar.com

Beaver Valley Stone 46 416-222-2424 [email protected] www.beavervalleystone.com

Caledon Treeland 43 800-268-9516 [email protected] www.treeland.ca

Cut Above Natural Stone 35 888-557-7625 www.cutabovenaturalstone.com

Dutchmaster Nurseries Limited 15 905-683-8211 [email protected] www.dutchmasternurseries.com

Echo Power Equipment Canada 23 877-324-6660 [email protected] www.echo.ca

Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd 11 905-845-2511 www.ford.ca

G & L Group 16 888-907-7258 [email protected] www.draglamsalt.com

General Motors of Canada Ltd 47 800-GM-DRIVE www.gmcanada.com

Hanson Hardscape Products 48 800-265-6496 [email protected] www.hansonhardscapes.com

John Deere Limited 17 www.johndeere.com

Oaks Concrete Products by Brampton Brick 2 800-709-OAKS [email protected] www.oakspavers.com

Permacon Group Inc 5 800-463-9278 www.permacon.ca

Pro Landscape by Drafix Software 33 800-231-8574 [email protected] www.prolandscape.com

Proven Winners 21 800-633-8859 www.colorchoiceplants.com

Specimen Trees Wholesale Nurseries Ltd 10 604-465-7122 [email protected] www.specimentrees.com

Stihl Limited 9 519-681-3000 [email protected] www.stihl.ca

Thames Valley Brick 42 905-637-6997 [email protected] www.thamesvalleybrick.com

The Salt Depot 32 905-479-1177 [email protected] www.saltdepot.ca

TIMM Enterprises Ltd 38 905-878-4244 www.timmenterprises.com

Turf Tech Inc 19 905-636-0731 [email protected]

Unilock Ltd 13 800-UNILOCK [email protected] www.unilock.com

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Documents

September 2012 Landscape Trades