QR Code Debate and Pictures For Next Week

Despite the rainy week, we have been busy here. Lots of plants going out the door. Thanks to all of you!

Before we get to the pictures and next week’s availability, I want to talk about QR codes. We have added these Quick Response (QR) codes to a lot of our tags. In case you don’t know what they do, the QR codes can be scanned by smart phone cameras which then takes the camera user to a website, video or shows them a text message of some sort. There are a lot of companies that are adding these QR codes to their products. The purpose of the QR codes that we use are to help the consumers succeed with the plants that they purchase from the garden centers by providing additional information about planting and growing at their convenience. Our QR codes take the consumers to a webpage dedicated to that plant or plant category (like a Tomatoes page) with information about that plant on that page or one click in. We feel that these QR codes help add value to our products that you are selling and if a customer can succeed in growing a plant they purchased from your store with a little help from a QR code then we are all winners.

Also while we are on the topic of new technology, have you seen A Garden Life, the consumer magazine that was recently launched bye GIE Media’s Horticulture Group? The magazine is geared towards tablet computers (iPads, etc.) and will have a lot of social media integration. In addition, IGS’s can join for free and be listed in the magazine’s geo-tags on maps when a person reading about a specific product wants to see who is nearby that may carry the product. You can click here for more information.

We have a lot of new items that have been added to next weeks availability so be sure to check out the forward availability in today’s email or fax. If you want to get our email, you can sign up for it at the top of the left side menu or tell your sales rep.

Some of our perennials are blooming and even it they aren’t, they are still colorful like the sedums.

The rest of the pictures are hodge-podge because it has been a hodge-podge day.