GardenDesignOnline

Hi Tech Guy Meets Landscaping

Who'd have thought that Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer Corporation, was also a guy who liked flowers? Apparently, he was so taken with the landscaping project that ValleyCrest did at his Austin, TX, home, he bought 51 percent of the company back in 2006.  ValleyCrest is the largest landscape design, site construction, and landscape maintenance company in the country.

According to an article in today's New York Times about Dell & ValleyCrest, the landscape company has been growing at a rate of about 12 percent a year and expects revenue in 2009 to total a shopping one billion. The company's co-CEO Richard Sperber joked that "It's been tough to communicate the state of the economy to the trees and convince them to stop growing."  Read the entire Times article here -- about the company's history and its progression from highway beautification to massive landscape design projects around the world. 

Jackson & Perkins Sold to New Owners

Harry and David Holdings, Inc., has announced the sale of its Jackson & Perkins rose business, which it has owned for the past 41 years.  Jackson & Perkins, founded in 1872, is the largest marketer of premium rose plants in the United States, with sales of $74 million over the past 12 months.  The company grows about six million rose plants every year.

Harry and David CEO Bill Williams told the Medford, OR Mail Tribune that although there's been an emotional attachment to Jackson & Perkins, the company can now focus on its main business of gifts & food.  Harry & David has had several owners since the 1980's, and is now owned by Wasserstein & Co, LP.

The company will be sold to a Florida investment group led by Donald and Glenda Hachenberger, who own a technology company, Southern Sun, in Hodges, SC, which licenses technology, materials and equipment for plant propagation.  The Hachenbergers also have a partial stake in the Park Seed Company.  The sale includes Jackson & Perkins' brand, it's catalog, direct marketing and wholesale business, e-commerce website, rose inventory and patents.  A private investment company is buying Jackson & Perkins' 3200 acres of land, buildings, and equipment in Wasco, CA. 

The deal is expected to close by June 30th. Chas Fox, president of Southern Sun, and who will also be the new president of Jackson & Perkins, told the newspaper that the purchase was an "ideal opportunity" for his company because Jackson & Perkins is the most  recognizable brand in the horticulture industry.

(image: Midas Touch Rose, Jackson & Perkins)

Cool Springs Move

Cool Springs Press, publisher of many gardening titles, has been sold back to its original founder by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  The move came less than four months after Nelson was acquired by a private equity firm, InterMedia Partners.  Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt said that Cool Springs books are sold in outlets where the firm can't sell its other products (such as home improvement stores) and that the content can't be exploited by the company's other product divisions.

Cool Springs now returns to its original owner, Roger Waynick, who sold the imprint to Nelson in 2001 and has worked as a consultant for them in the past several years. Waynick, president of Waynick Books, said that Cool Springs has "the finest library of garden books available in the country" and he believes those assets will allow the company to grow internally and also through other strategic acquisitions. Waynick bought the entire 200 title Cool Springs backlist, but he told Publishers Weekly that gardening books will become a smaller part of Waynick's sales. "We are looking at growing the business by publishing books where the consumer can be identified, be they cooks, sports fans, or anyone else we can reach," he said. 

Design Medals 2006

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced its 2006 medal winners, to be presented at the organization's annual meeting in Minneapolis this coming October. This year's design medal goes to landscape architect Steve Martino, FASLA, of Phoenix, AZ, who was the first person to really figure out how to landscape in the desert. 

Martino's bold and dramatic designs are identified with the natural southwest landscape.  His lush combinations of native plants for color, texture, and form are very distinctive. His pioneering use of plants that require very little water has inspired countless others to practice xeriscaping and sustainable design.

(photo: Steve Martino)

Workman Acquires Timber Press

Workman Publishing, a large, independent publisher of trade books, has acquired Timber Press, the premiere US publisher of garden books.  Timber will retain its name and remain based in Portland, Oregon, and it's expected to work closely with Storey Books, a Workman subsidiary that is the leading US publisher of illustrated, how-to, country-living books.

According to Workman, the combination of Storey and Timber, along with Workman's own gardening titles, will create "the strongest collection of professional and consumer gardening books available."

Workman founder Peter Workman said "the addition of Timber and its highly regarded program allows us to energetically and fully serve the gardening audience, from the beginning enthusiast to the professional."  Bob Conklin, owner and President of Timber Press, said he's proud of Timber's "unique position in horticultural publishing" and expressed confidence that "our peerless authors and outstanding staff will continue to flourish."

Timber has more than 400 titles in print and a number of well-known authors, including Michael Dirr, Tracey DiSabato-Aust, Rick Darke, Noel Kingsbury, Piet Oudolf, and Allan Armitage. Storey Publishing is located in North Adams, MA, and publishes about 40 new titles a year on gardening, cooking, crafts, home reference, and other subjects. Workman, founded in 1968, publishes adult and juvenile trade books and calendars. It's best known titles include the Silver Palate cookbooks, B. Kliban's Cat, and The Official Preppy Handbook.

Negotiations between the two companies concluded the last week of May.  The terms of agreement between the two privately-owned companies were not announced.

Take That Book Outside & Read

Atlanta got a new garden this week, and what a great story it is. A community reading garden is now in place at the Wren's Nest Museum and Storytelling Center -- former home of Joel Chandler Harris, who gave us B'rer Rabbit, Br'er Fox and others in the Uncle Remus Tales.  The museum's outdoor storytelling area, long overgrown with kudzu and other undesirables, is now aglow with forsythia, azaleas, camellias, and other eye-catching plants. Marshall Thomas, chairman of the Joel Chandler Harris Association, which manages the museum, told the Atlanta Constitution newspaper that the garden enhances the neighborhood.  "It lets people know we have a quiet, serene place of beauty," he said.

The garden was a gift from Troy-Bilt, a manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment, and it is among nine reading gardens that the company is installing in several cities across the country.  The first garden (left) went in earlier this year in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Later this year, other reading gardens will be created in Charlotte, NC, Dallas, Louisville, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and New York City.

According to Heidi Ketvertis of Troy-Bilt, "a community reading garden brings people together and improves the environment." She said when gardens are devoted to reading "it adds the benefit of encouraging a love of books and learning."
The company is one of the national sponsors of the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup (TM) program.

The Wren's Nest  is a  Queen Anne style farmhouse bought by Harris is 1883.  It became a museum in 1913 and was designated a historic landmark in 1962.  It's located at 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd in Atlanta, (404) 753-7735.
(photos: Atlanta: Troy-Bilt; Biloxi: Keep America Beautiful)

 

 

Mod Pots & More

Where has this stuff been all my life?  Somebody's getting a bit more hip about too much terracotta and too much tradition, and what a welcome development.  Finally, finally, a container company -- in this case, Campania International, Inc -- is importing these great-looking pots from the Eschbach Group, with headquarters in Germany and a leading European manufacturer of garden containers.  Campania is now the exclusive distributor of Eschbach's glazed pottery, cast iron, hand-pressed terracotta and lightweight garden pots and urns.  Campania CEO Glenn Appel says Eschbach's "exclusive cutting edge designs in a variety of materials beautifully complement the cast stone products we manufacture here in the United States."

For those gardeners who want a piece of history on their property, Campania launched another collection of containers, benches, fountains and more to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA.  The entire collection is patterned after originals at Longwood.

(photos: Campania International)

Garden Antiques Midwest Showroom

Olde Good Things, a supplier of fine architectural antiques, is a favorite of many garden designers because of its wide inventory of antique garden urns, fountains, benches, fences, and you name it.

With a huge warehouse in Scranton, PA, and showrooms in New York City and Los Angeles, Olde Good is about to open another showroom in downtown Chicago on W. Grand Avenue.
The estimated opening date is October 20th.

LA Chosen for New Miami Beachfront Museum

The board of trustees of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust in Miami, Florida, has chosen BEA International Inc. of Coral Gables, Fla. and Huff & Gooden Architects LLC of Charleston, SC to design and build the country's first beachfront museum.  Renowned landscape architect Walter Hood, of Hood Design in Oakland, CA, will design the museum's gardens and grounds.  Hood, an African-American, is a professor and former chair of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California at Berkeley.

The museum will honor Miami's once-segregated "colored-only beach" and preserve the beach's natural habitat and its many native species.  Virginia Key is part of a chain of barrier islands that stretch from Miami south to Key West.  Virginia Key, Key Biscayne and Miami Beach are part of the natural island chain that forms the northeastern boundary of Biscayne Bay.

            

ScottsMiracle-Gro Grows

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has completed its acquisition of the Rod McLellan Company, which sells soil and landscape products in the western part of the United States.  Scott's chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn said the addition of McLellan's Supersoil(R), Whitney Farms(TM) and Black Magic(R) brands will help the company improve its supply chain "to better serve our retail customers."

Scott's Miracle-Gro is the world's leading supplier of branded products for consumer lawn and garden care.  In the U.S., its best known brands are Miracle-Gro(R), Scotts(R), Ortho(R) and Roundup(R).