Cape Town - It was a good season by any measure. Two new garden centre branches were opened, the family business turned 50, and Nick Stodel continued as South African president of the International Garden Centre Association.
Then came the wild win – Stodels Milnerton beat a powerhouse of competition from the north of the country to win the National Garden Centre of the Year Award.
The gardening industry in Gauteng is estimated to be nearly five times the size of the local one, with substantially more garden centres.
So this year’s win for Stodels Milnerton was as much a shake-up for Gauteng as it was a glorious surprise for the Western Cape.
Not only did Milnerton beat the best garden centres in the north, situated in a belt from Pretoria to Potchefstroom, they also took out Stodels Bellville, the juggernaut garden retailing operation in the Stodels Nurseries Group.
For the first time ever, the green industry’s famous, historical and not wildly politically correct giant ivory Jimmie Malan Trophy made its way to the Western Cape.
“It’s all about the manager,” a stunned Stodels managing director Nick Stodel said as he accepted the green industry’s top retail award at the South African Nursery Association Convention in Limpopo recently.
The manager is Joanne Hawes, now known as the top garden centre manager in the country.
Hawes is modest, genuine and friendly. She has years of experience in retail, and made the move into the gardening industry retailing sector relatively recently.
Although she describes herself as a retailer rather than a horticulturist, one gets the impression that she knows a great deal more about plants that she admits.
Playing down her reputation as a strong team leader who pays attention to detail, Hawes says: “We specialise in having lots and lots of colour all year round.”
Milnerton is a cosmopolitan society, home to many different cultures, including many British, French and German people who have retired there, and love gardening.
“We specialise in stocking all the plants that they can grow in this area,” she says.
So h
ow did she really pull off the Western Cape’s biggest win in decades?
Hawes smiles, looks a little philosophical, and says: “There is a lot of luck involved in winning anything.
“We were really lucky this year and got it right when it mattered. It’s all been very exciting.”
The truth is that none of the 150 garden centres in the country ever knows what day or what time the two retail judges from the Garden Centre Association will arrive.
Their brief is to pay unannounced visits to all the garden centres annually, between September and November.
Their itinerary is top secret, and the possibility that they have been sighted in your town gives merchandising staff many sleepless nights.
Garden centre finalists in the competition also have no idea when the chief judge will arrive in February or March.
All garden centre staff attend feedback sessions hosted by the Garden Centre Association after the awards ceremony.
Despite the uncertainty about when the judges will arrive, garden centres that are always well stocked, beautifully merchandised and have a crack team waiting to talk to customers stand a good chance of winning in any month of the year.
“A garden centre can be really unlucky and get a visit from judges on a Monday morning after stocks have been flattened by a really good sales weekend,” Hawes says.
“We didn’t have that problem this year. We were looking really good when the judges arrived on both occasions in the competition.”
The five branches of the Stodels Group took home 21 awards in various retail categories at the convention. Stodels Milnerton also won the award for the Best Garden Care Department, and was placed in the top 10 garden centres in the country for the Best Indoor, Best Outdoor, Best Staff and General Display categories.
“We have consistently been placed in the awards over the years,”
Nick Stodel said. “But this is the first time that we have actually won the National Garden Centre of the Year Award. We are absolutely thrilled to receive this recognition from the Garden Centre Association.”
He added that the accolade was a reflection of hard work and effort on the part of the centre’s staff, and the guidance of manager Hawes.
Like the Milnerton branch, Stodels Bellville also received a platinum grading, while Stodels Nurseries Kenilworth and Somerset West received silver gradings. The Constantia branch got a bronze grading.
“We pride ourselves on giving customers the best service, advice and plants at our garden centres, which is why we have a return policy,” Stodel says, adding that training of staff is crucial.
“We employ 43 qualified horticulturists. We are always striving to improve standards and offer regular talks, workshops, gardener training, loyalty cards, a money-back guarantee on all plants, and in-depth information and tutorials on our website.”
* For more information, visit www.stodels.com
GENERAL GARDEN TIPS
* Now is the time to plant spectacular colour perennials such as the spring-flowering osteospermum and lavender.
* Plant out early summer bedding plants as these become available. But don’t be in a hurry to fill up the garden as October is also an excellent planting month, and not all the varieties are ready early in the season. Try begonias for shade, or petunias, salvias and marigolds for a sunny border.
* Start planning and preparing your summer flower garden. Take out late winter-flowering bedding plants once they are past their prime. Clear the beds, dig in plenty of compost and a dressing of super phosphate or bone meal.
* Sow tomatoes, brinjals and peppers in seedling trays. Prepare the soil in vegetable beds and start sowing seed of carrots, lettuce and cabbage directly into the beds.
* Sow seed of summer-flowering annuals directly into beds; try marigolds, nasturtium, cosmos, zinnia or sunflowers.
* Now is the time to plant the tubers of summer-flowering yellow, pink, apricot and red arums. These sun-loving arums will flower in mid-summer and be dormant in winter. As the descendants of indigenous arums, they grow well in rich, composted soil, and should be planted in direct sunlight. Water and fertilise them regularly.
* Sprinkle a teaspoon of aluminium sulphate around the roots of your hydrangeas to improve the colour of blue hydrangeas. Place a 5cm layer of mulch or compost around the roots to conserve moisture. - Weekend Argus