By Elizabeth Petersen. Growers, transporters. and retailers must work. together so plants hit retail. shelves safely and in pristine.

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1 curt kipp n o u f t h g i De a v i r Ar UL AL together so pants hit retai sheves safey and in pristine condition the inventory. A pants have to meet A s exacting standards to make it to the retai foor. There is amost aways some materia that won t make the grade, Bigej said. n o u f t h g Dei riva Ar and retaiers must work u on a booming nursery A Growers, transporters ssistant store manager Noah Gustafson of A s Garden Center, Sherwood, Ore., carefuy inspects a A pant shipment to make sure everything has arrived in saeabe condition. Sometimes pants don t arrive in the best shape, but many growers, such as Booming Nursery in Corneius, Ore., make sure pants are we-protected (beow). Booming uses open-waed crate-ike structures that have varying shef heights depending on the pants shipped. By Eizabeth Petersen 50 Retai customers expect beautifu pants, and won t she out their precious doars for anything ess. But occasionay, the pants that arrive on the truck are in no condition to be sod. Mark Bigej, chief operating officer for A s Garden Centers a three-store retai chain in the Portand, Ore. area has seen his share of victims. I think growers woud be surprised at how manged pants are sometimes when they get to us, especiay in spring, he said. A s grows neary 90 percent of the pant materia it ses, but other pant vendors aso contribute to A simpe test This probem is not excusive to A s. No matter how carefuy growers try to secure their pants for safe trave, shipping is hard on pants, and retaiers reject any that don t make the grade. Every pant matters, and we can t afford a ratty pant, Bigej said. So when trucks arrive at A s, we ook at every pant as it comes off the truck for breakage, heath and other concerns, Bigej said. Tim Mouzakis, nursery buyer for A s, tries to be on hand when deiveries come in. The question he uses to judge a pant is pretty simpe: Woud you buy it? We expect pants to be rooted out we and fi the pot, he said. Pants need to be eveny shaped, not the bottom of the crop. 49

2 DELIGHTFUL ON ARRIVAL OUR GOAL is to hep you reduce production hours whie increasing your profitabiity by matching your unique operation with the right systems. ASK US about systems for transpanting, trimming, materia handing, fertiizing and other key functions. WE CARRY Mayer potting machines, Green Ef fertiizing units and more SW Hisboro Hwy Hisboro, OR TEL: FAX: e-mai: Tit Sticks 1X1-8 or cut to your ength 2x2-8 or cut to your ength 1x2-8 or cut to your ength Tree Stakes F & L Lumber, Inc. Speciaizing in Nursery Lumber Needs! Where Great Customer Service is a Given! Ca Frank Container/B & B Paets Gates/Gate Boards 1x4-8 or cut to ength Shipping Racks Phone: To Free: FAX: E-mai: FLLUMBER@AOL.COM If an order of winter interest pants arrives without berries, pants are rejected. Patty Howe, marketing assistant for A s, said that housepants, citrus pants/trees and orchids are susceptibe to damage during trave. Sometimes pants are too boomed out, and we want pants with tight boom, and even with tight packing, sometimes there are gitches aong the way. A box of echeverias that arrived recenty ooked as if it had been turned upside down and shaken, she recaed. The vendor repaced the whoe box, and when it arrived, the pants were packed more safey with soft batting. Bachman s, based in Minneapois, Minn., operates seven retai garden centers. On top of that, the company whoesaes pants to other garden centers, nurseries and andscapers. It packs and deivers its own ine of product. The company s saes tabes are augmented with the finest product from the industry s best growers, incuding pants from Oregon, said John Danies, vice president of production and whoesae. Pants have to be in very good condition, he said, and it is so important that the condition of the pants dictates who we buy from. Pants used to arrive demoished reguary, said Danies, but growers in Oregon and Washington have addressed the probem. Move it from Oregon Oregon growers export more than 75 percent of their nursery stock outside the state, so they have to be proficient at good packing practices to assure safe deivery. Van Essen Nursery, a whoesae grower based in Lebanon, Ore., ships pants to destinations a over the United States and Canada, so it needs to assure the arriva quaity of its container and fied-grown rhododendrons, broadeaf evergreens, deciduous shrubs, conifers and decorative grasses. 50

3 Marketpace A the pants that fit. Pick up the 2009 Directory & Buyers Guide. Visit or ca HOSTETLER FARM DRAINAGE Pastic Tubing 3"-24" Laser Grade Contro Open Ditch for Buried Irrigation Pows and Trenches Pot-n-Pot Drainage Odest Drainage Firm in Oregon Newest Subsurface Irrigation Techniques Canby, OR Materias and Technica Assistance Avaiabe 51 Marketpace 52 Our shipping crew is committed to carefu handing, owner Dave Van Essen said. Proper stacking and oading with adequate gating and ocks hep secure the oad. Our guys are trained to know how to stack what where, he said. We band bushy pants, seeve tender pants and use mesh netting on britte pants. Transportation probems can aso be avoided if the pants are propery watered before oading and the foiage is dry. Pants shoud be heathy with cean foiage and ready to se even though pants may take a day or two to regain shape from stacking, according to Van Essen. As Grace Dinsdae, president of Booming Nursery, in Corneius, Ore., put it, We ve moved a ot of pants. Since 1982, Dinsdae s operation has perfected moving pants safey. Roughy 3 miion pants are packed and moved a year now, and 80 percent of them are finished and retai ready. That s a ot of herbaceous perennias, annuas, groundcovers, herbs, ornamenta grasses, shrubs and vines packed and sent to customers in the western U.S. We have very itte damage, she said. The shipping soution for Booming Nursery is to assembe orders on ta racks with sheves that adjust to the exact height of the pants. The racks hod the pants snugy and the top shef is shrink-wrapped to keep pants from hopping off. The system reduces the time and abor to oad and keeps the pants the safest, a high priority for a growers, since damaged pants are of no use to a retai garden center. It is better to take steps to protect the pants than to ose the vaue of them, Dinsdae said. Extremes of temperature are hard to guard against, so the safest shipping is in fa and spring. Even so, since weather is so variabe across the coun-

4 DELIGHTFUL ON ARRIVAL try, the nursery counts on customers to ask for a shipping deay if extreme weather is anticipated. Refrigerated traiers essen the risk on more distant routes in summer, but not for the surprise spring or fa freeze or scorcher. Liners and bareroot divisions are packed in boxes to be buetproof. Each fat of iners is packed tighty, stuffed with shredded paper to eiminate air space and covered with expandabe nyon netting. Even if the carrier mishandes boxes which happens at east when they arrive, they are sti inside the net bag, and sti usabe, Dinsdae said. Who s responsibe? Often growers use outside carriers to deiver pants, which produces its own set of issues. Neither grower nor retaier has much contro, but greater distances put pants at more risk, especiay the deicate ones. Booming Nursery s own trucks fu of oaded racks deiver to customers in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah. To Aaska, Coorado and beyond, a more expensive and ess certain shipping soution sends one-way, wooden, sheved paets via common carrier. This can be a risky dea, since the carriers don t guarantee that the pants wi arrive without any damage. Oregon s Monrovia moves a ot of pants too. Amost 70 percent of fowering shrubs, vines and perennias grown there go to customers in the upper 52 curt kipp Duane Stanton of A s Garden Center checks over a pant shipment from Monrovia Growers to make sure everything is in good shape and propery tagged. This shipment passed the inspection with fying coors. Midwest, Northeast corridor, Southeast and a of Canada. Shipping Coach Jay Penninger manages transportation and shipping for Monrovia. It starts in February with potted dormant pants. The outfow of finished pants cooks in March and peaks as Mother s Day approaches in May, with a itte boom in September, when fa and winter interest pants go out. A sma feet of Monrovia s own trucks handes deiveries on the West Coast, but the majority of deiveries are trucked by a base of about 25 carriers, arge and sma, incuding many brokerages headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. The top priority for Monrovia is working with reiabe carriers and drivers. Drivers must be courteous, cam and professiona, Penninger said. Moreover, drivers need to show up as panned and make deiveries on time. A drivers are shown a video that expains company expectations as we as detais about hand-stacked, mutidrop oads, the unoading process and paperwork. Drivers ca in daiy en route to report their ocation and progress and contact customers directy with a 24-hour notice. At peak times, Monrovia has as many as 180 trucks in transit. We spend a ot of time tracking traiers, which heps cut probems with deays, Penninger said. Crews train to oad trucks, too. When Monrovia pants get to Bachman s in Minnesota, the adjustabe, coapsibe

5 Marketpace FRENCH PRAIRIE SHADE TREES, INC. Whoesae Growers of Quaity B&B Specimen Trees (503) FAX (503) Manning Rd. NE Gervais, Oregon Specimen Trees Speciaizing in Quaking Aspen & Wind-Breaking Popars. B & B CONIFER 2019 SW Park Lane Arborvitae - Emerad green Cuver, Oregon '-5', '-6', 6'-7', 7'-8', 8-10' Virescens 4'-5', 5'-6', 6'-7', 7-8', 8-10' Boxwood various sizes & varieties Schurter Nursery green Arborvitae Emerad Virescens Boxwood Japanese Mapes Otto Luyken Skip Laure Various sizes & Varieties John E. Burrow, Jr. CIC Agribusiness Department Manager john.burrow@bankofthewest.com 7618 S.W. Mohawk Street direct P.O. Box to free Tuaatin, OR ce Marketpace Sma Investment. Huge Impact. Reach over 8,000 Digger subscribers with an ad in the Digger Marketpace. Contact Chris Sweet csweet@oan.org Marketpace Eizabeth Petersen writes for gardeners and garden businesses, coaches students and writers, and tends a one-acre garden in West Linn, Ore. She can be reached at gardenwrite@comcast.net. meta racks are emptied, disassembed and stockpied unti a oad is picked up by a return ogistics provider for return to Oregon. Dave Van Essen said, We minimize issues with drivers by treating them we. Drivers are king. We oad ate in the day and into the night to get drivers out before morning, and we have a scae avaiabe to give them their weight. Monrovia aso educates its customers about receiving refrigerated nursery stock. Hoding pants at 55 F greaty reduces transpiration, reducing the water requirements, according to a company document. If pants wit when unoaded on a hot day, customers shoud spray the tops as soon as they come off the traier and put pants temporariy in a shaded spot to encourage safe adjustment to summer conditions. Other factors merit consideration too, and the retaier has to bear some responsibiity, said Danies of Bachman s. Most sources agree that the key to success is to buid reationships with reputabe suppiers and to specify expectations and quaity standards. Buyers shoud visit and get to know growers to make sure that quaity standards match, he said. Van Essen concurred that both retaiers and growers need to communicate their expectations. Buyers shoud be confident that the quaity they receive is the same as what they have communicated to the grower, he said. Good communication is the key, and expectations must be ceary expressed both ways. When a customer has a probem with a pant deivery, sources stressed the importance of documenting issues and contacting the suppier immediatey to tak over a probem and seek a soution. Digita photos are a must, Van Essen said.