Glowing and Growing

Anthony Tesselaar's garden in the summer and his thoughts...

Strangely winter is the time I think most of summers past. Last year my garden looked glorious. I say this not in a smug way, but rather in gratitude because the reasons for all its beauty were out of my control: pleasant temperatures and ample, well-timed rainfall. All I had to do was to wander about outside then come inside to chant a mantra of sorts to anyone who was within earshot – “I can’t believe how much everything has grown”, or the other version of this which goes something like, “the plants are literally glowing”.

Glowing and growing – that’s all any good gardener wants, and I was lucky enough to have it happening in my garden because Mother Nature was being very generous. But then we all know she isn’t always so kind. Which is why it’s good to have a couple of aces up your sleeve, which I do. By way of explanation here’s an analogy...

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What women want: the rise of branded plants

From perfume to kitchen products, cars to white goods, groceries to running shoes, consumers are trained to buy branded products. The majority of products in the marketplace are branded. People buy brands because they want security, and trust: it’s no good having designer-branded shoes if the stitching is shoddy.

So what is so different about plants?

Tesselaar Plants was at the forefront of plant branding in the early 1990s, marketing the Flower Carpet® ground cover rose and the Canna Tropicanna around the world. While a growing number of plants are now actively marketed with a brand name, company founder Anthony Tesselaar believes that the gardening industry still has an old fashioned male viewpoint.

‘Men’s buying decisions are about practical solutions and cost. The gardening industry often sells plants based on the practicalities of size, height, colour, and cost, but buyers are looking for much more. Women are the end consumers of nearly all the major products bought in the world, and they think about how something looks, whether they have trust in the product, how easy it is to use, and how they feel about it. I have never heard my wife go into a shop and ask to see the cheapest dress. She will first see if it is right for her – this can mean brand, style, colour, size, fashion - and then, and only then, will she look at the price, to see if she can justify the purchase.’

But Tesselaar warns that a catchy name is not enough: ‘Not every branded plant is a good plant, and consumers know when they are being duped. A brand must stand for something, and deliver what it promises. A plants need to be tested for years to ensure consumers can trust it to perform, will buy more, and will recommend it to their friends. The more confidence consumers have that they are buying a product that will perform, the more profitable the industry will be.’