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  Casertano developed color-coded tags that correspond with its Color Made Simple perennial program. | |||||
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Plug production Christmas crops More pictures | |||||
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By Kelli Rodda When John Casertano entered the family greenhouse business 10 years ago, he realized quickly the responsibility of marketing was falling in the lap of this wholesale grower. Consumers were intimidated by Latin names and were unfamiliar with cultural requirements. Casertano set out to design a program that made buying perennials as easy as buying annuals. As a result, N. Casertano Greenhouses & Farms in Cheshire, Conn., introduced Color Made Simple, a color-coded pot and tag system for perennials in 1992. "Consumers didn't know what to grow where, and it was a big barrier for sales," Casertano said. "Our idea of colored pots made it easy for consumers to know where any given perennial goes in the garden." The simple program consists of three colors. Yellow signifies full-sun plants, orange represents partial shade and purple denotes full shade. Color made simple Casertano soon realized marketing to consumers was an extremely successful plan. "Our (wholesale) customers didn't need to be marketed to, but their customers did," he said. About two years later, Casertano introduced color-coded tags and point-of-purchase material to accompany the Color Made Simple pots. It was so successful, the grower trademarked the pot colors and the phrase "Color Made Simple." "We tried to carry this program through to all of the perennials we grow, but we found out that it wasn't as successful in the 1- and 2-gallon varieties," he said. "It was difficult for the retailers to maintain the displays by pot color, so instead we carried the color through to tags for the gallons. It's a more subtle presentation, but with the POP material, it's just as effective." The quart sizes still use colored pots and are sold in carrier trays to help keep them merchandised correctly. Rapid Plastics manufactures the pots and Horticultural Printers supplies the tags. The grower's catalog also carries the color scheme. Color Made Simple plant material is marketed to both independent garden centers and big-box retailers. Groundcovers made simple After the success of the Color Made Simple program, Casertano wanted to market more of his products to consumers. About six years ago he realized groundcovers were becoming more popular in part because people were going back to more traditional Northeast landscape, he said. Consequently, Mow-No-More was born. Mow-No-More appealed to the carefree personality of gardeners. Its POP material features a gardener relaxing in a lawn chair, sipping a drink with the lawnmower resting beside him. It's marketed as a low-maintenance product and includes almost exclusively shade-loving groundcovers. "Mow-No-More products are used in areas where people have trouble growing grass or are just plain tired of growing grass," Casertano said. The company started growing groundcovers in 20-cell trays so consumers would better understand how much to plant. Typically, groundcovers were sold in open flats with no distinction between cuttings, he said. Mow-No-More plants are available with tags, signs and racks for merchandising. Before Color Made Simple or Mow-No-More were developed, Casertano's marketing efforts started with its logo, a subtle design of the letters "N, C, G and F." "We wanted to remind our retail customers where the material came from without giving our name to the end consumer," he said. "In the Northeast in particular, there's a strong independent garden center base and there's a fear among retailers that some of their customers will go directly to the wholesalers. Because we target the end consumer with our marketing campaigns, we wanted to avoid that conflict. So our name does not appear on our products, just the logo." Taking the next step Once the Mow-No-More marketing campaign picked up speed, Casertano wanted to expand the groundcover program. "We were getting calls for alternatives to the traditional groundcover varieties but were either unfamiliar with them or not sure how best to market them," he said. About that time he met Frances Hopkins, president of Under A Foot Plant Co. in Salem, Ore., and creator of the Stepables groundcover program. Stepables features groundcovers for pathways and borders. "We realized immediately that the Stepables program was a natural continuation of our own groundcover program," he said. Hybrid growing operation Casertano's growing procedures are a hybrid between nursery and greenhouse production, he said. The grower offers a broad line of products such as perennials -- in quarts, gallons and plugs -- annuals, clematis, grasses, ferns, vegetables and poinsettias. Casertano grows traditional greenhouse crops, but he also grows perennials indoors and outdoors, much like a nursery. "Because of the line of products we offer and the way we grow them, we cross over into two distinct fields in the industry," he said. Greenhouse space must be flexible because of the hybrid nature of the operation. There are three types of greenhouses at the Cheshire location -- Westbrook gutter-connected ranges, Growell free-standing hoop houses and one free-standing Metropolitan glass house that dates back to the 1940s, Casertano said. "We've installed the least amount of limiting factors in our structures," he said. "We try to build structures that are open and flexible with good environmental control so we're not held to one crop." For example, one house is used to grow poinsettias, 1-quart perennials and 2-gallon hardy hibiscus. "By using the same space for several different crops, we must schedule a very distinct finish and start date to allow a particular period of time where the house is empty to be thoroughly cleaned or sterilized, if needed," he said. "That makes scheduling a little more complicated." Casertano previously scheduled production on Excel spreadsheets. But recently he installed Arc Growing software. The grower also propagates 90 percent of its annuals and perennials. Casertano uses hoop houses for perennial propagation because it allows him to have 60F houses next to 30F houses in a relatively small space, he said. Casertano propagates 1.8 million plugs a year. Perennials are started and vernalized in 72-cell trays, then transplanted into 1-quart or 1- or 2-gallon containers. Growing transformation Casertano Greenhouses & Farms was founded by John's grandfather, Louis, in 1935 as a vegetable farm. Then John's father, Nicholas, started the greenhouse and nursery business in 1963. In the beginning Casertano offered annuals and groundcovers. John joined the business in 1993 and started perennial production.
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