Cultivating relationships

Photo courtesy of Cavano’s Perennials

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Cavano’s Perennials strives to be the leaders in both quality plants and customer service as well as the go-to supplier for garden centers, horticulturists, universities and landscapers alike. In order to a cater to a diverse client base, Cavano’s leans on Emerald Coast Growers to provide high-quality grass and perennial liners.

“Emerald Coast Growers has been a very important partner in supplying us with large quantities of premium grass and herbaceous perennial plugs to fulfill our customers’ needs,” says Ferenc Kiss, president of Cavano’s Perennials. The grass liners, in particular, are often larger and fuller than the products that Kiss has seen from other growers.

The story of Cavano’s Perennials began with a small farm that was created to respond to their retail customers’ need for cut flowers and field mums. It was 1978, perennials were still uncommon. However, as the customers came for the cut flowers, they began inquiring about purchasing the plants themselves. Little did founders Marlene and George Cavano know, it was this 5-acre farm that would eventually lead them into an entirely new business, one focused on growing perennials for garden centers and wholesalers.

Photo courtesy of Cavano’s Perennials

The Cavanos began selling the potted perennials first to their cut flower customers and eventually to local garden centers. Today, it is a 30-acre nursery specializing in growing containerized herbaceous perennials, ferns and grasses to the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the U.S. “We now grow over 700 choices of plants including a large assortment of native and sustainable plants,” Kiss says.

Cavano’s Perennials and its 50 employees are committed to the needs of their community. “As a company, we are involved in working with several organizations in promoting education about horticulture including sponsoring symposiums and lectures, supporting scholarships, and participating in studies with our extension service,” Kiss says. Currently, Cavano’s is working with the University of Maryland on their pollinator/beneficial insect project and is a sponsor for several symposiums including the next Garden Writers Asocciation Next Gen Summit at Longwood Gardens. “There are so many outstanding speakers out here that we decided to just bring people together by sponsoring events,” Kiss says. “Emerald Coast Growers often joins us as a sponsor.

“It is our focus to exceed in all of our customers’ needs and the desire to make the world a more beautiful place through horticulture,” he adds. Their long-term partnership with Emerald Coast Growers has enabled Cavano’s Perennials to continue to connect their customers to a hundreds of plant varieties, bringing premium plant material to their client base.

When asked about measuring the value of the business relationship, Kiss shares that they have created a bond that cannot be measured in numbers. Over the years, the two have worked together to unveil the products that would best respond to their consumers’ needs. “We would recommend Emerald Coast Growers not only because of their plants, but also their people,” Kiss says. “We have relationships with members of the Emerald Coast team that are decades long and still growing.” — Anne-Marie Hardie