A winning gameplan for spring

© Photos courtesy of Flowerwood Nursery

With the storied rivalry between Alabama and Auburn heating up just hours away, it's no surprise that football analogies often find their way into discussions about spring planning in the heart of the South.

“Just like preparing for the big game, you have to plan,” says Todd Carnley, vice president of sales and marketing at Flowerwood Nursery, headquartered on 410 acres of production in Loxley, Alabama (which serves as its distribution and propagation hub), and with 100 acres of production in Mobile and 60 acres in Cairo, Georgia. “You play the game, and some things are going to work out really well, and some things you’re going to need to work on at practice next week or in the offseason. It’s that continuous improvement that makes you a little bit better every year.”

Flowerwood supplies major big box retailers like Lowe's, The Home Depot and Walmart, as well as independent retailers and large-scale rewholesalers. Through its partnership with Plant Development Services, Inc. (PDSI), Flowerwood consistently introduces new plant varieties to the market.

“Heading into (2025), we can support an outrageously good spring with the plants we have right now,” Carnley says. “But if things are a bit softer, then we’re going to pivot and work a little bit harder to match our customers with the plants we have.”

Greenhouse Management talked to Carnley about market conditions, challenges, preparations and  for spring 2025.

Greenhouse Management: What market conditions are you forecasting for spring 2025? What do you anticipate will be the most significant challenges you’ll need to overcome?

Todd Carnley: Absolutely, market conditions are a primary challenge for us heading into this spring. We’re very much concerned about the economy and consumer health. So, we’ve looked at housing starts, which — as of September — were abbout 8 to 10% above where they were the previous year. While that’s a good sign, we do know consumers remain under stress with inflation. So, we need to make sure we’re delivering value to consumers at the end of the day.

Another challenge or concern is the weather. We grow primarily woody ornamentals, so the majority of our plants are outside. We do have some greenhouses, but we have to cover plants with cloth in the event of a severe freeze, which would slow some things down. And we've been fortunate that we've not experienced a severe freeze over the last few years. Nonetheless, a major concern is getting through the winter and what the weather looks like in the spring.

And hiring and (labor) retention are always a concern. While we use the H-2A program, it seems like the costs continue to increase for labor. So, while we feel good about our labor situation, we continue to work to try to control the costs associated with it.

GM: What preparations best position your operations for spring?

TC: We have a three-year production plan in place, and we have that broken down with quantity and a ready date. So, in other words, we know what the sales group is asking for on March or April 1, so it's not ambiguous what we need for spring. Then our production team will take that and reverse engineer it. They will look at it and determine what’s required to have it ready on April 1.

The other thing we do is we have a lot of equipment that, at this point, requires maintenance. So, a lot of time right now is spent making sure the wheels are working and that the tractors are in good condition.

The things we need to do to prepare for spring is a marathon, but spring is a sprint. It’s 100 days, if we’re lucky. Two to three of those weeks, everyone is stressed to the max. We just try to calm everyone down and remind them we can all take a breath at the finish line.

GM: What do you anticipate will be the biggest difference between spring 2024 and spring 2025?

TC: Last spring, we felt like the market may be softer (than in previous years). Early on, it wasn’t that way. We had a spectacular February, March and April, and then it tailed off hard in May, but we expected that.

So, I’d say the expectations for us are different for (spring 2025) than it was last spring. Spring is like a fingerprint ... no two are the same. It’ll be interesting to see what the weather has in store for us and if the stress of inflation starts to weigh on consumer spending.

GM: What excites you about spring 2025?

TC: If you’re not positive in this business, then you’re going to go home crying every night. I enjoy learning how consumers are going to react to these new plants we’re bringing to market this spring. Do they like them? Did they get excited? And if they don’t and you’re wrong, then fail fast. Take what you’ve learned, make an adjustment, and move on to the next thing.

Mike Zawacki is a Cleveland-based writer and frequent contributor to GIE Media’s horticulture publications.