On the cutting edge

McGregor chief executive officer and owner Cathy McClintock said the decision on which varieties to produce “came down to figuring out how to grow the mother stock and produce the cuttings.”For more than 15 years, horticultural broker McGregor Plant Sales, headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., has partnered with grower Florexpo S.A. in the Central Valley of Costa Rica to supply customers worldwide with unrooted cuttings that now number more than 900 varieties. The two companies pioneered perennial unrooted cutting production.

“With certain perennials we never seemed to have enough available for demand so we asked Florexpo to figure out how to produce an unrooted cutting,” said McGregor chief executive officer and owner Cathy McClintock. “Once customers saw we were handling the tough varieties, they gave suggestions on what else to grow.”

McClintock, a 22-year employee of the company who purchased the business in April 2009 after the death of founder Tom McGregor, said it helped that the two companies’ philosophies closely mirrored each other. From the beginning both companies were determined to make the experience seamless for the customer.

The late Tom McGregor and Florexpo founder Fernando Altmann knew each other and worked together for years. They had talked about how to leverage each other’s strengths.

By 1996 Florexpo had grown from 4½ acres to nearly 70 acres of greenhouse-grown cut flowers and McGregor had significantly expanded its customer base.

“It was and still is a perfect match,” said Altmann. “When McGregor was still a regional broker and Florexpo a small cut flower business, both companies decided to venture into a growing market.”

Talks between the two companies led to the decision to focus on the production of virus-indexed unrooted cuttings. Florexpo was producing millions of cuttings for its own production of cut flowers.

The value in varieties
McClintock said the decision on which varieties to produce “came down to figuring out how to grow the mother stock and produce the cuttings.”

“We started with hard-to-find perennials because no one could get them. And open, non-patented varieties when we couldn’t get protected proprietary genetics,” she said.

The program then—as now—was based around market need. McGregor knew trusting an outside source for perennial stock would be difficult for some growers to accept. In 1996 the business model for unrooted cuttings was totally different. Most growers were producing their own stock plants. But McGregor also believed that showing customers that they could successfully deliver quality cuttings of hard-to-find varieties would kick start the program.

It paid off. Listening to and meeting market demand expanded the product offerings, which helped to bring in new varieties. As McGregor and Florexpo shipped more product, plant companies like Danziger and PlantHaven, began granting them access to their genetics.
In fact Danziger played a small part in the McGregor/Florexpo perennial cutting program from the start. Danziger had referred Israeli grower Menachem Ganon to the two companies. Ganon was a key to the cutting propagation program’s success.

“He figured out how to produce new varieties and how to ship them to market,” McClintock said. “He learns every aspect of a plant and constantly figures out new production techniques to stay ahead of the market.”

The difficulty with producing perennial cuttings had always been that no two plant varieties grow the same—a gaillardia isn’t a gaillardia. Some perennials need a dormancy period and production needed to simulate what’s best for the plants. After much testing, trialing and experimentation, Ganon and the Florexpo production team were able to figure out a system for perennial cutting production that eliminated the need for growers to hold their own stock plants allowing them to save time, money and labor.

The program continues to expand under the hands of Ganon, who is now vice president of McGregor, and the second generation at Florexpo as Fernando Altmann Jr. (Macho) guides the production. Annuals have become a major part of the program, making up over a third of the cutting business. Herbs and succulents have been added as well, but perennials still make up the bulk of the program.
“The market dictates how the program grows,” McClintock said.

When groundcover customers weren’t being fully served by the unrooted cutting program, Ganon helped the companies launch Costa Rica Cuttings designed for high volume groundcover growers who want to keep their costs as low as possible without compromising plant performance.

“The plants are produced under a different, more cost-effective protocol, but still meet our stringent post-harvest controls,” Ganon said.

Florexpo is hoping to produce as many as 250 million unrooted cuttings over the next couple of years.

After much testing, trialing and experimentation, Menachem Ganon, vice president of McGregor, and the Florexpo production team were able to figure out a system for perennial cutting production that eliminated the need for growers to hold their own stock plants.Refining production
Florexpo’s Costa Rican location provided nearly ideal growing conditions for perennials with its year-round 11½- to 12½-hour day length and 65°F-75°F average temperatures. Although the company had to refine production, the main issues were shipping and logistics. Because of the high perishability of the unrooted cuttings, they couldn’t tolerate the transit time. In 2001 Florexpo and McGregor contacted FedEx, which wasn’t even shipping live plants out of Central America at the time.

“We were the beta test,” McClintock said.

The companies worked together to reduce the transit time. They added some procedures like re-icing the cuttings in Miami during warm times of the year. They also established a list of sensitive short-transit plants that are the last cuttings to be harvested. These cuttings are shipped in boxes tagged to be planted first. It took the companies two years to refine the shipping process.

“Essentially we were developing an international courier service for plants,” McClintock said.

Refinements to the program haven’t just been to the production and shipping sectors. Once a manual process, ordering and availability listing are now part of an electronic, multi-channel system. This system connects Costa Rica, California and customers on three continents. With the recent addition of online ordering for Costa Rica Cuttings, the entire cutting program is available with a simple mouse click.

“Our goal is to provide as many channels as possible for customers to look at orders, order product, see cultural information, view availability real-time and get customer service as quickly as possible,” McClintock said. “Especially during the peak annuals season. People’s time is very valuable. This lets them work to their own schedules. McGregor and Florexpo S.A. are fully integrated to make sure that can happen.”

For more: McGregor Plant Sales, (866) 909-6631; www.mcgregorplantsales.com

Joli A. Hohenstein is marketing and PR specialist, Pen & Petal Inc.