For every season ...

The magazine you hold in your hand represents the final issue of Garden Center Products & Supplies. For nearly a decade and a half, GCP&S has been THE RESOURCE for all manner of garden center goodies. After this month, it won’t be, period.

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It won’t, because something new is taking its place. Starting in September, we’re losing an “&” in order to produce a “+”.

Indeed, Garden Center Products & Supplies is about to morph into Garden Center Product Source, THE RESOURCE for buyers.

In essence, we’re taking what we do well — helping lawn and garden retailers find the stuff they need to sell to be successful — and expanding the editorial content to include practical advice a buyer needs to find the right items in the right places for the right prices.

Our research tells us that it’s time for a publication that focuses strictly on “the business of lawn and garden buying.” In fact, we think it’s so important that we’ve made it the tagline for our “new and impoved” product.

As part of our promotional push, some of you might have received a letter or card updating you on “what’s brewing” at GCPS. In a nutshell, we’re keeping all the popular parts of Garden Center Products & Supplies — the column, the Editor’s Choice section and the ProductZone — and we’re enhancing them with stories and features that give you a bird’s- eye view of the industry from the perspective of the people involved in the buying process.

We’ll look at challenges you face, at shows you need to attend, at questions that don’t always have easy answers — basically, we’re creating the ultimate “how-to” publication for the principals making the decisions in the market.

If you’re reading this, that probably means you. Or it might mean someone with whom you work closely. Either way, we at GCPS eagerly await the chance to enlighten/challenge/stir.

Here’s hoping you eagerly await the chance to read/learn/send the editor large sums of money in gratitude for this virtually priceless gift that the new GCPS becomes.

(OK, some things won’t be changing.)

ZONE in!

Have you ever wondered ... Why the word “phonetic” isn’t spelled the way it sounds?

ZONE in!

Gillette Player of the Game … The great Joe Starzyk of Riverside Enterprises has written and is producing a play, Wedding Secrets, that will run Sept. 12-14 at the Arts Center for the Capital Region in Troy, NY. A noted philanthropist, Starzyk is routing proceeds to the Rensselaer County NYARC (New York Art Resources Consortium) and is seeking sponsors who would like to be part of the project.

Sponsorships range from $15 playbill advertisements to $1,000 Platinum level patronage. If you want to help Joe help out the arts, call him at (518) 265-5116.

ZONE in!

Last lines … Shortly after three friends perish in a car accident they have to go to an orientation in heaven. They are all asked, “When you are in your casket, and friends and family are talking about you, what would you like them to say?”

The first guy says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man.”

The second guy says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher, who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow.”

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The last guy puts his hand on his chin. “To be honest,” he says, “I would like to hear them say ... Look, he’s moving!”

- Yale Youngblood

August 2008