Whats happening in the rose industry

As this year comes to a close for us, there have been many changes in the industry. We found our company trying to pick up the slack for others this year. I believe that over the next few years the rose industry will go through some dramatic changes. This year brought many shortages of roses for several different reasons. There was a freeze in California that ruined, what we are being told, over half a million knock out roses. The Texas Valley was infested by a down mildew disease that seemed to wipe out thier entire rose crop. One of the largest and most well known rose bush and seed companies declared bankruptcy. The changes and problems of this year turned out to be a positive situation for us and a negative for us. I launched our web site this year, http://www.sextonnurseries.com/. I went live with the new retail site in December and had to zero out my inventory on April 1st. The reason we elected to zero out our inventory was that our major retailers were being told that they could not get the potted roses they were promised. We elected to pot all of the rose bushes we were holding to sell as bare root online. We also had to purchase a few hundred thousand roses on the open market. We also elected to pick up a few small accounts that were not being serviced by thier existing suppliers. We increased the number of states we supplied Lowe's and increased the number of plants we were suppling to our states. Needless to say, the effects of all the changes in our industry this year will be felt for a few years. In the rose business, if you supply a good product, you have to plan three years in advance. Our rose bushes are two year field grown bushes. This means that we need to plan three years in advance so we have the right amount of plants in the ground. I will also give credit to the producers of the knock out rose. They are working hard to keep the knock out rose a strong product that will sell and perform as expected for many years. With all this being said, if you are a retailer, you had better be planning you business and selecting good plants. Every industry will eventually clean its self up, just take a look at the banking and auto industry. The weak will go by the way side and the strong will continue to produce good quality products. Don't allow an inferior product or supplier to take you down with them. If you waite untill next Spring to line up roses for next year, you will get the same or less quality than had this year or worse, you may end up with out product. Plan, Plan, Plan!!!