I’m giving the keynote this spring at a local Garden Day event on “The Future of Roses.” Education meet marketing, marketing, meet education.
My main educational point is that if they buy their roses from me and put the crown 6" deep they’ll be allright.
Thanks Michael. I should have known that intuitively. USDA, the same morons brought to us by the people who gave us the TSA. Figures.
Joe,
You are in the perfect position to hybridize what are healthy roses for your area and then sell them.Do your species work on the side, we all have to dream and you may hit the jackpot. Since you are in the hybridizing and selling areas, you can start slipping in some of you own creations that you have tested for your area.
I was looking at condos about 10 years ago and inquired about the vinyl siding. She said the man who did her house NEVER advertises, is always booked ahead, does an excellent job and his satisfied customers do all the advertising for him by recommending him to their friends.
Jim
A friend of mine worked with a “powerhouse, Chinese lady” over thirty years ago. If she decided you were “GOING” to be her friend, you became her friend. Her mother owned many apartment buildings, which she inherited and added to her holdings. Fortunately, she is actually a very lovely person, though with a personality many times larger than her 5’ stature.
Her service people got passed around among her friends and it has become the only way the plumbing company accepts new customers. She moved to San Diego two years ago to be near her only grand child, but continues holding her rentals here. Two years ago, when there were plumbing issues, I called the plumber. He listened to my identification, than asked how I heard of them. I responded, “Christine’s friend”. He was here within half an hour! He said “who needs Angie’s List? I don’t advertise and I don’t take walk-ins. Christine and her friends keep us plenty busy!” He said since changing to only accepting her referals, he’s no bad checks and no customer complaints. I understand when she moved, she brought him and his crew down for a week, put them up in a hotel, fed and entertained them while they replumbed her “new” house. Seems I should never have an issue finding a reliable plumber! I wish more business needs could be satisfied so easily and I’m GLAD she likes me! LOL!
Jim, I agree with your reply to Joe, local area to introduce things to start with.
Yes Kim, “word of mouth” is either the best or worst advertising around. Over here in Oz, if a bloke wants, lets say a plunber, he goes to his local pub/hotel and asks who the drinkers use. I nearly built a house from references from a pub/hotel 30 years ago.
It’s a much more realistic and happy goal for me to focus on a rose that I could name and introduce locally, unpatented. It will be much easier if it does well enough for introduction but has some significant flaw that prevents national introduction. The hard part would be, if I came up with something really, really special, deciding whether to patent it. Basically a $3000 to $8000 gamble that it could be introduced nationally. During the evaluation process I would have to withhold it from my customers, which would be frustrating.
A lovely lady with a sweet heart came to work for us for the past three years, and died last summer of lung cancer. I’d like to name my first rose after her. She loved all roses, but her favorite was Distant Drums. She also liked Rainbow Knock Out…so I’m thinking I could hit that cross hard. They both have kind of an in-between color, get some doubleness and flower form from DD and combine it with the shrubby blooming madness of RKO. It would make her parents very proud, I think, if she had her own rose.
Going back to the original topic a little bit… the essential characteristic of the rose of the future is that it generates referrals. It has to stir emotions. Ease of maintenance can actually stir someones emotions enough to make a referral; I think that’s what happened with KO (in combination with its flower power). Fragrance is powerful, but it has to be combined with relatively low maintenance. Likewise a gorgeous blossom.
Joe, your story about the young lady who worked for you and passed way is precisely the story behind Sequoia’s rose, “Thanks to Sue”. Sue came to work at the nursery at precisely the moment everyone needed her, as co worker, friend, confidant, extra pair of hands, etc. Her death from lung cancer left an enormous wound that took a very long time to heal. She was lovely, in every sense of the word.
The full explanation of the name can be read here in the Comments section of the rose page as well as seeing her photo. The rose is actually rather nice. Ironic that this dedication was written by Col. Mel Hulse, another great whose life was shortened too soon by cancer.
Distant drums can produce good seedlings if crossed with something healthy.
DD X carefree sunshine produced a healthy colorfast yellow with double ogr style bloom.
Unfortunately no fragrance and not the dd colors we were hoping to get.