First things first: Lafayette Florist, Gift Shop & Garden Center knows plants. Founded more than 70 years ago, the family business has long been a trusted source for plant and gardening devotees in northern Colorado, but consumers’ love for houseplants in particular has given new life to many of the longtime business’s marketing and sales efforts. “The popularity of houseplants came just when we needed to find a way to attract new customers,” said co-owner Lori Wheat, AAF.

Those are key customers the venerable business has focused on as they rethought their plant strategies in recent years, and especially during the last year. “These new customers are looking for something for themselves: plants that they can nurture,” Lori said — and she and her team are finding ways to make it easier than ever for these newbies to find their perfect plant matches.

In the Jan/Feb issue of Floral Management, the Wheat family shared tips and practical advice on how others can follow in their plant-centric footsteps. Among the highlights:

Think visually. Lafayette has always been a business where customers come and linger, but with a revamped greenhouse area, unveiled in January 2020, the Wheats hoped to capitalize on consumers’ growing appetite for all things houseplants AND all things experience based. (Think: twenty- and thirty-somethings strolling through the greenhouse with dogs and strollers.) Through the $50,000 project, they demolished features that weren’t driving sales to give more square footage to their expanding roster of trendy plants. They incorporated new displays, widened walkways and added customer-friendly features. The revamped design makes it easier to spotlight products such as fiddle-leaf fig trees, which Lori knows are popular with professional and hobbyist interior designers (not to mention Instagram users), and it also makes it easier for Tanner to organize and curate the shop’s growing catalog of options, from easy-to-grow gateway plants for first-time buyers (succulents, snake plants, pothos and peace lilies, for example) to in-demand, stylish offerings, including green plants with arresting patterns, textures and leaf variegation and orchids.

Make online sales easy. The timing of the greenhouse reveal — less than two months before Colorado’s March 26 statewide stay-at-home order was issued — may not have seemed ideal to the Wheats initially, but some of the changes they made to the physical space also have helped ensure employee and customer safety during the crisis. “Little did we know that would help us in the pandemic — making aisles wider and easier to see other shoppers approaching,” Lori said. The improved organization of their physical space also gave the team a leg up at the start of the pandemic when they created a virtual plant showroom on their website. The page is consumer focused, with plants organized by customer needs and desires; categories include “Floor Plants,” “Tabletop Plants” and “Plants with Patterns.” Without the addition of the virtual showroom, selling plants for curbside pickup throughout 2020 would have been more challenging, Lori said, and the info-packed page, which includes photos and concise write-ups for each plant, helps educate customers and streamline the buying experience overall.

Read more about the Wheat’s approach, including how they find unusual plants and their philosophy on social media, in Floral Management.

Plus, starting in March 2021, the Society of American Florists has a host of new tools available through its first-ever Great Big Plant Event to help florists who want to improve their plant business learn, feel inspired and connect with industry partners. Member Price: $99.00; non-member price: $139.00. A full list of presenters, demo names and a schedule of live events will be added to the Great Big Plant Event page throughout February.

Interested in partnering with SAF for the Great Big Plant Event or other programming this year? Contact Sheila Santiago, ssantiago@safnow.org.

Amanda Long is a contributing writer to Floral Management magazine.