2017 State of the Industry report

Each November, the editors of Nursery Management magazine bring you our State of the Industry research. 

We surveyed a cross section of the nursery industry about the issues that are critical to their businesses. Sales, profits, shortages, surplus, expansion, and labor – it’s all here. Once we had the results, we asked noted economics expert, hort professor and Ellison Chair in International Floriculture Dr. Charlie Hall for his take. Watch for "Charlie's perspective" throughout each section, as well as input from growers like you who took the survey.

Production and crops: Find out what crops are trending up or down since last year, what items are facing current shortages and predicted future shortages in this section.

Sales and profits: Did nurseries sell more plants than last year? Are they making more or less money on each plant they sell? Read this section to find out.

Prices and marketing: Are growers adjusting their prices to react to market shortages? What tools are nurseries using to get the word out?

Labor: The issue on everyone's mind as we enter 2018. This section contains growers' thoughts on the situation and how they're trying to solve it, as well as Charlie's input.

Shipping: Read this section to find out how shipping range has changed for growers since last year.

Succession planning: Is your nursery preparing for a time when you aren't running it? Find out how growers are setting up succession plans in this section. 

We also have reports from the landscape and garden center industry, which can help you understand how your customers fared in 2017. 

In addition to all the charts and commentary, our State of the Industry issue also covered the ins and outs of a proper nursery valuation, a general economic outlook for 2018, and the 7 drivers of cash flow. 

Study this report to gauge the health and direction of the industry, and use what you learn to guide your own nursery into 2018.

Editor's note: The State of the Industry survey was collected by Readex Research. The survey opened Aug. 16, 2017 and was closed for tabulation on Aug. 29, 2017, with 438 total responses—a 9.1% response. To best represent the audience of interest, 193 respondents were terminated from the survey after indicating in the first question they do not own or manage a nursery whose primary business is growing nursery crops (i.e. trees, shrubs and/or perennials) for the wholesale trade—44% of all 438 survey respondents. This reduction implies an estimated population of approximately 2,700 represented by the survey results.

Photo: Parikha Mehta Photography