Making a Statement

Jennifer Polanz

With all the redecorating, renovation and new home purchases happening across the country, it’s no wo­­­­nder garden retail sales were up last year. Along with those plant sales, too, were the containers in which to plant them.

Pictured: The new RETRO Botanica pots from Pacific Home & Garden.

“2021 was another remarkable year. We all thought 2020 couldn’t be topped, so 2021 came as a surprise, yet the sales tell the story,” says Ashley Goldman, marketing manager at Anamese. “We truly feel people are continuing to build their own oasis and have found a sustaining love of gardening.

“2022 is going to be a great year and there are several indicators: 1) A sustaining love of gardening and investment into the home and outdoor spaces. 2) Many have not been able to buy the product they want due to supply issues. This year we feel those issues will be resolved and therefore sales will remain elevated with new inventory available.”

Kevin Xu, owner of Pacific Home & Garden, is seeing greater demand for larger pots as consumers either move out of apartments and into single-family homes or condos with more space, or buy bigger indoor plants that require larger containers. For indoors, he says 10- and 12-in. pots will be popular, while the 14-, 16- and 20-in. pots are trending for outdoors. He continues to see demand for smaller pots indoors as well.

I also talked to Forrest Jackson, CEO of Jackson Pottery, about his newer Jackson Cast Stone brand, which is targeted toward landscape architects and designers. These are made of heavy cast stone to include in larger outdoor designs, either for residential or commercial applications. He said for both the pottery and the cast stone, demand in 2021 was off the charts, and it was for either smaller pottery (4-in. and 6-in.) or big pieces from 20-in. all the way up to 60-in. “We saw demand like we’d never seen it before,” he says.

This is always tricky to answer, and a lot of it depends on where you are in the country and what kind of style of housing you’re seeing (more on that in a bit). Generally, though, neutral is still having its moment, Kevin says, with white, gray and taupe being the main colors. He notes, though, he’s seeing a blue he calls Rembrandt Blue becoming more popular, as well as another color.

“To my surprise, people use yellow color for indoors,” he says. “It can blend in fine with some environments. A lot of people are searching for brighter colors. There are some trending, but I don’t know how big it’s going to be.” The yellow he’s seeing is a muted pastel version.

Pictured: The new Sorrento planters in Vanilla Bisque and Taupe from HC Companies.

Tricia Price, retail market manager at HC Companies, seconds the neutrals trend, but also says they’re seeing pops of color coming into play.

“In our current catalog, we introduced some blush, which was really well received, as well as an iced lavender and honey. Those colors were really hot for this season,” she said.

They’ve also added some plant stands that hold pastel-colored pots on gold and bronze painted metallic pots for indoor plants.

Ashley says they continue to see demand for the neutral, earthy colors, but there’s a little bit of a difference in the lines now. Before, it was white pottery with clean, crisp lines.

“Now with the trend still earthy and organic, we are seeing more curves and soft lines, creating a cohesive blend of traditional and modern,” she says.

Let’s get back to that housing market and the style of housing. In talking with Jack Barnwell, landscape architect and creator of AquaPots (the self-watering planters sold by Proven Winners), he made an important distinction for retailers trying to create the right pottery and container assortment.

“You have to be really conscious of your demographics and the type and style of housing development happening around your area,” he says, giving the example of a Tuscan style development that would lend itself to earthen colors and textures versus a more modern style where clean lines, squares and rectangle shapes would be a better match. “It’s super important to have a sense of the trends happening in the home building, in the outdoor furniture and outdoor construction business, and then be able to complement that really well with your collection.”

Pictured: The Oil Jar from Anamese, available in three sizes (shown in small). Colors are Aegean, Helio and Verdi (pictured in that order).

For the cast stone collection Forrest has, it varies depending on the application. For residential, customers typically pick their smooth texture option, whereas the commercial customers pick the natural finish. When it comes to colors, his No. 1 seller is the regular concrete gray, while No. 2 is graphite and 3 is white—all three of which work well with any trendy modern home style reminiscent of Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel.

Most retailers have already ordered and are progressing with shipments for 2022, but if you need to fill in gaps here and there, lots of container companies stand ready to help. When I talked with Kevin way back in November, the supply chain was firmly jammed and orders were taking months versus weeks. Even then, though, he was ready to supply customers from a nearly full West Coast warehouse, as he continued to bring product in even when freight costs were skyrocketing. His one ask? That retail customers be flexible if they’re ordering to fill in gaps.

“That’s important because we don’t know what kind of inventory will come in,” he said, adding retailers can add some excitement for their consumers by announcing new products on social media.

When it comes to AquaPots, there should be more availability this year, Jack says, due to an investment from BFG Supply to warehouse and distribute the line.

“After experiencing the first-year COVID blues, BFG invested significantly more in AquaPots, warehousing a tremendous amount more coming in throughout the winter to be sure to have a lot more on hand to supply for the spring,” he says. “Of course, we like everybody have experienced supply chain difficulties, but some pretty significant investments have been made early on that will alleviate the pressure on the growth of this product.”

Pictured: The Vaso Planter in Graphite from Jackson Cast Stone.

Those pots come from an exclusive factory in Vietnam, a country where Anamese also has vendors.

“Surplus demand and COVID outbreaks created a situation that extended supply shortages longer than we anticipated,” Ashley says about those vendors in early January. “Our partners in Vietnam are up and operated now and we are so relieved for them (and us). We have several containers on the water that will help to fulfill spring orders.”

How can pottery and container sales increase this year? Make them even easier for customers to take home. For example, Ashley says pottery can be merchandised with the idea that customers want to pick a potted plant, drop and go.

“In our newsletter, we provided a list of pots that easily fit a grower’s bucket. With these ideas, customers can swap out arrangements seasonally by slipping out the old grower’s bucket and replacing it with a new one,” she says. “We have always felt strongly about displaying pottery with plants, as it is much more approachable for the new gardener—and there are lots of those out there based on 2020 sales.”

Tricia at HC Companies seconds the idea for drop-ins. “I think it’s more of a turnkey solution for a beginner,” she says. “They don’t have to worry about how to plant it; they can just drop it in and it looks pretty. I also think some of it’s coming from you can get the pot you want and maintain some of the functionality of the grower pot.”

Pictured: New Volcanic on Milky Blue AquaPot for 2022

There’s also something to not overwhelming your audience and Jack says, in his experience, when helping his container design customers pick out pottery, it’s better to have fewer style options across multiple sizes. He splits his time between Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Naples, Florida, and virtually all his business in Naples revolves around container design. He offers a warehouse full of AquaPots, but only about five to six color themes and styles, with a range of sizes.

“We really try to narrow it down so when people come we can design entire beautiful collections because we have eight of these matching pots or 12 to go on posts for a commercial building,” he says. “We have to have that consistency in size. It’s so much more profitable rather than having an array.” GP