August 2024 40 Under 40, Awards, Business & Management

Forty under 40 perspectives: Inventory management in the nursery By Krystal Flogel

For most of us who work in the green industry, it was our love of plants that led us here, not a passion for inventory management. I’m guessing the phrase “inventory control” doesn’t exactly light a fire under those of you who enjoy being outdoors, getting your hands dirty and not having the stereotypical 9-to-5 office job. 

Since I took over as inventory manager of the perennial program for Mariani Plants over six years ago, I’ve learned that there is so much more to inventory control than just counting plants.

That’s because, when it comes to nursery production, our inventory is alive. It’s in a constant state of flux as it grows, develops and speeds through each cycle of life over the course of a relatively short growing season. 

PACING GROWTH 

Take a crop of astilbe, for example. An astilbe planted from a bare root liner in late spring or summer will start to leaf out in a matter of days, and it will typically be rooted and saleable within four weeks. It will develop flower buds, bloom and go out of bloom all over the course of just two to three more weeks. 

Other crops grow even faster. We can plant a nepeta plug in a 1-gallon pot in late May, and it will be a rooted, full, saleable plant in just over two weeks. 

We try to rely on these types of predictable crop cycles to plan production and ensure that we have plants ready when customers need them. 

The word predictable is rarely used to describe nursery production. This is especially true in an outdoor growing range like ours, since we have no control over factors like temperature, precipitation, wind and extreme weather events. 

Due to the unseasonably warm temperatures we experienced in February and March of 2024 here in the Midwest, our overwintered perennial crops were three weeks ahead of schedule compared to those in an average year. 

This meant that some of our spring crops (like pulmonaria) were in bloom three weeks earlier than customers have historically been ready to buy them. 

The early spring also affected the development cycles of many of our common insect pests, like aphids and eriophyid mites, so we had to adapt our IPM strategies in order to keep insect populations under threshold levels. 

And, while the heavy rainfall we received this spring and summer helped to improve the drought conditions brought on by over two years of extreme dryness, it also led to increased instances of foliar diseases like rust and powdery mildew. 

Challenges like these keep us on our toes from a grower’s standpoint as we strive to produce healthy, disease-free plants in an unpredictable climate. And the same can be said about our efforts to effectively manage inventory. 

A disease-prone plant like monarda may be budded and blooming one day and unsaleable the next if we’re unable to keep powdery mildew under control. 

Aphids can take a spiraea or heuchera out of inventory so fast it will make your head spin. And nothing can wreak havoc on a beautiful crop of blooming hibiscus like an evening thunderstorm or a windy day. 

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT 

When it comes to inventory management, good communication is essential. 

Communication is particularly important for us at Mariani Plants because our sales team primarily works from home. This remote workstyle, which began as a temporary arrangement during the early days of COVID-19 and has since become permanent, is embraced by our company and has transformed us into a team of what I would affectionately refer to as “overcommunicators.” 

It’s because of this constant communication that our inventory managers are able to provide up-to-date information about the status of each crop to our sales team and our customers. 

One way we’ve been able to achieve this level of communication is through our use of inventory comments. By assigning comments like “signs of life,” “filling out,” “full,” “budded,” “blooming,” “nice!” and “past bloom” to each crop of perennials and shrubs, we can essentially provide real-time plant status updates. 

The bloom period of some crops, like iris or salvia, can be so fleeting that it’s not uncommon for the comment to change more than once over the course of a single week. The process of updating inventory is continual and constant during the growing season. 

Our sales team is adept at using these comments to guide customers through the ordering process. A “filling out” crop of phlox may be suitable for a particular landscape project but not a retail order, so understanding the individual needs and tastes of each customer is key. 

Timing is also important; a crop that’s only showing signs of life may be acceptable in April, but completely inappropriate in June. Because inventory comments alone are not always enough, our tight-knit team also communicates constantly through emails, texts and phone calls — and weekly crop photos allow us to bring the nursery to the sales team and our customers. 

When it comes to inventory management, counting plants is still part of the job. But there is so much more to this role. We work hand in hand with the growers, maintenance crews and production staff; we’re essentially an extension of the sales team. This is what keeps me engaged, motivated and inspired to move forward each day in this industry that I love.