- There are a wide variety of garden centers. Some provide one-stop shopping for a gardener's entire needs, from seeds to plants and tools. Others focus on specific niche markets, such as ornamental trees and shrubs or organic products. Most garden centers today compete with the so-called "big box" stores.
- The main features of retail garden centers include areas for plants, tools, and hard goods such as bags of soil, mulch, and fertilizer. Some garden centers sell outdoor furniture, statuary, and barbecue grills. Most garden centers include separate areas for annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, greenhouse plants, tools and gardening products. Some provide landscape design or planting services by appointment. Centers may include areas off limits to the public for production and growing of plants.
- Those who wish to work at a retail garden center must be willing to put in long hours and adjust vacation times to suit the seasonal flow of business. Spring, fall and the Christmas holidays are the busiest times for garden centers. Workers must be in good physical condition, since they must move plant material and stand on their feet all day helping customers select plants, as well as ring up purchases and stock shelves. Some garden centers require only a high school diploma and job experience, while others require a college degree in horticulture, agriculture, or related fields.
- A study conducted by consumer group PK Data reports that more thasn 70 million households cite gardening as a hobby. Consumers spend more than $30 billion annually on lawn and garden products. Specialty retailers, such as those focusing on birding, butterfly gardens, organic gardening and other niche markerts, may fare better in today's marketplace than trying to create a one-size-fits-all business. Add-on services such as landscape maintenance, landscape design, garden installation, water features and pond service provide additional revenue sources and are usually not offered by competing mass merchants. Online shopping continues to grow in popularity, with many online retailers of gardening products enjoying strong growth.
- Gardening isn't just about pretty landscapes. Horticultural therapy, or the practice of using gardens and growing plants for therapeutic purposes, is gaining ground as a tool for many physical, emotional and mental problems. School gardens provide useful, fun outdoor classrooms that help children learn how growing things provides nourishment for plants and animals. Owning and operating a garden center provides many benefits to the community in the forms of jobs and helpful goods and services, as well as intangible benefits for all those who enjoy the many products sold there.
