Visited on September 8, 2009
North One Garden Centre in the London Borough of Hackney was a visual delight; a study of a successful, award winning independent garden centre with limited space.
From the Dalston Kingsland rail station it was a ten- minute walk to the centre located in a mixed use area of light industry and commercial businesses. A small brick building was a button factory during WWII with a stable yard next to it. The stable yard is now a planteria and the button factory a garden shop with a combined area of 425 square meters or 1/10th of an acre. The Button Factory reputation continues on as part of the garden centre’s identification.
Beryl Henderson wanted to create a garden centre that would provide excellent customer service and high quality of plants reasonably priced. After a search for a suitable site, she chose the button factory and rehabbed the building. To carry out her vision she selects staff that has a passion for gardening as well as knowledge, intelligence and creativity.
The target audience of North One Garden Centre was the younger gardeners. Beryl estimates that 70-75% of their customers were under the age of thirty. The merchandise they sold was scaled for the small homes and gardens of the urban dweller.
As we approached North One Garden Centre their sign was visible on high fencing a block away. Closer we could see an attractive sign with a sculptured potted plant displayed above the fencing, serving as the centre’s logo. A prominent sign with their logo stated, “plants grown in England by specialist growers.” The racks of plants placed on the sidewalk at either side of the front entrance, is an urban way to organize and use limited space. The walkway to the front door was also used as an important display area of available plants. The entrance sign above the doorway gave an antique aura, blending with the faded brick of the building.
Entering the garden shop, hanging on the brick interior walls painted white, bright colored blues and mauves of Weatherprint artwork was for sale. Light colored hardwood flooring also contributed to opening up the interior of the garden shop. The music in the shop at the time of our visit was appropriately classical.
The garden shop was tidy, well organized and attractive. North One Garden Centre made use of their interior benches in the garden shop by turning them into their own display to give the customers the inspiration of what they can grow. By artistically working with colors, shape and foliage, Beryl indicated that this sublimely tells the customer what they need. Plant identification signs on the indoor bench showed the plant in bloom and gave care, watering and pruning instructions. The display on the benches was changed weekly.
The unusual and exotic tropical plants such as The Venus Flytrap and Bird of paradise flower were on the shelves with scarlet Bougainvillea, Orchids, Anthurium, Bromliads, Kentia Palm, and Gardenia. The conservatory miniature orange and lemon trees were loaded with colorful fruits. The garden shop had many household tropical plants in stylish, contemporary pots ready to take home and display.
The exterior displays were benches used as mini gardens also with the concept of color, shape and foliage also. An example of this was the bright colors of blooming scarlet and yellow perennials mingled with the various shades of green to purple leafed and variegated foliage plants with the purple red spikes of the phormium. Since North One Garden Centre was limited in physical space, they purchased in small orders several different varieties of species to give the customer more choices and will order additional plants for customers.
It is important to North One Garden Centre to obtain plants from small specialist growers in the area to support the local economy and reduce carbon footprints. The ferns, grasses and shrubs were their major purchases from the specialist growers. Marking these plants as such indicated that they were ideal for local planting as British grown also indicates plants acclimated to local climate. An example of this was the evergreen shrubs marked, “Grown in Hertsfordshire.” The London weather is warmer then in the northern areas, so they did sell plants that are suitable in a sheltered spot for outdoor gardens in London, such as Olive trees, that would be an indoor or conservatory plants further north.
The flowering out door plants and dwarf fruit trees that North One Garden Centre stock are always displayed in bloom. Customers would be more inclined to purchase flowering plants and the fruit trees with ripe fruit. I saw apple, Kiwi, and fig trees for sale. Strawberry plants and blueberry bushes were also available. Plants were tagged with care instructions for soil needs, planting, watering and pruning. At the time of our visit North One Garden Centre provided a 2-year replacement guarantee on hardy plants.
They carried a selection of bulbs for fall planting and advertised the shorter stemmed varieties of spring flowers suitable for pots and window boxes for the urban area. They also carried woodland collections for shady spots. In the Garden Shop, Thompson & Morgan organic vegetable and flower seeds as well as Franchi Seeds from Italy were on the racks. Organic products to use in the garden or the lawn and for pest control were also available in the Garden Shop.
With limited space, North One Garden Centre has to be selective in the merchandise that they stock. They stated that they do pay attention to current as well as upcoming trends to provide imaginative displays and much of their seasonal accessories were imported from Holland. A small selection of contemporary furniture was suitable for the cities small garden and balcony areas. Several of the furniture styles were fold ups for the convenience of traveling or storage. Indoor pottery was contemporary in color and design but they would be forecasting the new colors and textures for the next year. For outdoor use garden statutes and the clay and ceramic pottery, was sized on a smaller scale than the larger centres carried compensating for the smaller urban gardens and spaces of London.
Beryl Henderson, who established the business in 1998, was gracious with her time to discuss her vision and business with us. It was an insightful look at an independent garden business that had become successful through a vision, ingenuity and hard work.
Additional photos of North One Garden Centre can be found in the Archive Section of my web site.
Visit this site at: www.n1gc.co.uk