Great Gardens Begin Here

By Jamie Grangier Cummins

GWA is pleased to announce a new venture with Master Nursery Garden Centers which will help our members connect with local and regional garden centers for garden communications opportunities. In this special edition of GWA Grows, Jamie Grangier Cummins describes how GWA members can benefit from this cooperation.

My name is Jamie Grangier Cummins, and I am the Marketing and Communications Administrator and a Sales and Member Support Representative for Master Nursery Garden Centers (MNGC).  My intentions in this article are two-fold.  First, I will introduce you to MNGC.  Second, I will leave you with a proposition that will benefit not only Master Nursery Garden Centers and Garden Writers Association (GWA) members alike but will have a profound impact on the one person who we all once were—the new gardener!

In the early 1950s, seven independent garden center (IGC) owners partnered to secure discounts and share marketing expenses.  They worked well together, so they found a fertilizer manufacturer to produce a high quality, organic-based, all-purpose lawn and plant food that, to this day, is known as Master Nursery Formula 49.  The owners considered themselves “Masters of their craft.”  They certainly were because more West Coast members joined, and more Master Nursery branded products followed.  In late 1993, membership rose to over 160 garden centers.  Today, Master Nursery Garden Centers is a multi-million-dollar member-owned cooperative of over 530 independent retail garden centers in 46 states and 2 provinces in Canada.

Master Nursery is one of the largest Not-for-Profit cooperatives in the country, focused solely on providing new and commodity green goods and hard goods to our members and subsequently to their consumers. Members receive generous discounts, rebates, and dating programs from over 130 premium vendors, some of which are Garden Writers Association members who attend, exhibit, and sponsor events at the Annual Conference & Expo.   In addition, members have exclusive access to the Master Nursery private label brands, which are all premium products developed specifically for home gardeners and that are not available at mass merchant retailers.  To learn more, please visit www.MasterNursery.com and www.BumperCrop.net.

On behalf of Master Nursery Garden Centers, I am reaching out to the GWA membership to let you know that our 530+ IGCs are here to work with GWA members.  With that being said, let’s get to the heart of the matter!  We’re all gardeners, and we love what we do.  Nothing makes us happier than putting on a pair of old boots, planting a seedling, and watching it grow.  We all received our introductory knowledge from somewhere, so long story short:  We need new gardeners to come to us for their answers!

Yes, I said “us,” meaning the collective “we” of Master Nursery Garden Centers and the Garden Writers Association.  Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?  Master Nursery would love to see collaboration between Garden Writers and our IGCs.  Together, we can ensure that new gardeners have enjoyable and ultimately successful gardening experiences.  Time in the garden is time well spent, and for many gardeners, it is a family activity.

Therefore, our member garden centers are continually looking for green industry communicators who can share their knowledge and expertise that will enhance new gardeners’ experiences whether it be through workshops, talks, articles, blogs, etc.  We will be providing the MNGC membership the link to GWAConnect, so our garden centers may search for you by state and Garden Writer type.  If you are interested in working with a Master Nursery Garden Center in your area, you may email me at Jamie@masternursery.com, and I can provide you with a listing of MNGC members.  You may also visit the Garden Center Locator on our website.

Again, we are pleased to make this introduction between Garden Writers and Master Nursery Garden Centers, and we look forward to working with you soon.  Who knows, along the way, you may discover our Master Nursery branded products, and they may spark some additional inspiration for you!

Meet the Author 

Jamie Grangier Cummins has a Master of Arts in English and is the Marketing and Communications Administrator and a Sales and Member Support Representative for Master Nursery Garden Centers.