Cavano’s Perennials Builds for Success With Contract Growing
June 3, 2020 
The decision to move into contract growing has paid off big for Cavano’s Perennials, according to Co-owners Taylor Pilker (left) and Ferenc Kiss.
Photo by Joe Bissett, Natural Concerns Inc.
A lot has changed at Cavano’s Perennials in Kingsville, MD, since Ferenc Kiss and Taylor Pilker became owners in 2015. At the time, the company’s primary customer base was mainly independent garden centers, as well as local landscapers and nurseries, and its production – like almost any other grower – was driven by the spring season.
Over the last few years, however, Kiss and Pilker have taken a rather bold step: they have added contract growing for large projects, including green infrastructure and institutional landscaping, into the mix. Today, this endeavor accounts for roughly 15% of their business.
So why has this approach worked so well? It’s simple math, really. When you add Pilker’s management and business experience, and Kiss’s years of horticulture expertise, the result is a business that strives to exceed expectations both in product quality and in customer satisfaction. Better yet, it’s a model that starts at the top, and extends through to the entire Cavano’s team.
Exceeding Expectations
The decision to venture into contract growing was driven by Cavano’s customers.
“A number of companies had been reaching out to us about this for a while, but we were hesitant because it wasn’t our specialty,” Pilker says. “But as the calls became more frequent, we knew we had to consider it.”
Before making the leap, Pilker says it was important that the company was committed to not just meeting the expectations of this new customer base, but exceeding them.
“There was a period of time in this industry when you could grow a nice-looking plant and deliver it, and that was considered a viable business model,” Pilker says. “Today, there are a lot of great growers already doing that.”
When the process began, Kiss and Pilker met with some of the landscape architects and horticulturists they already had strong relationships with and asked them about the factors of this approach that would be most important to them.
“We also knew we wanted to limit the amount of what we would commit to the first couple of seasons,” Pilker says. “We wanted to make sure we worked out all the details so we could exceed the expectations of our customers. It’s worked so far, as we’re getting a lot of repeat business and building solid relationships with our customers.”
Complexity Breeds Success
Since the team at Cavano’s committed to moving forward with contract growing, the operation has made significant changes in planning and processes.
“For example, it has changed our production due dates, which are traditionally geared toward spring,” Pilker says. “Now, in many cases the customer is setting the date, and sometimes they’re setting multiple dates where you might need three releases of material. We’re now looking at individual jobs in such detail that we might have dozens of species and cultivars that we have to plan production dates around.”
Because the scope of each project is now larger, there are also, in most cases, multiple genera per order.
“We have a large order that will go out as phase one later this year, and in that order, there are more than 90 different genera that we need to grow,” Kiss says. “It can make a custom grow order more complex, and while it’s achievable by us, it’s more difficult than just growing 10,000 plants of one type.”
Pulling off an order like this means constant communication (both with the growing team and with vendors) as well as extreme attention to detail. Everyone has to hold up their end of the process, so if something goes wrong, Kiss and Pilker can know about it early and make changes.
The growing team at Cavano’s Perennials has also had to adjust its mindset.
“Their first reaction was, ‘I can’t believe everything we’re responsible for now,’” Pilker says. “But as our team sat in on meetings with landscape architects and others involved in the project, they began to welcome the challenge because they were able to see the end result of such a project.”
Pilker recalls one of his growers actually going to a site in New York he was involved in during a vacation and taking time to walk through the site.
“There’s a level of ownership we didn’t have before when we were just shipping all over the place,” Pilker says. “For a grower to actually see their material reach the destination, that’s a tangible thing.”
Rising to the Challenge
There were also production changes to consider, such as making adjustments to a long-proven integrated pest management program.
“You can’t always utilize the same materials you might have used in the past, because your shipping date dictates you won’t have the plants long enough,” Pilker says.
Fortunately, Cavano’s works with a specialist who has helped it focus its pest management strategies on dealing with individual problems as they come up.
“By having that extra knowledge, we were able to reduce the amount of sprays we would have to do on the property to keep things under control,” Pilker says.
Above all else, the key to successfully integrating such a program was the willingness of the entire team at Cavano’s to rise to the challenge.
“At the beginning, it was easy for one of our growers to get intimidated when coming up with treatment and management programs for an order that may include plants native to the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., the foothills of the Alps, and the forests of Japan,” Kiss says. “But it didn’t take long for them to see it as a great opportunity.”
The growing team at Cavano’s Perennials is always focused on the details in producing a high-quality plant.
Photo by Joe Bissett, Natural Concerns Inc.
Learning With the Team
As mentioned, Cavano’s contract growing business currently accounts for about 15% of its sales. However, both Kiss and Pilker say that figure is surely going to increase. In doing so, Cavano’s as a whole will continue to evolve.
“I was recently involved in a project that needed 9,000 units of one type of grass,” Pilker says. “Five years ago, that might have been my entire sales for the season.”
For his part, Kiss says the growing team is learning new systems at the same time he is, and as a co-owner, he sometimes has to admit that he no longer has all the answers.
“That’s why we want to surround ourselves with smart people who can challenge us and bring new ideas to the table,” Kiss says.
Talking to Kiss, it almost seems like this new business model has reinvigorated him.
“I’ve been in this industry since 1985, and I’ve worked for several nurseries in the U.S. and in Holland (Kiss grew up in Switzerland),” Kiss says. “As I work with our growing team, it’s exciting to be able to dig back into my memory and revisit ideas that can help our growers produce a better plant.”
Pilker concurs.
“As owners, we have a financial responsibility to this company,” he says. “But now, we get to sit in a room with our team and look for ways to improve together. This is the way we believe we can do it.”
People Mean Everything
The evolution of custom contract growing has been a big part of Cavano’s Perennials’ success in recent years. According to Kiss, the most important factor in this has been the people.
“You can have the greatest plants and technology in the world, but if you don’t have the right people in place, what good is it?” Kiss says. “Our growers are important to us, and we want to mentor them and push them along the way.” Knowledge is power, he says, and the more you know, the better grower you can become.
“Some may thrive on that, and others might be intimidated, but in the end, it makes all of them better,” Kiss says. “And I try to be there with them every step along the way, helping them become successful.”
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