The azalea market, like other niche markets in our industry, has changed over the last few years. The demand that once existed for azaleas has arguably waned a bit, and only a handful of growers across the country continue to devote the entirety of their greenhouse space to the crop.
Woodburn Nursery and Azaleas in Woodburn, Ore., is among those operations, and it is one of the larger of the four remaining nationwide competitors co-owner Rick Fessler claims it has. Even today, azaleas are still the one and only crop grown in greenhouses at Woodburn, and its indoor business sets the template for success with them because the Fessler family has adapted well to a changing market for more than 40 years.
“You just have to control what you’re growing,” says Rick, who manages the azalea part of the business. “If you don’t, you end up with a bunch of something nobody wants.”
Masters Of Their Domain
The azalea business really boomed for Woodburn in the late-1970s, and it grew steadily through the ’90s. Fessler says sales flattened within the last five years and they began declining much like other niche markets in the last year or two, so his family and staff are leaning more on their nursery stock these days. Eventually, Rick expects azalea sales to flatten again, and he’s hopeful better days are ahead for Woodburn and other azalea growers.
Rick’s father, Bob, who founded the company in 1967 with his wife Jean, is hopeful about the azalea side of the business, too. He says a marketing program designed specifically for azaleas would put Woodburn’s lead crop back in its rightful place. It’s just a matter of having the necessary funds to support such a program.
“A lot of people don’t even know what azaleas are,” Bob says. “At one point, a group of us was going to promote azaleas more but we couldn’t raise enough money to supply the market at one time. We were thinking about magazine promotion, but also some air time on TV. If we could tell the azalea’s story, more people would know what they are and that they last quite a while.”
Azaleas do indeed last, but they’re a long-term crop that requires time and patience to grow. Woodburn grows about 50 varieties. Dormant azaleas make up about half of the indoor business while blooming potted make up the other half. Woodburn also offers its azaleas in a mind-boggling assortment of sizes, meaning the Fesslers must have a grasp on which items will be in demand two or three years from now.
“A 4 inch takes us a year, a 6 inch takes us two years and 7-inch trees take us three years,” Rick says. “A lot of our customers don’t grasp that until we explain it to them, but it really does take that long to produce one.”
Meeting needs this year could be even more challenging, Rick says. Woodburn hasn’t experienced any cutbacks yet. At this point, it’s kind of in that wait-and-see mode.
“People are waiting to see what the market looks like” Rick says. “Then, they ask if they can get 10,000 6-inch azaleas next week. My biggest concern is customers who have ordered in the past who are waiting. People don’t want to book out six or 12 months in advance.”
Pricing is a challenge, too. Woodburn has built a reputation for itself with many of its higher-end items, and the quality of its products has, for the most part, allowed it to dictate pricing. Cheap, low quality products could, however, barge in on Woodburn’s customer landscape this spring and undermine prices that took years to establish.
To combat that potential scenario, the Fesslers are constantly looking for new ways to offer their azaleas. Rick says the operation tries out 10 to 20 new varieties at all times, and Woodburn employs enough creative people that azaleas can be customized with just about any look. It’s those types of items that drive prices back up.
“You can’t keep reinventing the wheel all the time,” Rick says. “We’ve had fun with some heart and hoop (topiaries) that have gone over really well. Customers now seem to be wanting more of the higher-price items. That’s where you end up with the new stuff.
“We always look for consistency. We want to grow the same year after year. Hopefully, the customer buys the same each year, because it works best for us with a long-term crop to have that consistency.”
Searching For Savings
Still, the labor that goes into those higher-priced items can take a toll on Woodburn. The operation employs about 200 people at its four locations, which are all located within a mile of each other. The distance between each location makes a few simple tasks more difficult than they could be, Rick says, but the operation has made up for some wasted time with automation.
“My brother Tom and I have mechanized over the years,” Rick says. “We’ve mechanized our shipping areas trying to keep costs down. Trimming and our potting machines have kept us up to date, too.
“The machines we have are probably 15 years old now. We keep updating them. We also used to stick cuttings out on trailers and now we stick them out on a line. It’s just a lot more efficient when you can keep people on a line working at a steady pace.”
One labor issue Woodburn has no control over is an escalating minimum wage, which recently increased in Oregon by 45 cents. The increase brings the state’s minimum wage to $8.40 an hour.
Energy has been another damper on Woodburn, but it has found ways to scale back on the amount of heat used.
“We are running a lot less heat on the azaleas except the ones we force,” Bob says. “We got into blooming potted a little bit later, and we’re trying to run a lot of them pretty cool in the winter for about three months. If we ran the same amount of gas energy per plant as we did 15 years ago, we probably would be out of business.”
Rick agrees: “The one nice thing about growing azaleas cold is they grow out nicely in the spring. They go through a nice dormant period. Ultimately, I want a crop that doesn’t take heat and sells well. I’m sure everybody’s looking for the same one.