What If We Don’t Need to Grow Everything?
July 14, 2026 For decades, one of the defining characteristics of the greenhouse industry has been our ability to provide customers with extensive product assortments. Whether serving independent garden centers, landscapers, broker networks, grocery chains, or mass retailers, growers have continually expanded their offerings in an effort to become a one-stop shop. The broader the assortment, the thinking goes, the greater the opportunity to capture additional business and become indispensable to customers.
That approach has served many growers well. However, as I look at the challenges facing our industry today, I find myself asking a different question: Does every grower still need to grow everything?
The greenhouse business has become increasingly complex. Labor remains one of our greatest challenges. Input costs continue to rise. Customers expect consistency, quality, and dependable delivery. At the same time, many operations manage hundreds or even thousands of SKUs spread across multiple crops, container sizes, and production programs. Each additional crop brings its own scheduling requirements, cultural practices, pest management considerations, inventory challenges, and labor demands.
Michigan State University Extension has noted that greenhouse growers continue searching for ways to streamline production systems and reduce labor requirements while maintaining customer value. Their observations highlight a reality that most growers understand firsthand: complexity has a cost. Managing hundreds or thousands of product variations requires resources that could otherwise be directed toward efficiency, quality, and profitability.
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to observe grower relationships that challenged some of my long-held assumptions about competition. Seeing examples of growers working together while remaining independent businesses caused me to think differently about how our industry might evolve. Those experiences led me to wonder whether every greenhouse business needs to produce every product category, or whether greater specialization and strategic collaboration could create advantages for both growers and their customers.
The concept of specialization is certainly not new. Some of the world’s most successful horticultural regions have demonstrated the benefits of focusing on core competencies while developing systems that allow growers to participate in broader markets. The Dutch horticulture industry, for example, has long been recognized for its innovation, efficiency, specialization, and ability to connect growers to markets through cooperative infrastructure and strong industry relationships. The success of that system has helped influence floriculture production around the world.
The lesson I take from that success is not that American growers should attempt to duplicate someone else’s model. Rather, it is that specialization creates opportunity. When growers concentrate resources on the crops they produce most efficiently, they often achieve greater consistency, improved labor utilization, stronger inventory management, and better overall performance.
Recent industry trends suggest that many businesses are already moving in this direction. Greenhouse Grower‘s 2026 Top 100 Growers report noted that many large operations are focusing less on expansion and more on maximizing efficiency within existing facilities. The report described an industry increasingly focused on operational discipline, efficiency, and improved utilization of current infrastructure. It also highlighted ongoing consolidation as companies seek scale and operational advantages.
If efficiency is becoming the new competitive advantage, perhaps the next question is equally important: How do we maintain a broad offering for customers while creating greater focus in production?
For many growers, the immediate concern with specialization is obvious. If we stop producing certain product categories, won’t customers simply buy those products somewhere else?
Perhaps. But perhaps there is another possibility.
Imagine a group of independent growers within a region. Traditionally, each one grows annuals, perennials, herbs, tropicals, and specialty products. Each operation invests resources across every category, manages separate inventories, and faces the same scheduling and labor challenges.
Now imagine those growers taking a different approach. Instead of each operation attempting to produce everything, one focuses primarily on annuals, another on perennials, another on tropicals, and another on specialty crops. Each greenhouse becomes exceptionally efficient within its chosen area of expertise.
At first glance, that might seem like a limitation. In reality, it could become an advantage.
The missing piece is collaboration.
The traditional objection to specialization is that customers do not want to source products from multiple suppliers. Retailers, landscapers, and brokers are already managing enough complexity. The last thing they want is to place separate orders with numerous growers, coordinate multiple deliveries, and manage a series of invoices and contacts.
What if growers could solve that problem together?
Technology has made this concept increasingly realistic. Shared ordering platforms, coordinated availability systems, centralized sales channels, and collaborative logistics can allow independent growers to present a unified offering to the marketplace. From the customer’s perspective, the process remains simple. They can access a broad assortment through a single ordering experience. Behind the scenes, however, that product may be supplied by multiple growers who each specialize in producing it efficiently and profitably.
The true opportunity may be creating a better experience for the customer. Retailers, landscapers, and brokers increasingly want simplicity. They want access to a broad assortment of products without the burden of managing multiple suppliers, deliveries, invoices, and points of contact. If technology and collaboration can provide that simplicity while allowing growers to specialize in what they do best, everyone in the supply chain stands to benefit.
The customer gains convenience.
The growers gain efficiency.
And the industry gains a model that preserves independence while creating some of the advantages traditionally associated with scale.
Let me be clear: this is not a proposal for formal cooperatives, mergers, or consolidated ownership structures. Independent greenhouse businesses remain one of the greatest strengths of American floriculture. Rather, it is an invitation to explore where strategic collaboration can create value while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit, customer relationships, and flexibility that define so many successful greenhouse operations.
Of course, successful collaboration is easier to describe than it is to implement. It requires trust, transparency, and a shared commitment to quality and customer service. Those foundations are not built overnight. However, many successful business partnerships begin with small opportunities where growers discover that working together can create benefits that neither could achieve alone.
This is not a new concept. Variations of it already exist throughout agriculture, manufacturing, and distribution. Businesses often achieve greater efficiency when they focus on what they do best and develop partnerships that complement their strengths. Yet floriculture has historically been slower to embrace these models because many of our companies were built around the philosophy of producing a complete assortment internally.
Perhaps it is time to revisit that assumption.
The future does not need to be a choice between complete independence and full consolidation. Independent greenhouse businesses remain one of the greatest strengths of American floriculture. Owner-operated companies are often highly innovative, deeply connected to their customers, and exceptionally adaptable. Those qualities should not be lost.
At the same time, growers should not ignore opportunities to capture some of the benefits that scale can provide. Collaboration can create scale without requiring ownership changes. Shared purchasing programs, coordinated logistics, centralized ordering platforms, crop specialization, and strategic production partnerships all offer opportunities to improve efficiency while allowing each business to maintain its independence.
Perhaps most importantly, these approaches allow growers to focus on what they do best.
For years, many of us have measured success by the size of our product assortment. Looking ahead, success may increasingly be measured by something different: how efficiently we produce, how effectively we utilize our resources, and how well we leverage partnerships that strengthen our businesses.
The greenhouse businesses that thrive over the next decade will undoubtedly continue investing in technology, automation, and innovation. But they may also discover that one of the greatest opportunities available is not adding complexity — it is reducing it. By focusing on core strengths and developing strategic relationships with other growers, businesses may find new ways to improve profitability, reduce risk, and better serve customers.
That shift may require us to rethink some long-held assumptions. It may require us to view neighboring growers differently. And it may require us to have conversations that would have seemed unlikely a generation ago.
For most of my career, I viewed the greenhouse operation down the road as a competitor. Recently, seeing examples of growers working together while remaining successful independent businesses has caused me to rethink that assumption.
The challenges facing our industry today suggest a different perspective may be worth considering. As labor pressures, rising costs, and increasing complexity continue to reshape floriculture, the growers who thrive may be those who learn not only how to compete effectively, but how to collaborate strategically.
After all, the greenhouse operator across town may not be your biggest competitor.
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