Late Bloomers : Baby Boomers Find They Have Green Thumbs

Forget the proverbial green thumb. To Sequoia Zook, the successful gardener needs phosphates, compost, fertilizer--and quality tools.

“You need the right tools,” said Zook, who became an avid gardener after she and her husband bought a home in 1984. “It’s good to have good tools and good shovels. You have to spend the money to get the best.”

With an upscale attitude and the best gardening tools money can buy, more and more baby boomers are beginning to march into the yards of their recently purchased homes to tame and shape nature. For some, gardening is a fad--something that will be abandoned when it becomes unfashionable. For most, however, it’s a serious pursuit--an interest that will be maintained, according to Nancy Flinn, spokeswoman for the National Gardening Assn.

“We at the gardening association think it’s great news,” Flinn said. “Once you begin to garden, you tend to garden for the rest of your life. The baby boomers are blooming.”

These avid new gardeners--people aged 30 to 49--are getting a rousing welcome from nursery wholesalers, garden center retailers, tool manufacturers and stock growers because they are big spenders. This age group spent $8.57 billion on lawn and garden products in 1987, an increase of $2.32 billion over 1986, according to a recent garden association report. People in their 30s and 40s account for half of all lawn and garden purchases, the report said.

Much of that money is exchanged for expensive--and self-consciously “country-style”--merchandise. One company offers a terra cotta planting pot for only $350. An aluminum garden bench goes for a mere $795. You can have an electric shredder--perfect for creating compost--for just $249. As for tools, electric hedge trimmers are a steal at $145, as is a small stainless steel cultivating fork for $29.

Then there’s the subject of the whole pursuit, the plants themselves: everything from Paeonia--pink, red and white flowers that are native to China and Siberia--to California favorites such as roses and fuchsia.

The perennial plants that have been traditionally popular in England are also Zook’s favorites.

“I’m kind of old-fashioned in my tastes,” she said of her flowers of choice.

Zook, a 35-year-old San Diegan, plants columbine and penstemon and sweet pea. She also nurtures fruit trees. As for vegetables, she plants bell peppers, tomatoes and swiss chard. There’s also plenty of cucumbers, a crop that her 9-year-old son manages.

This garden fever is good for California’s economic health, according to the gardening association, a Burlington, Vt.-based organization representing gardening enthusiasts, professional gardeners, landscapers and companies in the lawn and garden industry. California’s gardeners have an impact, but big-spending gardeners in other states also boost the Golden State’s economy, Flinn said.

“California has one of the highest . . . gardening levels per capita in the country,” Flinn explained, “and all of the major seed companies and all of the major growers operate out of California.”

In all, about 45% of the nursery stock produced in California is shipped to other states, according to the California Assn. of Nurserymen. Money may not grow on trees, but--considering the demand for things botanical--it does flow from any trees on a wholesaler’s trading block. The value of nursery stock has been rising in California. Wholesalers in California handled $1.366 billion worth of nursery stock in 1987, compared to $1.027 billion in 1984, according to the association.

Managers at one of the country’s largest wholesalers, Monrovia-based Monrovia Nursery Co., say there is a great demand for azaleas, junipers, gardenias and magnolias. Shrubs pruned into unconventional shapes like pyramids and spirals are also popular, they say.

Wholesalers and other segments of the lawn and garden industry are prospering partly because they have augmented their product lines to meet the distinctly upscale demands of baby boom-age gardeners, according to Flinn. Because so many boomers are part of a two-income household and have relatively little free time, they are particularly interested in time-saving products, she said.

“Baby boomers are looking for ways to garden smarter, and the industry is responding,” Flinn said.

For example, there are sprinkler systems with small computers that synchronize spraying. Also, garden centers are stocking more live plants--another boomer favorite--because it takes less time to transplant those products than it does to raise plants from seeds, according to Jack Wick, executive director of the nurserymen’s association.

The industry is also responding to the boomers’ demand for more colorful products, Wick said.

“You see more colorful baskets on patios and porches--that’s a new phenomenon,” Wick said. “They want plants with more color--plants that bloom right away. This has forced hybriders to find a way to make them bloom right away. Sometimes they want to see them blooming at the nursery. So, when you go to the nursery these days, it’s bloom, bloom, bloom!”

The boomers, Wick said, are now turning to gardening because they are--as a group--beginning to buy their first homes. Other observers in the industry cite the presence of young children in many boomer households, which prompts many couples to look for new pursuits at home. As for the gardeners, many have a simpler answer--they enjoy it.

Biggest Spenders

“It’s very calming,” Zook explained. “It’s like meditation. I like to have cut flowers around my home. You need something like this to survive in this world. . . . It just feels good to grow plants from seeds.”

For some of these new homeowners--a minority--gardening is the latest status-rich fad for a generation that made MBAs and BMWs popular, according to Bonnie Taylor-Smith, marketing director for Roger’s Gardens, which has outlets in Corona Del Mar and Santa Ana. Surveys show that the biggest spenders at garden centers are suburb-dwelling, college-educated professionals with incomes of $40,000 or more.

“It’s trendy to garden now,” said Taylor-Smith, a 36-year-old boomer. “Some people have exhausted the cars, exhausted the gold market, and they can only buy so many outfits. It (gardening) is another toy--another way to express affluence.

“But,” she continued, “there are die-hard gardeners who will be there when it’s less popular.”

Those dedicated boomer gardeners have a penchant for quality and are willing to pay a premium, according to Stevie Daniels, executive editor of Organic Gardening magazine.

“They’re interested in special tools--the right tools for the right jobs,” Daniels said. “In the past, people would go to the hardware store and get the cheapest tool. Now, there is a tendency to buy a better quality.”

For these gardeners, a simple steel-plate hand trowel with a plastic handle isn’t good enough; the preferred make (for only $29) is stainless steel with a solid ash handle. Plastic won’t do when old-fashioned metal is available--for example, in the form of a brass-handled watering can that retails for a mere $45.

Publication Redesigned

This new generation of back yard gardeners is also more interested in ornamental plants than their older counterparts, Daniels said. When they grow vegetables, they’re more likely to grow exotic varieties for gourmet meals, she said. In fact, the gardening rage is partly a result of the rising interest in gourmet cooking, some industry observers say.

The rise in boomer gardening has had other effects. Companies with a stake in the lawn and garden business--including publishers of special interest gardening magazines--are more competitive now. For example, Daniels said she recently had her publication redesigned--changing the look and feel of Organic Gardening--to attract boomers.

“So many people have had their eyes on the baby boomers,” she said. “I recognize that baby boomers look for a more aesthetically pleasing package and enjoy color and bite-sized information.”

This new competitiveness extends to the mail-order business, where catalogue producers are squaring off for this lucrative market. For example, W. Atlee Burpee & Co.--best known for its seeds--has begun to offer more upscale tools and garden accessories in its catalogue.

“We’re broadening our base,” said Stephen Cobden, a spokesman for Burpee. “We looking at the new growth areas . . . so it’s natural to go after the younger market.”

Burpee is pursuing a market that has helped make Smith & Hawken, a catalogue and retail sales operation based in Mill Valley, Calif., one of the fastest-growing companies in the lawn and garden business. Smith & Hawken has succeeded largely by selling high-quality English-style tools and accessories through a sophisticated catalogue that evokes the hoary traditions of English gardening.

Sought Franchise

“There are other companies asking themselves, ‘How can we get involved in this market?’, “ said William Scranton, president of Smith & Hawken. “We’re finding more imitators.”

The Smith & Hawken approach--the marketing of upscale tools and accessories--has been adopted by Susan Ashbrook, who opened a gardening shop in Santa Monica earlier this month.

Ashbrook said she decided to open the shop--Ashbrook’s for the Garden--only after Smith & Hawken rejected her proposal to open a franchise outlet in Southern California. Ashbrook said she has invested thousands of dollars in the new shop.

“I decided to take their idea and expand on it,” said Ashbrook, who plans to offer gardening classes at the shop.

Besides tools, Ashbrook’s offers antique fixtures for the garden, books on gardening and special gardening apparel.

Yes, for some, it’s important to be garden chic. There are sheepskin, buckskin and goatskin gloves. Designer coveralls. Waterproof plastic clogs in fire-engine red or bright blue. Knee pads. Sun hats.

Zook doesn’t go for the fashions. And she often shops at Perennial Adventure, an enterprise based in the driveway of Christine Wotruba’s home in the San Diego area. But then, fashions come and go. On the other hand, to Zook--a boomer who spends up to four hours a day in her plots--gardening is a passion, not a plaything.

“I’ll do this the rest of my life,” she said. “I’ll do it until I drop.”