There have been a lot of changes happening in the gardening world.

Garden shows on HGTV have disappeared, except for a few reruns, Gardening Life magazine came to a halt, and the lack of enthusiastic volunteers has left a few clubs on shaky ground. Several garden writing associates have had their columns and articles axed by publications with the explanation that people aren’t interested in gardening any more.

I don’t agree with this rationale, and believe there is still interest in gardening, although it is definitely evolving with changing lifestyles.

Paul Zammit, previously the head of perennials at Plant World, and now the director of horticulture at the Toronto Botanical Gardens, has years of experience in the gardening business and knows how it’s changing. He feels, as with most things, trends happen in cycles and for gardening centres there is usually a two year changeover, which is due to the Internet providing information quicker than before. Garden centres have caught on to the changing trends and are becoming lifestyle centres, focusing on the sale of more furniture and accessories than plants. Believe it or not, some centres in their pursuit of creating a pleasant shopping experience are playing relaxing music to make the trip stress free.

Gardeners always want the newest and best products on the market, which challenges the centres to have ever-changing displays and incorporate cross merchandising to promote ideas and sales. For those not familiar with this retail term, it stresses having desirable elements displayed together as a sort of subliminal prod to purchase addition products that are shown to be compatible.

Most gardeners are not interested in the Latin names of plants, or often any name at all. Few shop with a list of Latin names anymore, unless a landscape designer has sent the customer to find specific plants. What’s important is if the plant is suited to sun or shade, and if there are plenty of plants for each of these sites grouped together to choose from. The task of picking material is made that much easier when the visual display is plentiful. Everyone likes to have a pretty seasonal container out front of their house, or by the door. It takes time to make a fully dimensional masterpiece that will need reworking as it fades. No stranger to this dilemma, centres now have a booming business selling inserts that provide instant beauty. What could be easier than popping in a gorgeous Christmas arrangement, then pulling it out in March to have another insert with spring flowering bulbs? Zammit, who is well known for his container designs, says there is a protocol with this type of instant beauty; that you never have the insert sticking out above the pot itself. Always be sure to buy a smaller insert, so that it will actually sit inside the outer pot, or buy a larger container.

For more on gardening, visit my website at http://lavendercottagegardening. blogspot.com.