National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture
Help us promote plants and the goods and services that support their enjoyment and use.
We have two fall plant promotional pieces to share with you. Take them and use them as you see fit. They are suitable for both commercial and academic audiences and can be printed or used in social media. Leave the NICH logo and add your own. One piece is directed toward indoor plant-lovers (and soon-to-be lovers). The other is for tree lovers.
Use the hashtag #PlantsDoThat when posting.
National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture
A Summary of Strategic Objectives & Tactics from the NICH 2018 National Meeting
• Identify call to action
o Change ‘Join Us’ portion of the webpage
– Change company to organization name/affiliation
– Add Position, State
– Menu of choices about where to get involved. Much of this is about effective recruitment strategies.
o Create an automatic reply for new stakeholder once they have joined that includes an initial survey about how to get involved
o Create the opportunity for two levels of support – (1) just show your support and (2) get stuff, serve on committees, be a more vital part of the movement
• Identify external and internal stakeholders with an initial focus on internal stakeholders
• Develop simple message about what NICH is and isn’t
MarCom Committee will consider one message to rule them all or multiple similar messages tailored to specific audiences. If multiple communications, should be the same message with specific info about what does NICH to for you as an XYZ professional. Mission and vision stay consistent across all messages, application of mission/vision specific to the group. MarCom will develop the approach we use, the Executive committee will approve the final draft.
What can NICH do for you/your group?
Incorporate mission and vision – general enough to have broad appeal.
Key unified message.
• Enlist industry stakeholders to push key unified message
Offer tools and infographics for stakeholders that are on point with market trends. Editorial calendar? How do you use infographics? Pair infographic with a ‘what do you do with this?’ that highlights social media posts and other marketing strategies.
• Actively support efforts to conduct expert-level market research at the national level.
• Identify, recruit, educate and engage existing consumer horticulture networks to join NICH and participate on committees and councils.
• Campaign to educate government and other decision makers & grant deciders
o NIFA Listening Sessions (presentation & written contributions)
o Industry Relevancy Reviewers.
o Consider hosting a day on the hill, possibly in collaboration with Plant Conservation Alliance
• Expand search for funds beyond state and federal sources
Two teams of thought exist here –
o Identify an intern to look at funding opportunities such as the Bette Midler Foundation, Gloeckner Foundation, and others. Other opportunities may be KickStarter, Barnraiser, and others. Issues – would have to become another type of organization if taking in money, would need to have a purpose for funds raised.
o Not asking for funding FROM the industry, asking for funding FOR the industry. Focus on federal funding sources by securing relevancy reviewers and participating in the NIFA Listening Sessions – federal investment to support research will support the industry. With a thriving industry, there will be an investment in endowed chairs and researchers to continue to expand on research to support the industry.
• Be the clearinghouse of relevant funds and expertise
Not a huge bang for your buck here – need to influence the process by being a relevancy reviewer and letter writer as opposed to being a resource website. No staff to manage the ‘clearinghouse’ anyhow.
• Foster a collaborative network to seek funding
• Lead a direct to consumer campaign
Want to influence how federal research dollars are spent on Consumer Horticulture? It’s simple. Volunteer to be a reviewer of Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) proposals.
Anyone who works in any aspect of horticulture, from production to end-use, from retail to tree care professionals, industry association representatives, or anyone engaged in the production, handling, processing, distributing or sale of specialty crops is eligible.
“The National Institute for Consumer Horticulture (NICH) is asking everyone in the industry to spend just a few hours of their time to review SCRI proposals. Doing so helps grow our industry and connect more people and plants, and you’ll also grow from the experience,” says Casey Sclar, Inaugural Chair of NICH.
Here’s how it works. Volunteers are given proposals covering topics closely related to their expertise to read, evaluate, and prepare brief comments on to determine its relevancy. When reviews are complete, the panel decides which proposals will be invited to submit a full application. No travel is required; email and conference calls are used.
“We need more people with expertise in Consumer Horticulture on these panels or proposals relevant to Consumer Horticulture won’t get through the pre-proposal initial stages,” says Mary Kay Woodworth, executive director of Urban Ag Council, who has participated. “If reviewers don’t feel the pre-proposal is relevant to them, it does not go forward.”
It involves 20-25 hours of your time. “I guarantee you will find it interesting and exciting,” says Woodworth. “Movers and shakers participate on these panels, so the networking is good.” Ellen Bauske, NICH Co-Chair and a previous submitter to SCRI says, “your impact as a reviewer is far reaching. Every consideration is given to reviewers’ comments. Even when a pre-proposal doesn’t proceed, your comments help guide the next proposal.”
Woodworth promises that the process is very interesting. “If you are like me, someone who scratches your head when you see the topics of some research grants that are funded, this is your opportunity to influence how your tax dollars are spent! I strongly encourage members of the urban ag industry to participate in the grant reviews. It’s a small amount of time commitment for potentially big investments in our industry!”
This is your chance to shape the future of Consumer Horticulture research and get the questions you care about answered.
To sign up, visit this website: https://nifa.usda.gov/announcement/scri-relevance-review. You can also contact Dr. Tom Bewick, National Program Leader at tbewick@nifa.usda.gov.
More than 80 Industry Leaders Attend Annual Meeting & Create Strategic Plan for Growth
People in our industry love plants.
Cultivars or natives, houseplants or edibles, trees or shrubs, urban forest or fairy gardens, it doesn’t matter.
Sharing a love for plants and our passion for our industry was the overriding theme at the 3rd Meeting of the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH) held in Atlanta June 27-29.
NICH – pronounced like pitch – started as an audacious idea to unite all stakeholders in consumer horticulture and get 90 percent of U.S. households gardening by 2025.
Some 80 U.S. green industry leaders and innovators – from academia to commercial growers to associations – pooled their collective brainpower at the meeting and created a strategic plan to achieve that mission. It is centered on several “big ideas”:
At the meeting, Marvin Miller of Ball Horticulture imagined a new “big idea’. He saw NICH as a big tent with open sides.
“I was thinking an umbrella was too small and restrictive,” he explained. “NICH is more like a big tent so people can come under the tent and join the cause yet have the freedom to be independent for their specific objectives and operate for those specific objectives outside the tent.
“We all can appreciate the opportunity to expand the use of plants and the appreciation for horticulture and grow the horticultural community,” he explained. “In my mind, this is where NICH can play a significant role in bringing those with these common goals together.”
This “big tent” idea caught fire at the NICH meeting.
Casey Sclar, NICH’s Inaugural Chair and Executive Director of the American Public Gardens Association, added, “NICH welcomes all sectors to gather under this tent and creates one powerful, unified voice to promote the value of plants and ultimately grow all aspects of end-use horticulture.”
Attendees at the meeting, ranging from seasoned veterans to millennials, spanned all sectors of consumer horticulture.
Because the mission is so compelling, Cammie Donaldson, executive director of the Native Plant Horticultural Foundation, joined NICH long before she attended her first meeting in Atlanta. Donaldson and several Florida native plant growers attended the meeting and agreed to support the “big tent” building process (unification) and anything else they can to move NICH forward.
This was the first time Beth Tuttle, president & CEO of the American Horticultural Society, attended a NICH meeting. She thought it was a fantastic opportunity to meet some of the “true leaders” from across the horticultural landscape – industry, government, academia, and nonprofits.
Tuttle believes, “A coordinated, collective action strategy to advance consumer participation and success in horticulture is the way to instill a culture of gardening for all Americans. We are proud to be a part of this important initiative.”
For Susan Yoder, executive director of Seed Your Future, it was her first experience at a NICH meeting, too. What impressed her most was the collaborative desire and passion for the big picture. Yoder reiterated what many feel,”Without plants, people – and our planet – will not survive. Can we get people to see, appreciate, enjoy, grow, buy and talk about plants? Yes, we can!”
First-time attendee Danny Summers, managing director of the Garden Center Group, was energized by the opportunity to have an impact on what the consumer sees, understands and buys. “In my view, this is the first time we have had the opportunity for the entire industry to be singing the same song,” he said.
He sent an email the very next week and asked all of his members and supporters to join NICH, pointing out the grassroots organization is not asking for money. “They need all of us on their mailing list to have more impact when working with potential funders,” Summers added.
Bob Polomski, Clemson University Extension Specialist, was another first-time NICH attendee. He says NICH has done much to organize around its important mission to “grow a healthy world through plants, gardens, and landscapes,” and hopes the field of horticulture will continue to grow with our collective voices driving NICH to new heights.
NICH was an eye opener for Sylvia Gordon, a landscape designer. “Many others think, as I do, about the importance of the end consumer,” she said. “I look forward to growing a larger industry following and the eventual connection with all consumer horticulturist.”
Peter Moe, director of the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, reflected on how fortunate we are to work in a field that creates a more beautiful and healthier world. “We are excited to work together across university, association and corporate boundaries to encourage more people to participate in horticulture and learn how it will add to their quality of life,” he said.
The meeting concluded with the group motivated, passionate and action-oriented. “Our next steps will drive us closer to our end goal of creating a country where everyone loves plants as much as we do,” Sclar says.
Since the first national meeting in 2015, NICH has made strides that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.
Visit NICH today at consumerhort.org to learn more and get involved.
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