Massing for More Sales

Here is a simple idea that could help you sell more caladiums -- and perhaps more bulbs in general. Call it "show and sell."

Chances are you won't be able to point customers to a current planting of caladiums, but you can show them enough in your store to give them a good idea of how to present them for maximum effect in a landscape. The idea is to promote mass plantings of these hardy bulbs.

The top picture here shows how skimpy a bed can look when too few caladiums are planted. At best, all they have is a nodding acquaintance with each other. The bottom picture shows how effective a properly filled planting can be in a bed.

With the right display of these pictures, along with appropriate "selling information," you could lay the groundwork for moving many more caladium bulbs. And you could help establish the concept of mass plantings in general.

These pictures were shot with 35mm print film. You could display them at their initial postcard size, but there is another option. You could take the prints to a copy center and get 11x17 inch laser copies made. It only takes about five minutes for each, and the cost is usually less than $5 per copy.

One drawback: the colors may not be exactly true to the original. (There's a good chance your color prints themselves may not be precisely true, either.) The goal, though, is to present poor use versus good use of bulbs, and this approach will do that.

You could write appropriate information to establish the main concept of mass plantings, put the pictures and text, the large headline, on a small bulletin board. Hang it prominently as part of your bulbs display. Total cost: probably not more than $30.