Gardening showrooms, like W. Bloomfield's Planterra, becoming a trend

As big box hardware stores try to crowd out local nurseries, gardening centers like Planterra are using a year-round conservatory approach.

Excerpt:

"Bruce Butterfield, research director for the National Gardening Association, said garden centers in Europe have worked for many years to become more than just places to shop, and U.S. retailers are catching on. Efforts have included adding attractions such as a coffee bar or cafe, or arranging plants to suggest how people might display them inside or outside their homes.

"It gives them great ideas," Butterfield said. "It also puts things in context - what plants go well together, in a way. ... You just don't buy one plant."

As home improvement giants like Home Depot and Lowe's have expanded their nursery departments over the past decade, smaller nurseries and independent sellers have been trying to stand apart. And while annual flower shows or botanical garden plant sales pop up around the country ahead of the spring planting season, Planterra's conservatory will be open to shoppers year-round."

Read the rest of the story here.