Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery Named One of Today’s Garden Center’s “Revolutionary 100″
Cedar Park Texas – Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery joined the ranks of the horticulture industry’s top independent garden centers when it was named one of Today’s Garden Center’s Revolutionary 100.
The program, now in its fifth year, surveys garden center owners and managers and culminates in a listing of the 100 most revolutionary garden centers in the nation. It is open to all independent garden centers, large and small, and is based on leadership and innovations, not on size or revenue.
“It was an honor to be recognized amongst all the other great garden centers in the country,” says Steve Kainer, owner.
Garden center owner and managers across the United States fill out an extensive online questionnaire covering topics such as employee training, industry involvement, profitability, marketing, use of technology, purchasing, and customer and community service. The entrants are ranked according to a points system, and the 100 top entries make the list.
When we opened Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery 10 years ago our goal was to create a garden center that displayed ponds & water features; the way they might look in our customer’s yards. Keeping true to this, we have developed a “park like” setting that has become a true Destination Location with 9 show ponds & over 100 running water features in beautifully landscaped gardens.
Our annual “Lily Blossom Festival” complete with celebrity appearances, seminars, live-music & bar-b-que has grown to over 1000 attendees in a single day! We follow the Festival with our “Night at the Ponds”, a mid-June event that hosts local wineries, night blooming lilies & live music. We served over 700 guests in 3.5 hours this year.
The key to our success stems from an amazing staff. You won’t find a more eclectic group of people; they’re fun, smart, energetic, helpful…but mostly just weird. This, above all, makes us a truly revolutionary Garden Center.
“Each year this list honors the truly innovative and unique garden centers across the country that continue to change and evolve as their customers’ needs change,” says Jennifer Polanz, editor of Today’s Garden Center. ”This year I think this award means even more because the independent retailers on the list were able to weather difficult economic conditions and serve their customers well.”
