Garden Railways Extend Customer Base, Sales
By Wendy Bedwell-Wilson
 A garden railway can wind through the landscape, past pergolas and over water features. The blowing whistle can blend with the pond’s trickle. It can add life and movement to a garden, and independent pond retailers and garden centers might
Adding garden railways to water feature displays can attract a new set of customers. (Courtesy of Silvergate Distributors) |
Walter Andersen Nurseries reported increased customers due to carrying garden-railway products. (Courtesy of Walter Andersen Nurseries) | want to add this unique accessory to their inventories.
Mark Rocha, vice president of sales and marketing for San Diego-based Silvergate Distributors said more nurseries are finding success selling garden railways. “They see miniatures taking off,” he said. “When a customer is adding a design accessory, such as a pergola or fountain, garden railways tend to be a good fit.”
For retailers, garden railways can attract a new set of customers. Ken Andersen, vice president and general manager of Walter Andersen Nurseries in Poway, Calif., for instance, said his store’s railway draws droves of railway hobbyists.
“We have people come in specifically to see the garden railway,” he said. “Since we started carrying the garden-railway products, it has brought in more garden-railway customers than we had before. We always had some because we carry the plant material for the garden railways, but when we started carrying the hardware for the garden railways, that brought us more customers.”
SKUs range from the trains and railways themselves to miniature plants and buildings designed for the garden railroad, Rocha said. Though they can be displayed in cases or on store shelves, he said the trains draw the most interest chugging through the landscape.
“The more successful nurseries actually have a garden railway layout, like Walter Andersen Nurseries,” Rocha said. “They have an active layout run by the garden-railroad club in that area. They incorporate other features, too, like if there’s a water feature or a pond they have a bridge for the train crossing the pond.
“When people start seeing those types of pieces coming together, they get more excited about it,” Rocha said. “Seeing it in action, they can start taking ownership of it and thinking about the possibilities in their own gardens.”
Retailers who consider adding trains to their stocks should do so in the fall, Andersen said. As the holidays approach, customers look for trains that will go from under the tree to out in the garden.
“Closer to holiday season, around October and November through December is when we sell the most of the railroad stuff,” Andersen said. “Typically what people will do is buy it, use it in the house over the holidays and start building railway outside after that.”
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