Other Product Ideas to Sell at Your Garden Center

 

Garden centers have evolved far beyond being places to buy plants and soil. Today’s customers are looking for inspiration, convenience, and complete solutions for their indoor and outdoor spaces. Expanding your product range beyond core plant offerings not only enhances the customer experience but also increases average transaction value, encourages impulse purchases, and helps stabilize revenue throughout the year.

By thoughtfully curating complementary products, garden centers can position themselves as one-stop destinations for gardeners, homeowners, and gift buyers alike. Below are practical, high-performing product ideas that can help diversify your offering while staying aligned with your core business.

 

Why Expanding Your Product Range Matters

Relying solely on plants can make revenue highly seasonal and weather-dependent. Adding complementary products allows garden centers to create multiple purchase opportunities, even when plant sales slow. Customers who come in for a single item are more likely to add accessories, décor, or care products when they are visually merchandised alongside plants.

A broader product mix also attracts a wider audience. Gift shoppers, apartment dwellers, and landscaping professionals may not be in the market for live plants, but they are often looking for stylish, functional garden-related products. Ultimately, a diversified range strengthens brand perception and keeps customers returning year-round.

Garden Décor and Outdoor Living Accessories

Decorative products add personality and emotional appeal to your garden center, making them ideal for browsing and impulse purchases.

Garden ornaments and sculptures—including ceramic, concrete, resin, or metal pieces—appeal to customers looking to personalize their outdoor spaces. Animal figures, abstract forms, and statement pieces such as a Two-Tone Earth Glaze Garden Sphere work particularly well as focal points, adding texture, color, and visual interest to garden beds, patios, and entryways. These items also translate well into gift purchases.

Birdbaths, fountains, and water features offer both aesthetic and functional value. They enhance garden ambiance while supporting local wildlife, making them a natural upsell alongside outdoor planters and landscaping products.

Outdoor lanterns and decorative lighting, particularly solar-powered or LED options, are popular due to their low maintenance and energy efficiency. These products perform especially well when staged in outdoor vignettes that help customers easily visualize how they will look in a finished space.

Functional Garden Essentials Customers Always Need

Some of the best-selling products are not flashy but essential. These practical items have high turnover and strong add-on potential.

Pot saucers, ceramic pot feet, and plant stands are natural complements to pots and planters. Ceramic pot feet, in particular, can help improve drainage, promote airflow, and protect surfaces, while also adding a subtle decorative touch. Because customers often overlook these accessories initially, they make excellent last-minute additions at checkout or within bundled displays.

Plant labels, ties, stakes, and supports are low-cost items that customers routinely replace. Bamboo stakes, trellises, and plant clips appeal to both beginner gardeners and experienced growers, ensuring broad and consistent demand.

Watering cans and spray bottles also perform well, especially when you offer a mix of decorative indoor styles and heavy-duty outdoor options. Thoughtful design can elevate these everyday tools into gift-worthy products.

Soil, Fertilizers, and Plant Care Products

Plant care products are essential for customer success, making them a critical part of any well-rounded garden center.

Premium potting mixes and soil amendments tailored for specific needs—such as succulents, herbs, vegetables, or indoor plants—help customers achieve better results. Clear labeling and simple education improve confidence and drive sales.

Fertilizers and plant food, including organic, slow-release, and liquid options, are repeat-purchase items that support long-term customer relationships. Staff recommendations and signage explaining when and how to use them can significantly boost conversion.

Pest control and plant health solutions, especially natural or eco-friendly options, appeal to environmentally conscious shoppers. Products like neem oil, insecticidal soap, and companion planting solutions are increasingly in demand.

Gift-Friendly Products That Drive Impulse Sales

Giftable items bring in new customers and encourage spontaneous purchases.

Indoor plant accessories such as misters, decorative cache pots, and propagation stations are compact, affordable, and visually appealing. They are especially popular with urban and apartment-based customers.

Garden-themed gifts, including gloves, seed kits, plant markers, and curated gift bundles, perform well year-round. Bundling smaller items together enhances perceived value while making purchasing decisions easier for shoppers.

Seasonal and occasion-based gifts—for events like Mother’s Day, housewarmings, or holidays—allow you to refresh displays and create urgency without drastically changing inventory.

Lifestyle and Home Garden Add-Ons

Lifestyle-focused products help customers envision how gardening fits into their everyday lives.

Outdoor cushions and compact furniture can perform well in limited retail space when carefully curated. Even a small, styled selection can inspire larger purchases or return visits.

Planter styling accessories, such as decorative pebbles, moss, and mulch toppers, enhance visual appeal while improving plant health. These items are easy to cross-sell and help customers achieve a polished look.

Balcony and small-space gardening solutions, including vertical planters and hanging baskets, cater to urban customers who want greenery without large outdoor areas.

Lifestyle and Home Garden Add-Ons

Trade customers value consistency, durability, and availability. Offering bulk planters, standardized pot ranges, and heavy-duty outdoor containers can help position your garden center as a reliable supplier for landscapers and contractors.

Clear trade pricing, repeatable sizing, and dependable stock levels encourage long-term relationships and recurring orders. These products may move in larger quantities, even if individual margins are lower.

Products for Trade Customers and Landscaping Professionals

Not every product category will suit every garden center. Successful expansion starts with understanding your core customer base and aligning products with their needs and lifestyles.

Focus on items that offer healthy margins, are easy to store, and complement your existing inventory. Testing new products in small quantities allows you to assess demand before committing to larger orders. Thoughtful visual merchandising—such as grouping products by use case rather than category—can significantly increase add-on sales.

Build a More Profitable, Well-Rounded Garden Center

Expanding your product offering beyond plants allows your garden center to become more resilient, profitable, and customer-focused. By curating a balanced mix of decorative, functional, and gift-friendly products, you can create a shopping experience that encourages exploration and repeat visits.

Rather than overcrowding shelves, prioritize quality, cohesion, and relevance. Discover wholesale garden statues that can elevate your displays and help customers complete their outdoor displays—request a catalog to explore styles that align with your garden center’s look and customer demand.

Key Takeaways

• Expanding beyond plants helps stabilize revenue and increase average order value
• Functional accessories and plant care products offer high turnover and repeat sales
• Décor and gift items drive impulse purchases and attract new customer segments
• Trade-focused products support long-term, high-volume relationships
• Thoughtful curation and visual merchandising are key to successful product expansion