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From:
Ohio's Country Journal
Internet Helps Herb Business Blossom
By
Matt
REESE
Whether for culinary,
medicinal or spiritual use, herbs
have been a part of human life for
countless
centuries.
While the natural simplicity and ancient
mystery of herbs may not always seem to fit
in today's decidedly high-tech society The
Blossom Farm has created a successful
marriage of tradition and modern technology with her Internet-based
herb business, Blossom Farm, in
Lorain County.
"Herbs remain so popular because
they have alternative uses," Gayle
Sathre - Zimmerman said. "Besides being
attractive, they're useful for something."
This green thumb grew
up around plant production working with
tomatoes and bedding plants in her
grandparents' greenhouse. After going to
school to learn more about plants and
landscape design
at Ohio State, she tried several
business ventures including a freelance design
service for landscape companies and through the mail, even though it
was successful she settled on her true passion, herb and ornamental perennial
plant production.
Though customers liked her plants before she
created the Web site Gayle had trouble attracting large
volumes of buyers to her out-of-the-way
rural location southwest of
Cleveland.
"Before, a lot of people couldn't find
me," she said. But things changed
fifteen years ago
when she invested $99 to start the Website for her business. The
initial investment and the annual fee for
the Website have been well worth the cost.
With marketing on the Internet, its
unbelievable
how many people find me," Gayle said. "The
Web site has been very good to me." After the Web site was
established, business boomed for Blossom's
Herb
Farm. In the days before her Internet use,
the farm would draw about 100 customers monthly. This year
she has already gotten orders from 5,000
customers located in every corner of the country. She sells roughly
15,000 plants annually.
"People can get plants from me that
they can't get from their local greenhouse," she said.
Around 95% of her products are sent
to her customers through the U.S. Priority
Postal Service.
Though the focus of the
business is mail order, "I
took a lot of time to put as much information as I could on the Web site, so
people think its something really special,"
she said. "People will find me on the
Internet and want to stop and shop
around.
When they come here, people think
there will be
20 or more greenhouse and a giant store, buts
it's just me.
Gayle
grows all her
plants in a
90-foot by 30-foot greenhouse and
propagates three-quarters of the plants on
the farm. "I grow my plants in an unheated
greenhouse so they are hearty enough to handle Ohio winters,"
she said. Customers can order plants individually or together in a
theme garden. "Most people like to pick out their
own plants," she said. "But some people
think it's easier just to have me pick out
their plants for them. "Barbecue Lover's Collection, Bible
Garden, Medicinal Herb Garden
Collection, Lavender Lovers Collection,
and Butterfly and Hummingbird Lure
Garden are among the many herb theme
packages Gayle sells. Each features
six to nine plants.
The plants are cared for with bimonthly
applications of liquid fertilizer after they are started in mid to late summer.
The plants are
sprayed for aphids and other pests when necessary.
Along with plants, Blossom's
Herb Farm offers homemade soaps, lotions
and other products for herb lovers.
"A
lot of people have problems with sensitive skin and are looking for natural
soaps and lotions," she said. "The soap
doesn't dry out your
skin, so it's good for people who get dry crackly skin
in the winter.
While
Gayle has no
complaints about doing business over the internet and through the
mail it does offer some unique challenges.
People order plants
and then they expect them the next day, " she said . They don't
understand that my plants are not all ready at the same time. Blossom's Herb Farm
plants are
shipped from April through October to
customers. The plants are boxed and prepared for their rough journey with care.
"I rubber band moss on top of the
plants to protect them and to keep the
soil in when shipping," she said.
Gayle
recommends that others interested in doing a Web-based
business take steps to ensure a secure
Web
site for customers and do enough advertising to get the word out.
Once customers stumble onto the Website, the product list,
recipes, plant descriptions and tales of folklore do a great job of
selling the products.
Gayle takes it from there with plant production and
selection practices necessary to provide customers with a quality
product to enjoy for many years.
"When I pick out plants for
customers, it's like I'm picking out plants for myself," she
said. "I enjoy doing this because these plants provide comfort for
others."
Through shrouded in ancient mystery, the natural comfort
and simplicity of herbs is still sought after in this age of
Internet, red tape and traffic-jam's. And, now thanks to the
Blossom Farm, herb lovers can participate in one of mankind's oldest
traditions with a simple click of their mouse.
From the Ohio Magazine July 2003
by Jenny Pavlasek
Herbal Essence
Blossom
Farm
When Gayle
Sathre Zimmerman graduated from The Ohio
State University's horticulture program, she knew a desk
job was not for her. She discovered her niche 12
years ago, when she founded Blossom Farm in Columbia Station. Today, she grows
herbs, perennials and other plants. "I like gardening and herbs,
and I like natural products," she says.
Sathre-Zimmerman added her
line of soaps, balms, bath salts and more to her business about five years ago.
A one-woman show, she spends most of the growing season tending more than 20,000
plants, making the product line a cold-weather project. "I try to make my
batches of soap in the winter," she says. Favorites include Moonlit Garden
Herb Soap, scented with jasmine flowers, and Lavender Twist Herb Soap, made with
calendula, comfrey, chamomile herb, lavender essential oil, shea butter, cocoa
butter and castor oil in a base of olive oil, coconut oil and palm oil. In
addition to striving to make her products as natural as possible,
Sathre-Zimmerman swears that since she has started using her own soap, her skin
is never dry in the winter.
Home
dried herb
