Welcome to Premier Growers

Premier Growers, Inc. is beginning Spring 2012 production and looking forward to another wonderful season delivering highest quality bedding plants and flowers exclusively to Landscape Professionals.

We are keenly aware of industry news of a potential outbreak of Impatiens Downy Mildew (IDM) disease which has led other growers to cancel production of impatiens for the season.  We also know the very important role impatiens play in the design and planting of spring/summer landscapes in the Southeast.

With all of this in mind, we have given careful thought and consideration, including the input of our suppliers, customers and a wide range of industry experts in making the decision to grow and supply a full crop of impatiens for Spring 2012.   

Precautionary measures we are taking to ensure success:

• Pre-inspection of impatiens plugs with weekly testing throughout the plug production schedule and close contact with our plug supplier of over 15 years, who grows exclusively for Premier Growers, Inc. in this market.

• We grow a variety of impatiens (Impatiens Xtreme™) bred with the latest disease-resistant genetics of all currently available impatiens lines.

• We will follow a prescription fertilization and chemical treatment program, specifically designed to inhibit the development of downy mildew, with careful daily monitoring of the crop.  This prescription has been proven successful during previous, separate, downy mildew scares involving Coleus and Salvia. 

• We will grow our impatiens crop in isolated sections of greenhouse to ensure that if a problem does occur, there will be no chance of cross-crop contamination.

Other factors affecting our decision are that we believe that the downy mildew problems that have been observed in the U.S. this year are very much greenhouse grower-specific and are isolated cases, not a widespread outbreak.  Also, downy mildew is very sensitive to environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, both of which are controllable in the greenhouse.  By mid-May, as temperatures heat up in the South, the threat of downy mildew will subside.

Premier Growers, Inc. will continue to be the industry leader in Metro Atlanta and in the Southeast U.S.  You have our promise that we will never knowingly provide any plant material to our customers that is infected with downy mildew or otherwise unhealthy in any way.  

Watch this space in the coming weeks for a re-designed, more user-friendly experience with Premier Growers, Inc.  We will have more product photos and info sheets, catalogs, order forms, availability, etc.  We also want photos of your installations using our flowers and other bedding plants.  We want to help promote our customers in the marketplace.  Also, please visit us on facebook! 

A big Thank You! to all who took advantage of our "closed loop" horticultural plastic recycling program during this first season.  Together, we were able to recycle over 17 tons of plastic (representing about one-third of everything that we sold this season).  You were saved the effort and cost of disposal, and we recouped almost enough to pay for the baling machine we purchased for the program.  The big winners, however, are our environment and our "green" industry, as these 17 tons of plastic will not be in a landfill near you. The plastic will be cleaned, shredded, ground and re-manufactured back into the same type of products: horticultural flats, pots and inserts.

Next season, we hope to have everyone participating and hopefully we can keep an even greater percentage of the plastic in the recycling loop.  We would appreciate any feedback you have about the program, especially if you are able to put a dollar amount on your cost savings from this program or have any suggestions as to how the program might be improved.

Thank you again for your participation in this program where everybody wins.

You’ve asked the question, “Can you help us do something with all this plastic?”  We believe we have the answer you’ve been waiting to hear…

We want to help you solve your plastic problem, eliminate your costs of storage and/or disposal, and help our “green” industry really be green with a “closed loop” recycling partnership.

 Beginning this Spring 2011, Premier Growers delivery drivers will begin collecting your recyclable plastic containers, trays, pots and inserts on a daily basis, as we make our deliveries to you.

 Here is what we must ask of you if we are to make this partnership work for everyone:

1. As you remove plants from containers, please shake all the dirt out and stack the inserts together, separate from the trays.
2. Stack the empty trays of the same type together, but please do not crush or compress them.  We need to be able to unstack these for re-use.
3. Stack empty pots of the same type together, and place smaller ones inside of larger ones.  Space on our delivery trucks will sometimes be very limited.
4. Keep these items on your truck(s) from one day to the next and inform our driver that you have them.  Space permitting, the driver will collect these items and place them in the compartments that become empty as your delivery is unloaded. 
5. Please inform all of your crewmembers of these required practices.

Please note:  Our drivers will not have time to sort and stack plastic items and still maintain an efficient delivery schedule for you.  If items are not sorted and stacked by you, we will not be able to receive them.  Also, our delivery drivers will not be able to make additional stops for the purpose of picking up recyclables.  These items must be available at the site of the delivery drop.

Recyclable plastic items which are of odd size and are not stackable: please retain these at your home facility, you may bring these in bulk to us at your convenience, or when time and resources permit, we can schedule a pick-up of these items.

For those of you who pick up your orders from our facilities, you may drop off all of your recyclable horticultural plastic, at your convenience at our South Puckett Road location.

We hope and believe this partnership will be beneficial to all of us, if we can work together to solve the occasional logistical problems.  Please, if you have ideas or questions, use the Contact Us page to send us an e-mail.

Thank you to all who just helped us complete our most successful and efficient season ever in the Fall of 2010.  By using our on-line ordering system and all of its advantages, such as instant order submission and confirmation, editing/change/reschedule capabilities, availability status of all varieties, immediate invoice accessibility and payment tracking, you allowed us to concentrate our time and energy on producing the best quality bedding plants possible and getting them to you on a timely basis with reduced errors and very minimal substitutions.  If you have not yet used our On-Line Customer Service Center, please fill out the Contact Us request and we will get you set up immediately.

We are pleased to announce that the Spring 2011 On-line Order Form is active and ready for your use.  Because the Spring Product lines are a much more diverse (over 400 items), it becomes more important for you to know the time saving techniques for using the order form.  There are three ways to search for the product(s) you wish to order, a) by scrolling through the pages of items (which are listed alphabetically by category), b) by using the category search, or c) by keyword search.

a.  If you wish to scroll through all the items because you aren't sure what you are looking for, you may want to set the number of items per page to 100 (drop-down menu at the bottom of the page) to reduce the number of page refreshes required.

b.  If you need multiple colors/varieties within the same category, I suggest you use the Category Search at the top left of the order form, click on the desired category and then submit.   Every color/variety within that category will appear and you can enter your desired quantities, then use this search function again for the next category on your order.

c.  If you know exactly what you want to order, the fastest way to find each item is using the Keyword Search at the top right of the order form.  Just type a few letters of the variety or color and submit and only those items containing the exact string of letters you enter will appear.   By being more specific or unique with what you enter, fewer choices will appear for selection, making entry quicker.  Then just enter a new string of letters for the next item(s) you wish to order.  If you are having any trouble finding an item, the keyword search is the best.

Another time saver that you will find helpful, is in the area of the Ship To addresses.  Each Ship To address that you used in placing orders last season is stored in the database for re-use.  When you click "change" in the address window, your previous addresses will appear in a window on the left side of the page, click "Select a ship to address," find the address from the list, select and submit.  The address will be populated in the appropriate place.

By using these techniques, I think you will find your order entry process will become faster and easier with every order.  If you have any questions about "best practices" using the On-line Customer Serve Center, please call and ask for Jeff.  We would also be happy to schedule a visit to your facility to give you "hands-on" help, if necessary.

Also of note, for last Fall 2010, we requested that changes to any previously placed orders to be made by Noon on the day prior to scheduled delivery.  Very few of you made changes on the day before, so in an effort to be more efficient with our order picking and loading schedule, we are going to "lock out" on-line changes to orders at 8am on the day prior to scheduled delivery.  You may still make changes to your order, but it will be necessary to call or e-mail us about the change(s) you wish to make within the 24-hour delivery window.  We will still make every effort to accommodate your requests.

As for the status of our re-build following the tornado, we are currently on-schedule for full replacement/re-location in time to conduct business as usual for this Spring's growing season.  Thank you for all the calls and cards expressing concern.

We are looking forward to a wonderful Spring 2011 Season serving your annual color and bedding plant needs.

Sincerely,

Randy and Lewis Sharp

     The original Premier Growers, Inc. location on Gravel Springs Road in Buford, Georgia was destroyed by a tornado that touched down in the area on November 30, 2010 at 3:47 p.m.  Along with the total loss of our original greenhouses, many families in the neighborhood directly across the street suffered the loss of their homes or significant damage.  We are very thankful that none of our employees were on-site at the time of the storm and, according to news sources, no one was injured or killed in the neighborhood.  For this, we are truly grateful.
     Many of you have called or written to express concern for our well-being, so in an effort to keep you abreast of the situation, this blog will be updated with our progress in re-building.  So far, we are in communication with the insurance company, we have met with Gwinnett County officials, site engineers and contractors and every indication is that we will be able to replace our lost production capacity (we lost 79,000 sq. ft. of our total of 439,000 sq. ft., or 18%) by mid-March, which will allow us to be at full production capacity for the entire Spring 2011 season, or "business as usual."
    This seemingly unfortunate situation may actually provide the opportunity to accelerate our long-term plans to consolidate operations to just the two larger facilities at HQ on South Puckett Road in Buford and on Bailey Road in Dacula, Georgia, where we can be more efficient with our employees and capital resources and serve you better in the long run.
     Thank you again for your concern. 

     Sincerely,

     Randy and Lewis Sharp
    

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Our On-Line Customer Service Center is now in service.  Many of you have been contacted with log-in credentials and we hope that you will find the system to be easy to use and efficient.  If you haven't explored the Customer Service Center yet, or haven't yet requested to be set up, please do so at your earliest convenience. 

To use the Customer Service Center, click on ORDERING above and enter your e-mail and password and "Submit."  You will then see several "clickable" items which will allow you to place, review or edit orders, view and print invoices, track payments and update contact information. 

You may place advance orders on-line for future deliveries and edit these orders until 1 day before the "ship date."  If you need to make changes after 12:00 Noon on the day before your scheduled delivery, you will need to contact us via telephone, so that we may make changes manually. 

Please remember that every order will need to have a unique job name and "ship to" address (and P.O. Number., if applicable) by 12:00 Noon on the day before scheduled delivery.  If more than one orders are combined to a single address, simply use the "Notes" field (which appears before submission of the order) to give us instructions about order grouping.  Once you have entered an address once for a job, that address will be saved and can then be "chosen" for future use or if grouping orders to a single address.  All of this will help us make your deliveries more promptly and efficiently.

Please feel free to call with any questions, comments or suggestions which will make doing business with Premier Growers, Inc. easier for you.  If you find that you would rather print and fax order forms, as has been done in the past, that is okay, too.  A printable, manual order form is available by clicking the small button to the left.

For the Fall 2010 planting season, Premier Growers, Inc. has developed an easy-to-use customer interface that will allow existing customers to enter orders, review and revise orders prior to shipment all on-line.  Customers will also be able to view invoices, statements and payments.  

Here is what we need from you...If you are involved in design, ordering or account administration (AP) for your company, we need your e-mail address so that we may establish log-in credentials for you.  Please use the Contact Us page to provide this information as soon as possible.  You will receive an e-mail at the address you provide with a single-use password.  Once you log in, you will need to change your password to something you can remember for future use.

It will also be very important this season that when you place an order, you provide not only a job name, but also a delivery address, so that our drivers may find you as quickly and efficiently as possible.

We are working hard this off-season to make your jobs easier, and at the same time, provide better service and more accurate and timely deliveries.  We are looking forward to working with you this Fall.

...for planting in the heat!

Premier Growers had a fantastic Spring Season, providing vibrant, healthy plants to our wonderful customers all over the southeastern United States.  The weather has been great with plenty of heat and rain and from what we see and hear, our customers' properties look gorgeous.  Of course, there is still time to plant for the hot summer season and we have plenty of hearty, healthy inventory available.  Please contact us for all of your summer planting needs and keep in mind...

Beginning in the Fall of 2010, you will be able to enter your advance orders online through our website!  This will allow us to fine-tune our inventory to fill your orders with perfectly timed plants and fewer substitutions.  If you would like to help us get ready for your orders, please subscribe to our seasonal catalog via e-mail (at left).  Thank you!