The organizers of the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago were brave (or foolish) enough to invite all four of us here at GardenRant to come and host a panel discussion to “provide retailers with an honest picture of what a real gardening consumer thinks.”

So here’s your chance. What do you want us to tell a room full of independent garden center owners and employees about what YOU want, expect, like, dislike, in a garden center?

We have only one request.  Speak for YOURSELF.  Don’t tell us what you think OTHER gardeners might want or need.  Frankly, there’s a lot of that going around.  Every retail consultant in the garden center world claims to know what beginning gardeners, urban gardeners, Gen X gardeners, and women gardeners want. But

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