Horticulture groups are more successful than you may think...

One trade vetting scheme says that they represent over 400 different trades. The FSB has over 200,000 members. So, 200k divided by 400 equates to 500 members per trade.

It would be easy to criticise BALI/PGG/APL or even TGG for having low member numbers - but actually they don't.

Not only is horticulture just one industry, but each of the above organisations are specialists in their chosen field.

Inorder to gain an accurate picture of how well these organisations are supported you need to combine their member numbers. This shows that the horticultural trade as a whole is supported by many thousands of professional horticultural traders.

These organisations work seperately because their members have very different needs and priorities. Each has different strengths that appeal to different traders at different stages of their careers.

Currently, these organisations work mostly seperately from each other. However, rather than compete for members, maybe these organisations could work together and build stronger identities that could attract yet more professionals. They do not need to compete as their target audience has different interests and priorities - no one organisation can do it all. For example, political lobbying is a big concern for a large business with many employees but less of a priority for a self employed landscaper who will simply want to be updated. A self employed gardener will want cheap advertising but an employed gardener will not.

Working together could have other advantages. For example, while trying to arrange free business banking for our members we discovered that no horticulture group achieves their criteria - maybe together, we would - and for the benefit of all members.

How could they work together? Recommending each other would be a good start. We often direct people to PGG if our members would be unable to help. We would also happily display the PGG logo as well as others in exchange for mutual support. Regular meetings to share information? Joint pursuit of member benefits? Being able to buy benefits from another group without joining? (such as BALI training - and not necessarily at special rates) or access to the APL Trust Mark scheme?

Will be interesting to see if this could ever be achieved.