Jungle Chic

From the time of her first visit to a greenhouse when she was a child, Sue Ellen Davidson wanted to work with plants. Much later, with her three children grown, Davidson began to pursue her dream by working in plant nurseries around Orlando, Florida. Then, in 1982, she and her daughter started their own home-based operation providing plants and plant maintenance for local Orlando businesses.

Davidson's business, Organized Jungle Inc., grew quickly, leased space in downtown Orlando, and expanded its services to include designing residential and commercial plant and floral arrangements. In the '90s, Davidson added more features, including a retail component that offered plants, flowers, and plant containers, as well as seasonal merchandise and gift items.

In 1997, Organized Jungle moved to Winter Park, Florida, leasing a 12,000-square-foot warehouse that had been previously used as a lumberyard. With that amount of space, Organized Jungle was ready to expand its retail gift division.

Enter Dick Hill.

Hill was brought onboard to supervise the design and display features of the gift showroom. He is the semi-retired former owner of Golden Cricket (a two-time Gifts & Dec Retailer Excellence Award winner) and the Center Street Gallery, Orlando-based gift stores that he ran for more than 45 years, ending in 1994.

"My partner handled the business end, I handled the creative part," he explains. "I did the buying and all the display work."

Once again, Hill put his creative talents to work. Visitors to Organized Jungle's gift showroom, a 600-square-foot enclosed space within the open-air warehouse, find an asymmetrical area with a rich design strategy meant to suggest the verdant atmosphere of the store's name. Plants and plant accessories give the showroom the feel of a teeming jungle, while shelves and tall panels break up the interior, dividing it into discrete display areas. Large movable display units have also been built to feature groupings of seasonal product. Merchandise in the gift showroom includes rugs, lamps, seasonal giftware, plush, porcelain, and candles that evoke jungle or safari themes.

Hill redesigns the gift showroom twice a year, most dramatically for Organized Jungle's Christmas promotion, which begins with an open house in October. Invitees enjoy special discounts on flora, and get the first look at several themed trees decorated with the latest ornaments from the gift showroom, which also offers a wide range of holiday gifts and home accessories during the promotion.

To keep the giftware shelves stocked, Sue Ellen Davidson and her husband attend the Atlanta market twice a year. While Dick Hill has not shopped the market for a number of years, he does periodically head up to Atlanta between shows to keep an eye on trends and displays.

"We can just dribble up there anytime because there are enough permanent showrooms to get what you're looking for," he says.

Even though Organized Jungle is not located in a busy retail district, the store still gets plenty of traffic. And new customers are always stumbling upon the giftware and accessories showroom.

"I cannot tell you how often people suddenly discover [the showroom] out here," Hill says.

Hill's merchandising strategies have paid off. Organized Jungle showed an increase in gift sales from $108,000 in 1997 to $310,000 in 2000. Gift sales accounted for roughly 20 percent of the Jungle's $1.5 million in 2000 sales.

This is one chic jungle that is very well organized.