Off spreadsheets, onto live availability.
Sampson Nursery replaced once-a-month Excel availability with live online ordering — so customers see real stock any time, and the team moves product faster.
Joanna D'Ancona
- Founded
- 1985, by the Hudson family
- Location
- ~42 acres in production
- Catalog
- 300+ products — container shrubs, woody ornamentals, natives
- Customers
- Landscape trade contractors and local garden centers
Availability updated once a month — in an industry that changes daily.
Sampson kept QuickBooks Desktop for accounting, but availability and inventory lived entirely in Excel spreadsheets. With no live view, the team could only refresh availability once a month, leaving them guessing at customer questions in the back half of the month — especially in spring, when stock changes by the day.
Production and sales fell out of sync, too. It was hard to get a clean look at what was ready, what was coming, and what could be pre-booked for the spring. Customers felt it in slow quotes and uncertain answers.
Built for horticulture, not borrowed from another industry.
For years, Joanna and the owners suspected a better system was out there but never found one that fit. Many of the programs she saw at MANTS were built for other industries and shoehorned into horticulture — full of obsolete features they'd have to pay for and never use.
A conversation with David at MANTS changed that. Plantiful's first questions were about what Sampson actually needed and where they were struggling. When she finally saw the program, the thought behind it — and the fact that it was built specifically for the nursery trade — made the decision easy.
In the office immediately, whole team within two months.
Joanna was using Plantiful in the office as soon as the team was trained and uploaded, then rolled it out to the rest of the staff. Within about two months everyone was on board and working at full capacity.
David and other team members toured the nursery and walked through the workflows in person. Bi-monthly meetings continue, covering new features and anything that could work better — with quick answers and proactive suggestions along the way.
Onboarding was excellent. The Plantiful team was so gracious and explained everything so well. They're quick to answer questions, and very proactive — when they see something that could work better, they tell us.
Online ordering customers can place on a Sunday afternoon.
Live availability and online ordering drove the most growth. Opening the portal felt risky at first, but it became a real revenue stream — customers click through availability, add to a cart, and place orders on their own time. Some sit down on a Sunday, look at the week's jobs, and order everything at once.
Behind the scenes, production and sales finally share one picture. The team can see exactly which crops plants are pulled from, pick sheets show field locations, and inventory reduces automatically as sales orders are entered.
We used to update availability once a month, so we always struggled to answer questions mid-month — especially in spring, when things change so fast. Now our customers see live availability any time, and it updates the moment something changes.
Less idle inventory, a happier team, and AI on the horizon.
Product moves better and far less sits idle, tying up space that could be selling other crops. What surprised Joanna most was Plantiful's pace — including a new AI intake that turns a forwarded email into a draft order, something she never expected to use at the nursery.
More than the features, the switch changed the outlook: spreadsheets were never a long-term plan, and now the whole team is more confident about onboarding new staff and scaling up.
If we hadn't switched to Plantiful, I don't know that I'd still be here. Running everything on Excel spreadsheets was never a long-term solution. Now we move product faster, far less inventory sits idle, and the whole team is happier.
The features behind the story.
Availability
Live, photo-centric availability customers can trust.
See how it worksOnline Ordering
The portal customers fill on their own schedule.
See how it worksAI Order Intake
Forward an email; AI drafts the order.
See how it worksProduction
Production and sales working from one picture.
See how it worksHear from more nurseries.
Online ordering that fueled real growth.
Luke Venable · Owner & General Manager, Forest Lake Greenhouses
Read the case studyInventory they can finally trust.
Jennifer Langston · Sales & Inventory Management, Jericho Farms
Read the case studyConfidence to delegate and scale.
Chris Holly · Chief Operating Officer, Sandhill Native Growers
Read the case studyExcel, QuickBooks, and paper — now one system.
Samantha Thomason · Nursery Manager, Ecotone
Read the case studySee what Plantiful does for your nursery.
Book a walkthrough with our team and see how Plantiful works for an operation like yours.