How the gardening market grows

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 15, 1995 by Abbe Wichman

Add another name to the list of tides vying for a piece of turf in the suddenly popular gardening market. Beginning with its May issue, Gruner Jahr's American HomeStyle is now American HomeStyle & Gardening.

"The [change] reflects a heightened editorial commitment," says George Fields, vice president/group publisher for the-eight-times-a-year shelter book. Fields expects to double the number of gardening pages in American HomeStyle from the six-or-so the magazine had been carrying each issue. The three-section format of home, style and gardening will also allow advertisers to run in the editorial well that suits their products.

Valerie Muller, executive vice president/media director at New York City ad agency DeWitt Media, says the change will help American HomeStyle attract the interest of advertisers - particularly automotive companies and home and beauty product manufacturers - eyeing the gardening category. "Are the Revlons going to go scampering? No, they're not," says Muller. "But you will see a smattering of them."

With an ABC-audited circulation of 707,403, American HomeStyle & Gardening joins numerous other publishers eager to get their hands dirty (see "Gardening titles in full bloom," Folio:, March 15, page 24), including Meredith's recently launched home garden, Meigher Communications' Garden Design, KC Publishing's Flower & Garden, Rodale Press' Organic Gardening, and Horticulture Partners' Horticulture. Gardening is currently a $22 billion a year industry, with an estimated 68 million households participating in some form or other, according to the National Garden Association.