Herbs add an easy, gourmet touch to family meals at the holidays, and Donna Vis, marketing executive at River Ridge Farms in Oxnard, CA, has developed an herb garden line that has evolved over the years in response to research, feedback from retailers and customer requests.

“Our best-selling herb garden, which ships nationally in November, is our Turkey Seasoning Herb Garden,” she said in an interview. “It displays well next to turkeys and near the stacked end-caps of dried stuffing boxes. We design our herb gardens so supermarkets can cross-merchandise them. Our Holiday Prime Rib herb garden fits perfectly next to the meat counter. We also have an herb line that displays with rum and bourbon to make mojitos and mint juleps.”

Donna Vis, marketing head and co-owner at River Ridge Farms, holds the firm’s Turkey Seasoning Herb Garden at a Vons store in Ventura, CA. She is standing in front of a fall display of River Ridge 10-inch Hardy Mums. The Thanksgiving herb garden is a best-seller.Ms. Vis, co-owner of River Ridge with her husband, Rudy, first marketed the turkey seasoning herbs as “Poultry Seasoning.” That didn’t sell well, and she changed the name. Along the way, she added recipes on the labels (which today feature photos of completed recipes “to inspire customers like cookbooks do,” she explained). QR codes now connect to website pages with detailed instructions and additional uses.

“The herb gardens also work well as hostess gifts,” Ms. Vis observed, “so we upgrade them in finishes that coordinate with our seasonal blooming items, which also appear in the floral department. We like complementary mass displays.

“Plants are impulse-buy items, and first impressions matter,” she observed. “We listen to customer requests. We collaborate on private-label designs, we grow specialty and commodity items, we design custom upgrades and we grow for large promotions and satisfy small details.”

Being nimble is an asset. “What’s beautiful about River Ridge and being co-owner is the ability to do something quickly,” Ms. Vis stated. “We change all the time. The economy called for lower-priced items, for example, so we responded with new economical lines that have been very successful.”

River Ridge also does research through California Lutheran University’s marketing department. “We are learning how to reach generations X and Y,” said Ms. Vis.

The Vis team also does its homework to figure out what will ship best. “We cold-test our plants at the nursery-and I stress-test them at home,” Ms. Vis chuckled. A test kitchen is next on the list. “I love to cook and write a lot of recipes. Testing them with our staff will be fun.”

The company develops new lines every year and trademarks its brands because they’ve been copied many times. “Our number one herb garden was copied right down to the type of font used on the label — same herbs, same pick, same pot cover, same everything,” Ms. Vis said with a sigh. “I guess it’s a compliment.” Rudy Vis handles the growing part of the business on California’s fertile Oxnard Plain and Ms. Vis is in charge of marketing.

River Ridge Farms celebrated its 20-year anniversary this year. It grows indoor and outdoor blooming plants, more than 10 herb lines and 15 acres of lavender and indoor and outdoor plants, sold cross-country at more than 30 major retailers including A&P, Ahold, Albertson’s, Fresh & Easy, HEB, Kroger, Publix, Raleys, Safeway, SuperValu, United Supermarkets, Winn Dixie and Whole Foods.

Ms. Vis is a trained artist whose work hangs in galleries. She became a successful marketing consultant by combining her college education in marketing and advertising design with an enriched ability to reach people gained through world travels with Semester at Sea shipboard education. She also ran her own retail and European import business while raising children. Then, as she recounted, “I walked into River Ridge Farms and the rest is history.”