Fluttering Around Flowers

My prior post dealt with part time work at an area greenhouse that specializes in annual flowers.  Well, needless to say an aspect of that post did not sit well with the chief member of the household.  My comments that the customer service representatives saunter around the greenhouse did not explain the other duties that the customer service personnel have to perform.  The customer service representatives first job is to assist customers.  To a degree that may be why they saunter, or flutter around the flowers.  When not fluttering or sauntering, however, they have some specific tasks in which they engage.

One specific task is to do checker boarding.  This technique involves rearranging flats where plants have been taken out by doing a checkerboard pattern.  After returning some carts to the cart area last week I looked into the greenhouse and saw my wife checker boarding a couple trays of plants.  her hands and arms were moving fast as she rearranged the plants.  If I had a camera I would have taken a photo of her in action, although a video would probably have been best to catch the action.  As I go by and see her down an aisle I wave, but she tends not to see me--so concentrated is she on her job duties. 

Auction 

Plants are living organisms and they grow, that is why we plant them.  Well, they grow in the greenhouses too, and a second job the customer service reps have is to cut back some of the plants.   Cutting back can promote bushier plants and more flower heads.  In late May, some baskets get a pretty severe trimming.  I suppose petunias are a regular candidate for cutting back.  They always seem to get too leggy.

Auction of Planters

Petunias and other flowers also require dead heading.  For the greenhouse I suppose this is of particular importance as they want to present the flower in top condition.  I suppose dead heading can easily be accomplished as one gingerly walks through a greenhouse to look for dead flowers to be pulled off a plant.  If regularly accomplished the dead headed flowers should pose little issue, but if you get behind, it could be time consuming.   

Honor Flight Facebook page Recognizing Kopke's

As plants are purchased and the checker boarding flats near empty the production staff haul in new flats of plants.  The old flats are removed by customer service and they usually haul them outside to a specified area.  My wife noted one day she herself hauled out about 120 empty flats, and she being one of many customer service reps on that day.  This way the empty flat is out of the way for when the stock is replenished.  One problem a customer service person may have is that if not having worked a few days plants may be in a different locations, and some plants totally sold out, and different stock in its place.

Last week Thursday, the customer service personnel had to sweep under the plant tables to get the greenhouse in tip top shape for an upcoming auction. (News flash: apparently there was a lot of dirt.)   The greenhouse has a number of planters planted with different arranged flowers that are not for retail sale, but instead are auctioned off on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  They have brats, and polka too, so how much more Wisconsin can they get?  Proceeds from the auction, and donations for the brats, are donated to the Badger Honor Flight program. The Honor Flight program reported that the auction and brat donations yielded $6,100 in 42 minutes.   In the end, I hope the reader understands that the customer service personnel at the greenhouse have more to do than simply flutter around the flowers. They tend to the flowers for the greater benefit of the customer, and the auctioned planters.

 Images from Kopke's and Badger Honor Flight Facebook pages

Flowers

This spring I started a part time job working at a greenhouse that primarily grows flowers.  While open from mid-April to October, most of its business is within a 4 or 5 week period.  People want their flowers planted by early June, if not before. Flowers are more a want than a need, but they also speak to the human desire for beauty.  While the greenhouse at which I work specializes in annual flowers, they carry perennials, vegetable plants (and seeds), some shrubs, garden ornaments, bagged soils, and mulches, along with other items.  It is not a full fledged garden center, as say Jung Seeds but their annual flowers, in my opinion, well outdo places like Jung Seed.  I work in outdoor service, and my wife works in the two main greenhouses in customer service.

Outdoor service involves helping persons off load their carts of flowers, loading bag of soil, compost, potting mix, mulches, and straw bales; moving carts used by patrons to the cart area, and a variety of other odd jobs.  For example, they had run out of boxes used for placing plants; you know the type of box: about one to two inch high sides, like what used to hold pop cans.  I had to fold boxes on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.  My hands ached and the thumbs were almost raw.  I should have worn gloves.  It makes sense that they needed boxes since Mother's Day weekend had just passed, and that weekend historically makes up their peak sale time.  When I worked before Mother's Day, it was quite busy with people wanting to get in before the poor weather set in, for yes, the weekend.  I heard from a neighbor that the Friday before Mother's Day, which had pleasant weather, was very busy.  My wife, who worked Mother's Day said it was steady, but not overwhelming.  The not overwhelming Mother's Day may have been due to the cold (the high for the day was more than 10 degrees below normal) and cloudy weather.  A greenhouse is a very weather dependent business.  Up until the week of May 13, I was called off of work for as many days as I had worked.  One day, in the week before Mother's Day, I spent a great deal of time moving carts.  I do get my steps in.  I put on over 23,000 steps that day at work.  To show the difference, the two days I had to do boxes (which was generally in the morning) I put on about 17,000 while at work.  I think it helps that I have a bit of gardening experience, as people ask questions of potting soil types, mulches to use and other such things.

Due to other commitments, my work schedule has generally been on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The week after Mother's Day, my wife worked, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday.  I worked Tuesday and Wednesday.  Which meant Friday, May 17, was the first day we were together at home in a week.  Customer service shifts, where my spouse is assigned, are about 5 to 6 hours, my outdoor service shift is a full day from 8:30 to 4:00.  The customer service shifts are shorter due to them being on their feet all day.  Well, being in outdoor service, I too am on my feet all day.  Although, the customer service personnel do seem to like to saunter around the greenhouses.

Those who do the planting also do the stocking and my wife is amazed at their ability to carry in flats of plants and the speed at which they move. When I see them, they are generally on an electric stand-up cart zooming around hauling carts of plants to the sales/display areas, or moving empty carts back to the growing greenhouse areas.  Persons have their specific duties, and the growers are constantly hauling in plants from the twenty some growing greenhouses, to the two display/sales greenhouses.  The stock needs to be kept up, and that is their job.  Unlike some greenhouses, this greenhouse limits the public to the two greenhouses, and they use a great deal of personnel to haul from the outer growing greenhouses.  This makes sense to me since it limits the public to a certain area, and allows better control over growing conditions of the plants, and keeping the public out of areas where some pesticides are used.

Yes, they use pesticides/herbicides, and while they have been working to eliminate the use of chemicals, they are also realistic recognizing times that they are needed.  They do take appropriate precautions.  To limit the use of chemicals they use beneficial bugs and at times even resort to hand picking the pests off the plants.  Of course, some veggies are organic which requires greater tending and use of natural methods to control disease and bad bugs.  In fact, this week some aphids showed up on a shipment of plants after being placed in the two main sale greenhouses and the usually sauntering customer service reps had to hand search and pull off the aphids, and look to see that these small bugs did not jump to other plants.  A labor intensive process, but it had been a rainy morning so the greenhouse was not as busy.

With its twenty some growing greenhouses, planting of plugs or seeds (although most flowers are started from plugs) begins in February.  They do need to bring in shipments of some flowers grown elsewhere as they currently lack the full capacity to grow all their own stock.  The buyer, however, only goes to places in which he can handpick the flowers.  They need, from what I understand, about four or five more greenhouses to better grow more of their own stock, but they that means more personnel, so it is a balancing issue.

The thing that has set this greenhouse apart from other greenhouse operations I have seen is its customer service.  They have sufficient sauntering staff on hand in the greenhouse to assist in finding you that right plant.  Since I haul carts to near the front entry on my way in and out I see customers entering and am often subjected to questions as to where a particular plant can be located.  At that point, I find a sauntering service rep in the greenhouse to come to their aid.   That is usually not that difficult since their are (A) so many of them and (B) they like to saunter around the greenhouse.  (I guess really cannot blame them, who would not want to walk (saunter or stroll) around flats and pots of flowers.)  Outdoor service personnel need to be all over the place, however.  The main objective is to keep an eye on the people near the soils and mulches to provide the necessary assistance.  Sometimes you need to make a choice, such as being told to load a car, move carts out of the entry to the corral and load plants for a person, for example, who just had surgery, into her car.  Being beyond my prime, I cannot lift as much, or move as fast as those in the teens and twenties.  That sometimes brings some sympathy from other boomers, who realize I get my work out for the day.

But being in outdoor service I am not around flowers for a five or six hour shift as is the group that likes to saunter, instead I am outside with bags of dirt and mulches.  Yet, there are some benefits to outdoor service.  You get a good work out.  Yet, when the weather is nice, being outside is a big plus.  Being right across from the main exit I can see what is bought and hear the comments. One couple arrived as I was hauling some carts in and I asked if they could use a cart (the carts vary in size and shape and limiting an ability to haul to two carts) I only had some smaller carts and his wife said they would need a larger one.  I noted I would get one for them, but asked if they would like one with three shelves or two.  Her husband quickly jumped in and said, just two, and then explained: "A third shelf gives her an excuse to purchase more plants."  Or, there was the time one husband was loading plants in his car and an arriving patron said how nice the plants looked, to which he responded it was not going to look nice on his credit card bill.  What strikes me is the volume I sometimes see.  I helped a person who had the full Chevrolet Suburban, except the driver seat, loaded with plants.  It was her second trip.  I wonder how long it would take for them to be planted. Then there was the couple who had a great number of plants, and I noted to them to to enjoy planting.  The husband responded that their deal is he buys, she plants.

Given the widely variable weather in Wisconsin, it makes sense that people clamber for plants and color after a long arduous winter.  It brings joy, in a different way than does Marie Kondo's cleaning.  Do we need flowers?  They are likely not a need, but a want.  Then again if it can brighten your spirits it may be a wise investment.

Images courtesy of Antoinette M Hovel

Weather

I think it safe to say, and most would agree, that the spring weather for 2019 has been rather unpleasant.  There may be one day of nice weather, but it is followed by several days of unseasonably cool weather.  Today was probably the first almost fully sunny day in a week or more.  The whole past week the daily high temperatures were below normal and for all but one day this applied to the daily lows.  One thing is for certain, weather is variable.

Currently, the normal high temperature in Madison for May 13 is 67 degrees, and the normal low temperature is 45 degrees.  A couple things got me thinking about the weather:  my part time work at a greenhouse, and an article in Sunday's paper for the garden calendar for the week of May 12.

My home made green house was planted last month, the row cover
area planted today

With my part time job at the greenhouse, I am in outdoor service, thus, I help people load mulch, potting soil, compost, straw bales, peat moss, etc into their vehicles.  I also help load plants into cars, and move the carts that people use.  So far, I have been called off work the same number of days that I have worked.  They do not expect much business in cool, let me say cold, weather.  The plants may fly out, but when it is cold and wet, most people are not purchasing potting soil.  This week I work two full days, and I doubt that I will be called off. 

My raised bed was planted about one month ago

But, it was the garden calendar that really got me thinking.  In regard to vegetables it said:  "It is usually safe to put tomato and pepper transplants out after May in in the Madison area, but outlying areas such as Blue Mounds and Oregon, etc, may not be warm enough yet."  As an urban planner, I am well aware of the urban heat island effect, but I never thought it would be reported as such in a local news garden calendar.  But, what we really struck me was the next sentence:  "Air temperatures should not go lower than 55 degrees or higher."  It then goes on to recognize that frosts may be possible in the Madison area, or even a freeze after May 15, so be prepared to cover the plants.

This struck me because the past several days the temperatures struggled to get to 55 degrees, and that is for the high.  The forecasted low for this morning was to be 37 degrees, but it was down to 33 degrees. Awfully close to a frost. So, we are one day into the weekly garden calendar, and I am glad that I had not put in my tomato plants this weekend. The main reason is I tend to wait until about May 15, but the soil was too wet to work.  Breaking my general theory of waiting, I put in my cold tolerant and even my tomato plants this afternoon.  I did place a row cover over the young plants, taht should provide some protection, although being white in color it will not do much to increase soil temperature.  One other problem is that the weather has been so bad that the plants have not been out as long as usual to "harden" off.  Soil temperatures are probably lower than normal, and I perhaps should have waited for the tomato plants, but with all the rain we have had, and the paper's five day forecast for rain on Tuesday PM, and Thursday, who knows when the garden soil would again be workable.

The garden calendar is also interesting for reporting the need for temperatures in the mid fifties, but  the normal low for today is 45 degrees, or ten degrees below what they wish. I guess they tend toward the optimistic and a heat wave.  The month of  May can warm up fast, but the normal low does not get to about 55 degrees until the end of the month.

Avg  Temps for Madison, WI in May

If one thing we know about the weather in Wisconsin, is wait a few minutes and it will change.  The variability of the weather puts the populace on edge, and the first five months of this year have been challenging for us in our need to weather the weather.  It was not that long ago when experts were concerned about how low the water level in Lake Michigan was, now they are concerned about how high the water level is at this point in time. Back to temperature, how cool is it?  Well, the newspaper has shifted from reporting heating degree days to cooling degree days.  The year to date for cooling degrees days, if you have not guessed, is Zero.  They did not report how many heating degree days were required yesterday with a high of 55 and blustery winds.

Packer Draft

About ten days ago, April 25-27the National Football League held its annual draft of players.  This event has become quite the spectacle.  A few years ago they started to move it out of New York to varied NFL cities to attract a wider audience.   The first such substitute was Chicago.  This year it was Nashville.  They seemingly had people in the audience from every team. The high visibility can lead to some awkward moments; an immediate one that comes to mind is Aaron Rodgers falling way down in the first round. Something similar happened to other quarterbacks this year, although they may not as far as did Aaron Rodgers. The television cameras like to watch them squirm as yet another team passes on young man who was to be a top prospect.  having dropped in the draft is on why Rodgers was taken out of the green room. Yet, the NFL does all this to obtain peak visibility.  They subscribe to the mantra even bad news is good news.

Dexter Williams, 6th Round Pick

With people seemingly supporting every team in the NFL present at the Nashville draft, it makes me wonder if they are naturally residents of the area, or do they travel from far and wide because they are so obsessed with football they want to see who the home team picks?  Although knowing the NFL, it is quite possible they pay people to dress up in the funny hats, and color their faces for the "home team." I say this because several years ago, when Veteran's Day fell on a professional football night, it turns out that the NFL was not doing pregame and halftime shows out of the goodness of Roger Goodell's heart.  In one example, in Green Bay at prime time there was quite the pre-game and half-time event of their prime time evening game. People in the seats had different colored cards that when held aloft became a large American flag.   People thought it was really neat that the NFL would go to such lengths to honor Veterans.  However, it came out that the Armed Forces actually paid to have the extravaganza at Green Bay, and in other cities.  The NFL does little out of the graciousness of the small heart of Commissioner Roger Goodell.  If one were to look at it, except for one team, all other 31 teams have private ownership, and most of those are owned by persons with substantial wealth.  Some, like the McCaskey's, Rooney's and Mara's have been passed down to a second or third generation. Virginia McCaskey, who owns the Bears, is the daughter of George Halas, who helped found the NFL about 100 years ago.  The community ownership structure of the Packers, is not thought to be a testament to wealth, and so the Packers are grandfathered in and such structure is now not allowed by NFL rules.

No, you are correct this is not Clay Matthews.
It is Rasham Gary, first Round pick, 12th overall.
Clay commented that the body is not even cold and his
old number was given out

That gets us to the Packer draft.  The Packers have had terrible drafts for a number of years.  This goes to the incompetence of their general manager(s).  Ted Thompson was kept on way too long, like ten of his twelve years too long.  No, make that twelve of his twelve years.  Tom Oates, a WI State Journal writer and Packer apologist noted in a column right after the draft that in the past eight drafts "the Packers used 18 of their 24 picks in the first, second, and third rounds on defensive players.  All seven first round picks during that time played defense.  Seven of the top second round picks were spent on defense."  Yet, even with the selection of "top talent" their defense has not gotten any better, and really has gotten worse.  This shows one of two things:  they did not know how to pick the right player, or the top round picks are not worth the effort, or the money.  It may well be a combination of the two.  I think it is the Packer 2015 draft class that by the end of the last season none of its selectees were still with the team.  That class should be producing strong, knowledgeable players in the prime of their careers.  But no, not in Green Bay.   Not a very good sign for a team that has for many years has said they were based on a draft and develop philosophy. To me it is more like draft and get rid of.  The draft and develop philosophy only works if you get successful picks.  Clearly, it has not worked for the Packers because the GM (GM's) are quite incompetent in picking talent, in early rounds.  Historically, many of their best picks have come in the fourth round.  David Baktiari, Josh Sitton, TJ Lang, Mike Daniels, among others, were picked at that level.  If I were head of the Packers I would tell them to trade down in picks--get the hungry 3rd rounders and below.  Years ago the Packers drafted three corner backs with the first three picks in rounds 1-2-3, and the only one who remained with the team after year 1 was the third round pick.

Knowing that they had success in mid rounds, what did the Packers do this year?  They traded away two fourth round picks to move up nine spots with their second pick in the first round (that pick was acquired from trade with New Orleans).  Who did they select?  An undersized safety.  They say, however, that this player has the speed and footwork to make up for his lack of height.  The whole Packer draft seemed to be getting people who are faster than what they have at present. But, speed is not everything.  They picked another defensive player who is fast, but struggles to tackle.  What team picks someone for defense who struggles to tackle? Yes, the inept Packer front office. Tom Oates is a column in the May 5 "Wisconsin State Journal" says that the picks are related to the Packers using analytics, the pride of propeller heads, to pick players.  he notes that all but the third round pick scored greater than 8 in what is the RAS rankings.   He does admit that some none measurable items come into play like football smarts.  he does not talk about heart.   Although they did not select any wide receivers to offset the fact that they had the slowest starting receiving corps in pro-football last year.  Perhaps, they think the departure of Randall Cobb will offset that not so precious moniker.

Jace Sternberger, Third round pick.
Only one to score below and 8 (he scored in teh five range)
 on the RAS rankings Tom Oates quoted.
And no, that is not Jordy.

Their first pick, at twelfth overall, was a defensive end, who will likely be used at outside linebacker. From the University of Michigan,  Rasham Gary was ranked the best high school player in the nation four years ago, but he did not live up to that rating in college. There is also the issue of a torn labrum, but that is another story.  It is interesting to note that another defensive lineman from Michigan was selected ahead of him.  Tom Oates and other commentators rave about his combination of strength, speed and size, but ten sacks in four years is not a successful collegiate career.  Others say he not used correctly in the Michigan defense.  CBS Sports graded the Packers a C- in his selection.  "USA Today" named it one of the worse five picks in the opening round of the draft.    Not very good.  But, from a Packer perspective, given how bad they have drafted, perhaps it is acceptable.  The Packers have, in typical Packer fashion, flopped on defense since 2011, as the Oates stats quoted above show.  Does anyone recall the great Ted Thompson pick of defensive lineman Justin Harrell?  Of course not., but he was selected 16th overall in the 2007 draft.  The combination of size, speed and strength is not everything.  Good technique and what I call football sense can make up for a great deal that may be lacked in speed, strength and size.

GM Brian Gutekunst

This year, the Packers also used significant capital to acquire three free agents to play on defense.  These men, combined with the several defensive players selected in the draft,  Tom Oates says that defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has the pieces.  But that is only if the performance on the field exceeds their capabilities, and well exceeds the CBS sports draft grade.  With their picks in the first three rounds of the draft the overall grade point average, based on CBS Sports ranking, was 2.56, while those picked in the last three rounds was 2.66.  Overall CBS gave them just below a B-.  The Packer organization probably consider this acceptable for a team resting on its past success.  They fill the seats and sell the beer, why worry about a product on the field?  Oh, Packer President, the mindless Mark Murphy, perhaps last December realized that the lack of success on the field is hurting his Titletown District, so last December he decided to get involved in the team.He fired the head coach, who was given a lack of talent with which to produce.  He altered the team structure so rather than the coach reporting to the GM, the coach and GM are both equal reporting to Murphy.  This can be a good thing, because if they continue to be a middling team, perhaps the powers that be will finally clean house as they should have done last year when McCarthy was fired.  (That means getting rid of Murphy, and the GM.)

Head Coach, Matt LaFleur

In ranking the NFL teams for anticipated performance in 2019, one website ranked the Packers 17 of the 32 teams in the league.   A middling score for a middling general manager, a middling mindless president who have taken mediocrity in Green Bay to a whole new level.  If this hold true it would also show that their prized analytical method is well, rather middling.  Which, given their leadership, is  to be expected.  It is like we are back to the Bart Starr, Forrest Greg eras, and those in between.

Packer President Mark Murphy

However, the real test will be if they can perform better than anticipated.  Due to their poor record last year, they match well with part of the schedule of other NFC division opponents.  Time will tell if Mr. Gary will finally perform to the level of which his size, speed and strength indicate, or whether he is another failure on the defensive front fitting for a mindless, mediocre organization that excels at poor picks of players in the NFL draft.  The whole organization takes its key from the top man and that is one of middling mediocrity.   That is what I have to say about the Packer Draft.