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