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