I'm glad you are maintaining your strong ethics and morals, Hunter, and I wouldn't imagine any other behavior or attitude from you! Yes, you are really there to take care of plants and people. It is saddening to realize that the usurpation of the Natural Order even comes down to these psychopathic wayward wizards using PLANTS to mind-control people into buying cheap shit from China that they don't and won't every truly need. In the face of that evil, our tribe remains steadfast in Natural Law, kindness, and integrity of our mind-body-spirit complexes.
There are now more plants than we have room for. The latest thing is many pallets of jungle plants that can't handle temps below 55, half of which already out are half dead, now today five more many level pallets full of jungle plants and the overnight temp the next two nights at 40. I warned them, I was heard, but if GM sees them she is going to want them outside. The main guy in receiving told me it's the same thing every year, we get twice what we need, half die, we get twice what we need, half die, rinse and repeat...
It's a system of intentional sickness and death. These big box stores, if I am correct, also receive subsidies from the government (that is, taxpayers) to keep up the madness. Meanwhile, mom & pop nurseries become harder to maintain. We are lucky to have several small garden shops in our area (north San Luis Obispo county) but that's because we have have such a short period of potentially freezing days. I feel for you having to deal with those corporate lapdogs and their death-cult mission.
Your GM has lots of company. I agree with your description of how work like yours is mis-appreciated and abused. I have experienced similar while working for $60 an hour as a software expert.
May 18, 2023·edited May 18, 2023Liked by William Hunter Duncan
I have figured out where you ‘work’ WHD! I recognized the blue color of the plastic pots..which is the ‘branding’ color of the store brand! Just imagine it as your personal ‘moment of zen’...keeping all these beautiful plant babies alive. 😉🙏🏻🧑🏼🌾
Those blue pots are used by any and all growers growing Endless Summer hydrangeas, but you're right about the Big Box that WHD calls his work site. That same Big Box in Colorado only pays for the plants crossing the scanner at checkout. The growers eat the cost of the plants that die, so they hire (contract) people to care for the plants to keep their costs down and profits up. Big Boxes, regardless of the color of vests their employees wear, are where plants go to die. Having worked at retail greenhouses for ~20 years, I tell people that if they are tempted to buy plants at Big Box, buy them right off the truck, as the guy that drives the truck knows more about how to care for plants than most Big Box "garden shop employees." Since WHD doesn't work for Big Box, he is not an exception, though he is exceptional at plant care and customer service.
A lot less plants will go there to die as long as I am there, but it is true, I can not stop the carnage. Currently, big box buys the load, and they still don't care. But next year, it will be as you say it is in Colorado. That will mean I can ask for a lot more $, but then I am not sure I can do this again, as big box will care even less for the plants.
What I heard is alot different than your perspective.
I hear a humongous opportunity and a ton of motivation to push me to do it, for next spring. Why let them make all the profit? For the shareholders and company management?
I would redirect efforts on the 40, and find a cheap place hopefully not too far from the box stores. When the SHTF, it seems to me the guy selling veggie seedlings isn't going to be starving.
If this presents some sort of ethical dilemna, I'm happy to help you work through it.
The food delivery apps, they know what everyone likes to order. Data is the new oil they say. For the private equity leaches, the delivery business isn't good enough. They are trying to put the restaurants out of business and get their revenue too:
I have been thinking a lot lately about selling plants and seeds. There is such a place in town, growing much of what they sell. I mean to go there soon to see what they are up to. Even my Dad is impressed with the garden and said I should build such gardens for the rich around here @$100/hr. Some people just told me too they loved my homebrew...
I appreciate your pride in your life experiences. Good job. I think chronic physical pain reduces people's gratitude potential as exemplified by grumpy behaviors.
In reality, of course, you de Man. Not in a capitalist sense.
My youngest daughter has been in service jobs over the last couple years and she often talks about how satisfying they would be if managers recognized the integrity of the employees. One place was a hotel with a very hands-on local owner and everyone (including her) had the ethic of pitching in with whatever needed to be done. It was a satisfying minimum-wage job. Then it got bought out by a chain that only cared about curb appeal and Yelp reviews, muzzling the employees for eight hrs a day so unmasked customers could walk in for 5 minutes.
She also worked at a place that had a hierarchy of girl-bosses, each yelling at the next one to yell at the employees. It's been satisfying to all that the building's now for lease although they did some great bonding in the trenches, and those are still some of her closest friends.
Retail jobs used to be fun, before they became so corporatized. I was a Pottery Barn store manager eons ago. (Willams Sonoma had just bought the PB stores.)I had a great staff, we all worked very well together, and made ‘our numbers’ every month, and I was pretty much left alone by my DM. Then a guy, Gary Friedman was recruited from The GAP to run the PB store division. He installed District Managers who had been his underlings @ The Gap. They knew nothing about ‘hard goods’ retailing. They knew how to sell T-Shirts and Jeans not dinnerware, glassware, tableware, cookware, or decorative accessories!
It was embarrassing to have them come into the store and try to ‘sell’ a customer on something. These type of ‘hard goods’ are not an ‘impulse buy, like a t-shirt. Friedman later moved onto Restoration Hardware and became its CEO.
Later I went back to retail, doing seasonal Christmas work at Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma. The corporate culture had become so entrenched in these companies, that I couldn’t wait to be ‘laid off’ after the season was over. The fun and camaraderie of selling things you personally loved and knew about, had gone out of these places, replaced by the ever present attainment of the ‘sales goals’, rah rah ‘team building’ morning meetings, and then assaulting the customer when they came in the door. I was done.
Oh that's funny. My daughter and I walked into a Pottery Barn the other day and I was telling her how they used to be the hip and knowledgeable housewares store that was a solid step up from what you'd buy in college, but not inaccessible for a young householder starting out.
I hadn't been there in years and, after skirting our way around some pricy and delicate displays, we couldn't wait to get out.
When I was at the PB, it was the late 80’s. The chain had been purchased by Willams Sonoma, and was started in 1949 back on the East Coast by the Secon Brothers, then a guy Dick Friedman brought the stores out to LA and expanded around the country. Gordon Segal had started Crate and Barrel in Chicago in the early 60’s and was the PB’s major competition. They both championed Modern Danish and European designed merchandise.
Back in the 80’s PB was quite a different store then than as it appears today. There were more housewares, decorative accessories and a very limited furniture selection. Mostly small dining tables and chairs, with some outdoor furniture for the summer. Under the operation of Williams Sonoma it is has morphed into a mid-high price range furniture store, with limited dinnerware, and decorative accessories. All these niche ‘lifestyle’ furniture and accessories store have been gobbled up and corporatized (or have gone out of business) and have really lost the soul and vibe of what they had back in the day!
Just started our in-ground garden with good soil, worms & organic starters, 1 heirloom. Some wildflower seeds, too, from Annie’s Heirloom seeds. Tomatoes in pots are coming in after 2+ months of daily love! I am careful about watering & talk to the plants; I tell them how beautiful they are & that I’m proud of them! Sometimes aloud, sometimes telepathically so the neighbors don’t think I’m crazy!😆 i loved reading about your love, attention & care of plants!!! Thanks for being so good with them. That nursery is beyond blessed to have you there!!!🌱🍃🌿🥀🌻
Thank you! I don't talk to the plants very much, just a little, but more often I sing to them. Not so much at the Garden Center, but definitely in the garden.
I appreciate the excellent job you’re doing with your plants. I can attest to your comment that seeing healthy, beautiful plants makes people happy. I know it makes me happy (and makes me want to buy them all!). Perhaps someday you might have a thriving little garden center of your own. I always thought that would be a fun business. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get the watering right myself. Stay well and carry on!
I've heard it more than once this spring - I want to buy all the plants!
Plants are resilient, my sister hardly ever waters her indoor plants, considerably less than I do at garden center, and hers look quite healthy. You can't hardly water delicate summer annuals enough. A few perennials like their feet wet, otherwise water a little less than you think you need to, until it is clear the plant needs more. Seeds and seedlings, light water twice a day. It would be great if once the garden is established, there was a slow, steady light rain of about 1/2-1in every third day. Soon I will be setting up a drip irrigation line for watermelon, as a test run for the orchard, and maybe the rest of the melons and squash.
Thank you for the tips! We finally bought PH and moisture meters this year, tackled a desperately needed six yards of mulch, and loaded up the finicky shrubs with fertilizer, acid, and iron. Good luck with your melons and squash!
Yeah, some people really do suck all the oxygen even out of a garden center. But I can deal with difficult people, the greatest challenge is a system that is so very ruinous to so many plants, that treats plants like animals are treated in industrial agriculture, and the way most people just shrug about it. But I will be fine and thanks for caring.
I bwas lucky to work for a couple of independent garden centers when I was younger. It was a really nice work environment, mostly peaceful, surrounded with beautiful plants. I do remember having these big meetings before spring got rolling and the owner did his best to make us his chemical fertilizer, herbacide, insecticide sales people and I just refused to upsell that garbage to people. I did my best to gently stear those open to it to organic gardening methods and less toxic pest control. I was not there to sell toxic chemicals, I was there to care for the plants. 🪴I wonder how many of those kinds of garden centers are left.
I'll be visiting the local, less chemical, more responsible garden centers soon. When I was at a different corporate garden center years ago I was forced to discuss chemicals with customers, so I used to ask them if they have kids or pets and then I would show them the warnings about neurotoxin etc and ask how much they trust corporations. Some heard me, some did not.
I'm glad you are maintaining your strong ethics and morals, Hunter, and I wouldn't imagine any other behavior or attitude from you! Yes, you are really there to take care of plants and people. It is saddening to realize that the usurpation of the Natural Order even comes down to these psychopathic wayward wizards using PLANTS to mind-control people into buying cheap shit from China that they don't and won't every truly need. In the face of that evil, our tribe remains steadfast in Natural Law, kindness, and integrity of our mind-body-spirit complexes.
There are now more plants than we have room for. The latest thing is many pallets of jungle plants that can't handle temps below 55, half of which already out are half dead, now today five more many level pallets full of jungle plants and the overnight temp the next two nights at 40. I warned them, I was heard, but if GM sees them she is going to want them outside. The main guy in receiving told me it's the same thing every year, we get twice what we need, half die, we get twice what we need, half die, rinse and repeat...
It's a system of intentional sickness and death. These big box stores, if I am correct, also receive subsidies from the government (that is, taxpayers) to keep up the madness. Meanwhile, mom & pop nurseries become harder to maintain. We are lucky to have several small garden shops in our area (north San Luis Obispo county) but that's because we have have such a short period of potentially freezing days. I feel for you having to deal with those corporate lapdogs and their death-cult mission.
I feel for them having to live it. As you said earlier, those of us who understand natural law, kindness and integrity make our own way...
Your GM has lots of company. I agree with your description of how work like yours is mis-appreciated and abused. I have experienced similar while working for $60 an hour as a software expert.
Everywhere I have worked. For one good manager there are 10 who make the job harder.
Once again, your karma shines through. You make your own validation assisting Gods work
One of the best things about the job is making people smile. It's easier in a garden center.
I have figured out where you ‘work’ WHD! I recognized the blue color of the plastic pots..which is the ‘branding’ color of the store brand! Just imagine it as your personal ‘moment of zen’...keeping all these beautiful plant babies alive. 😉🙏🏻🧑🏼🌾
Those blue pots are used by any and all growers growing Endless Summer hydrangeas, but you're right about the Big Box that WHD calls his work site. That same Big Box in Colorado only pays for the plants crossing the scanner at checkout. The growers eat the cost of the plants that die, so they hire (contract) people to care for the plants to keep their costs down and profits up. Big Boxes, regardless of the color of vests their employees wear, are where plants go to die. Having worked at retail greenhouses for ~20 years, I tell people that if they are tempted to buy plants at Big Box, buy them right off the truck, as the guy that drives the truck knows more about how to care for plants than most Big Box "garden shop employees." Since WHD doesn't work for Big Box, he is not an exception, though he is exceptional at plant care and customer service.
Thirsty plants, those hydrangea.
A lot less plants will go there to die as long as I am there, but it is true, I can not stop the carnage. Currently, big box buys the load, and they still don't care. But next year, it will be as you say it is in Colorado. That will mean I can ask for a lot more $, but then I am not sure I can do this again, as big box will care even less for the plants.
What powerful essay, reflective of your insights about both plants and human nature. Kinda makes me want to cry...and to hug you at the same time.
Love all around.
Love the story.
What I heard is alot different than your perspective.
I hear a humongous opportunity and a ton of motivation to push me to do it, for next spring. Why let them make all the profit? For the shareholders and company management?
I would redirect efforts on the 40, and find a cheap place hopefully not too far from the box stores. When the SHTF, it seems to me the guy selling veggie seedlings isn't going to be starving.
If this presents some sort of ethical dilemna, I'm happy to help you work through it.
The food delivery apps, they know what everyone likes to order. Data is the new oil they say. For the private equity leaches, the delivery business isn't good enough. They are trying to put the restaurants out of business and get their revenue too:
https://foodondemand.com/02132020/virtual-kitchen-investments-in-u-s-near-600-million/
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/restaurants/grubhub-launching-its-own-ghost-kitchen
You have, or can get, the plant data.
I, and others here I am sure, would invest in your enterprise.
I can provide free legal and accounting advice/guidance if you need it.
I have been thinking a lot lately about selling plants and seeds. There is such a place in town, growing much of what they sell. I mean to go there soon to see what they are up to. Even my Dad is impressed with the garden and said I should build such gardens for the rich around here @$100/hr. Some people just told me too they loved my homebrew...
Being treated as a commodity is part of our culture.
I appreciate your pride in your life experiences. Good job. I think chronic physical pain reduces people's gratitude potential as exemplified by grumpy behaviors.
Thanks! Also, that and chronic psychic pain.
In reality, of course, you de Man. Not in a capitalist sense.
My youngest daughter has been in service jobs over the last couple years and she often talks about how satisfying they would be if managers recognized the integrity of the employees. One place was a hotel with a very hands-on local owner and everyone (including her) had the ethic of pitching in with whatever needed to be done. It was a satisfying minimum-wage job. Then it got bought out by a chain that only cared about curb appeal and Yelp reviews, muzzling the employees for eight hrs a day so unmasked customers could walk in for 5 minutes.
She also worked at a place that had a hierarchy of girl-bosses, each yelling at the next one to yell at the employees. It's been satisfying to all that the building's now for lease although they did some great bonding in the trenches, and those are still some of her closest friends.
Retail jobs used to be fun, before they became so corporatized. I was a Pottery Barn store manager eons ago. (Willams Sonoma had just bought the PB stores.)I had a great staff, we all worked very well together, and made ‘our numbers’ every month, and I was pretty much left alone by my DM. Then a guy, Gary Friedman was recruited from The GAP to run the PB store division. He installed District Managers who had been his underlings @ The Gap. They knew nothing about ‘hard goods’ retailing. They knew how to sell T-Shirts and Jeans not dinnerware, glassware, tableware, cookware, or decorative accessories!
It was embarrassing to have them come into the store and try to ‘sell’ a customer on something. These type of ‘hard goods’ are not an ‘impulse buy, like a t-shirt. Friedman later moved onto Restoration Hardware and became its CEO.
Later I went back to retail, doing seasonal Christmas work at Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma. The corporate culture had become so entrenched in these companies, that I couldn’t wait to be ‘laid off’ after the season was over. The fun and camaraderie of selling things you personally loved and knew about, had gone out of these places, replaced by the ever present attainment of the ‘sales goals’, rah rah ‘team building’ morning meetings, and then assaulting the customer when they came in the door. I was done.
Oh that's funny. My daughter and I walked into a Pottery Barn the other day and I was telling her how they used to be the hip and knowledgeable housewares store that was a solid step up from what you'd buy in college, but not inaccessible for a young householder starting out.
I hadn't been there in years and, after skirting our way around some pricy and delicate displays, we couldn't wait to get out.
When I was at the PB, it was the late 80’s. The chain had been purchased by Willams Sonoma, and was started in 1949 back on the East Coast by the Secon Brothers, then a guy Dick Friedman brought the stores out to LA and expanded around the country. Gordon Segal had started Crate and Barrel in Chicago in the early 60’s and was the PB’s major competition. They both championed Modern Danish and European designed merchandise.
Back in the 80’s PB was quite a different store then than as it appears today. There were more housewares, decorative accessories and a very limited furniture selection. Mostly small dining tables and chairs, with some outdoor furniture for the summer. Under the operation of Williams Sonoma it is has morphed into a mid-high price range furniture store, with limited dinnerware, and decorative accessories. All these niche ‘lifestyle’ furniture and accessories store have been gobbled up and corporatized (or have gone out of business) and have really lost the soul and vibe of what they had back in the day!
Wow. The plants under your care look incredible. You have a spectacular green thumb.
I had to deal with a horrible manager this past year. It's endemic in corporate America.
Just started our in-ground garden with good soil, worms & organic starters, 1 heirloom. Some wildflower seeds, too, from Annie’s Heirloom seeds. Tomatoes in pots are coming in after 2+ months of daily love! I am careful about watering & talk to the plants; I tell them how beautiful they are & that I’m proud of them! Sometimes aloud, sometimes telepathically so the neighbors don’t think I’m crazy!😆 i loved reading about your love, attention & care of plants!!! Thanks for being so good with them. That nursery is beyond blessed to have you there!!!🌱🍃🌿🥀🌻
Thank you! I don't talk to the plants very much, just a little, but more often I sing to them. Not so much at the Garden Center, but definitely in the garden.
That is so sweet!!✨🌿🎶🌻 I will try that today. 🎶
Singing has the added benefit of not looking so crazy... :)
I appreciate the excellent job you’re doing with your plants. I can attest to your comment that seeing healthy, beautiful plants makes people happy. I know it makes me happy (and makes me want to buy them all!). Perhaps someday you might have a thriving little garden center of your own. I always thought that would be a fun business. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get the watering right myself. Stay well and carry on!
I've heard it more than once this spring - I want to buy all the plants!
Plants are resilient, my sister hardly ever waters her indoor plants, considerably less than I do at garden center, and hers look quite healthy. You can't hardly water delicate summer annuals enough. A few perennials like their feet wet, otherwise water a little less than you think you need to, until it is clear the plant needs more. Seeds and seedlings, light water twice a day. It would be great if once the garden is established, there was a slow, steady light rain of about 1/2-1in every third day. Soon I will be setting up a drip irrigation line for watermelon, as a test run for the orchard, and maybe the rest of the melons and squash.
Thank you for the tips! We finally bought PH and moisture meters this year, tackled a desperately needed six yards of mulch, and loaded up the finicky shrubs with fertilizer, acid, and iron. Good luck with your melons and squash!
Thanks WHD. Sorry that place is in the grip of that oxygen thief.
Keep your head & spirits up please.
Yeah, some people really do suck all the oxygen even out of a garden center. But I can deal with difficult people, the greatest challenge is a system that is so very ruinous to so many plants, that treats plants like animals are treated in industrial agriculture, and the way most people just shrug about it. But I will be fine and thanks for caring.
I bwas lucky to work for a couple of independent garden centers when I was younger. It was a really nice work environment, mostly peaceful, surrounded with beautiful plants. I do remember having these big meetings before spring got rolling and the owner did his best to make us his chemical fertilizer, herbacide, insecticide sales people and I just refused to upsell that garbage to people. I did my best to gently stear those open to it to organic gardening methods and less toxic pest control. I was not there to sell toxic chemicals, I was there to care for the plants. 🪴I wonder how many of those kinds of garden centers are left.
I'll be visiting the local, less chemical, more responsible garden centers soon. When I was at a different corporate garden center years ago I was forced to discuss chemicals with customers, so I used to ask them if they have kids or pets and then I would show them the warnings about neurotoxin etc and ask how much they trust corporations. Some heard me, some did not.