gardengal wrote:
On Nov 7, 11:28 am, brooklyn1 wrote:
sherwin dubren wrote:
julie wrote:
Someone with
a degree in horticulture wouldn't be schlepping plants around any
retail nursery.

Retail plant nurseries pay little more
than minimum wage... no education is required to schlepp plants, bales
of planting medium, and watering hoses about. However the nursery
stock at either is exactly the same, comes from the same local
wholesalers/growers. Also the big box stores don't hassle folks about
returns whereas the independant nurseries typically institute all
sorts of escape clauses for not replacing plants or returning full
purchase price. Another point to consider is that the typical
independant retail nursery buys all their stock in one fell swoop in
order to take advantage of bulk discounts... that same stock sits in
what is virtually a parking lot the entire season hoping for a buyer,
it gets sun, it hopefully gets watered regularly, it gets knocked
about by folks looking, and the nicest specimens are sold right away
and not replaced... what's left doesn't go into the ground until
someone buys and plants it. Whereas the big box stores are gigantic
accounts, they get freshly dug shipments weekly, even daily.


What you don't know or are misinformed about retail nurseries is
rather astonishing!!

Many retail nurseries and garden centers pride themselves on having
well-educated and highly trained personnel on staff. In fact, many
state nursery and landscape professional associations offer
professional certfication programs that require knowledge and training
equivalent to a 2 year hort degree that a great many retail garden
centers and nurseries take advantage of. I actually teach classes for
this certfication program in my area. We graduate several dozen CPH's
(Certified Professional Horticulturists) each session, the bulk of
which are nursery employees. And minimum wages are paid only to
seasonal part time staff, those who do the unloading of trucks,
schlepping of plants to cars and hauling sacks of soil amendments. We
don't even let these folks - generally high school or college students
looking for a summer job - water plants, as that takes knowledge and a
skill level these guys don't have.

Having been in both the retail and wholesale nursery industry for many
years, I think I can speak to the buying habits of retail nurseries,
at least the ones here on the west coast..... I was a buyer for a
number of years. They DO NOT bring in all their stock at once. Weekly
delivers from various vendors occur throughout the season but some
plant offerings - like many fruit trees - tend to be very seasonal and
the bulk are brought in very early in the season, often when dormant.
As they are sold off, they are replaced with fresh stock, if that
stock is still available. And the care plants receive at retail
nurseries far exceeds what is provided at any box store - unless you
purchase something at a box that is within days of its arrival, it is
very likley to be drought stressed or otherwise neglected. And they do
not necessarily offer the same stock from the same vendors - many of
the largest wholesale vendors offer grades of product: premium grades
go to the plant retailers/nurseries; lesser grades to the discounters
and box stores. And some vendors simply do not sell to any discounters
or box stores, period.

btw, I am a degreed horticulturist as well as professionally
certified. I have worked in the nursery industry consistently for
nearly 20 years but as a second and much more rewarding and satisfying
career. I started out at quite a bit more than minimum wage and make
as much now as I did when I left my corporate banking career. It's not
a huge salary but it is faaaar more than minimum wage.

Obviously, the sales people I encounter in my area big box stores
have not taken your classes.

The fruit tree stock may be fresh, but it is often misslabled. When
I checked on a misslabled tree recently, I discovered it had gone
through at least three sources from initial grower to distributor to
the final seller. It was impossible to trace the variety.

Sherwin