Maybe you'll even have a chance now to get the dogs washed.

Congrats, have a great spring!!! Sounds like you deserve it! deb

What did you do to find your super employees? How do you retain them? Cogratulations and I am so happy to see someone in the biz that really has it GOIN ON. I would love to hear your recipe for hitting the "Sweet Spot." I would think others would too. May the blessing of all your hard work continue to rain down upon like April showers setting the stage for your May flowers.
Happy Growing David

I'm very happy for you. I remember some posts a while back where you were very discouraged. Glad things are looking up!

Dear Muddy,

Congratulations - you deserve it. This is a tough business and you're still doing it the right way.

The only thing I buy at the box stores is pine bark mulch. All the rest of my business, for plants, shrubs, trees, equipment and everything else goes to independants like you.

Happy Easter to you to!

My husband and I operate a small nursery with 3 part time employees. Finding good help isn't easy. We've had thiefs, people who like to stand behind the counter and do nothing, and others that didn't show up regularly. One gal hurt her back dragging a hose and was on L&I for a while.
My two regular part timers really seem to care that our business does well. They were both good customers and approached me about working part time. Money wasn't an issue to them. They're in their late fifties and early sixties and one of the gals works like a whirlwind, is a plant addict,and has infectuous enthusiasm. Everyday I get compliments on her. I make sure I pass on the comments to her. I have finally learned to delegate more. I always thought that I had to plant most of our mixed containers because they were somehow better. Wrong! She's much faster than me and they're fabulous. She's so good that I give her weekends off! She says she hopes to work for me another 12 years. Still gotta find another part timer. One gal came in the other day and wanted a job. I checked her out in our states online court records. She had several criminal charges against her.
I might go to our High School and ask the agriculture teacher if she has a good student that would work weekends.
In the past I've had mothers come in and ask if I'd hire their high school child. That worked out but those kids are gone now.
Our area has more affordable land than a lot of the country and more people are retiring here. Almost everyday we see someone new. We've sold more fruit trees than ever and a lot of larger speciman plants. Our bigger plants with the exception of Arboritaes are often half the price of Home Depots.
I have the feeling that more people want to support a small family owned business these days.

I have seen in the past some of the best workers have come from being the best customers. I will keep this in mind as I go thru the season. I am trying to hire a temp til memorial day. May be longer term but have only got the owners committed to this thus far. I am getting too old to do all the physical lifting of heavy bags of mulch and potting soils so I am looking for some one to do a lot more of this during the busiest days and to help with loads of plants as they come in. I would love to be growing more as a part of the biz but am scattered in too many directions to see this happen as much as I want yet. I thank you for your rely and continue to wish you all the success you desire this year and for many more to come!!
Happy Growing David

Maybe a typo but particularly since you are in the business note that it's spelled specimen and not speciman. The latter spelling (and hawthorne) appear repeatedly in posts here, so apparently quite a few people think that is how it is spelled - or are making the same typing mistake.

Speciman and hawthorne both get red underlines on this computer. Don't know what is providing the spell-checking here. The site? The browser?

I wish my microsoft internet explorer would have a spelling check under tools or better yet red line typo's. This site doesn't assist in spelling as far as I know.
Any spelling fixes are appreciated.

I'm not enough of a geek to know where it's coming from.