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tncrystal_stoner

What Kind of Business do You Have?

TNcrystal_stoner
18 years ago

Ok, I know we can't say the names of our nurseries and all of that, but after watching this forum for awhile I am curious as to who everyone is... green house grower, landscaper, garden center, tree nursery.

I just thought it would be interesting.

We have a family run pot in pot tree wholesale tree nursery.... shade trees and other ornamental trees.

Comments (31)

  • mylu
    18 years ago

    Family run Wholesale/retail nursery.
    Selective garden design.
    Farmers market.
    Fall pumpkin patch.
    If it grows, we sell it.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    18 years ago

    Manager/buyer for a large (6 acre) suburban retail garden center. Also have a personal business doing landscape and container design, consultations, seminars and speaking to groups on gardening/horticultural subjects.

  • mich_in_zonal_denial
    18 years ago

    Magician.

    After dealing with one particular contractor this morning I would have better luck having a flock of geese fly out of his butt than to have him show up on time with the correct materials.

  • Carrie B
    18 years ago

    Small, urban garden center employee: buyer, salesperson, deadheader, waterer, etc.

    And...new entrepeneur. Urban gardener. Small back yards, widow boxes, sidewalk planters, balcony & rooftop gardens. Basic design, purchasing & planting, irrigation installation (simple do-it-yourself types). Some maintenance. Whatever I can get as a new gardener here in the city.

  • trianglejohn
    18 years ago

    I am the proverbial bottom of the barrel... I sell live plants and garden art & crafts at the local flea market. May sound weak to some but the FLEA as I call it, is HUGE in this town and has far fewer politics than the fancy farmer's market. I do ok for a one man operation which is really only a part time weekend job. I have a nice large gardened up yard where I harvest cuttings and seedlings and I have connections to some pretty high-end plant collections in this area. In addition, I also design at least one garden each year in the state fair gardening competition where I really get to let the creative juices flow. During the week I work for a small publishing company as a graphic artist where I've mastered the skills needed to publish my own gardening newspaper and local gardening calendar.

  • PollyNY
    18 years ago

    We are a small family owned and operated retail nursery. I started out specializing in perennials, but after having some success with small size container shrubs, we have kind of drifted in that direction, still continuing perennials. Polly

  • miss_rumphius_rules
    18 years ago

    Designer. Handholder. Massager of egos. Plant locater (I also fetch them sometimes...)

  • mary11
    18 years ago

    European-style cut-floral business.

  • vegangirl
    18 years ago

    Daylily farm, family owned and operated.

  • Ron_B
    18 years ago

    If geese started flying out of his butt, I think anyone on hand to view the spectacle would rapidly lose interest in the job.

    Lately I've been doing mostly pruning, some planting design.

  • Ron_B
    18 years ago

    I suppose those geese would have to be honkers, of course.

  • debinca1
    18 years ago

    Floor sales,head lacky in a family owned upscale retail nursery. Currently part time, flushed out with side jobs I pick up at the nursery. You know the people who ask " do you know anyone who...........can teach me how to prune, will plant theese, can tell me where to plant this tree, can help me decide on what color Rhodies go with my house etc." Well yes, I do happen to know some one, me!

    Going back to school at the ripe age of... third child entering college.... to learn landscape design.

  • landman41
    18 years ago

    "Going back to school at the ripe age of... third child entering college.... to learn landscape design.

    Hey Deb Join the club at the ripe age of 43. Never too old or too long in the tooth. (Teeth if more then one exist):) whcih I do have:)

  • dabprop
    18 years ago

    General personal gardener for other gardeners.

  • Odie99
    18 years ago

    Landscape designer, consultant, educator, nursery apprentice and full time student of life.

    Kirk

  • toyon
    18 years ago

    I work in a chain hardware store nursery/garden department (not a bigbox).

    On the side I grow several hard to find plants and sell them online. I would like to sell them wholesale to local nurseries, but the city has a problem with it. Basically, they want to make it hard on anyone that doesn't have $250K to spend on a larger business. I do this because I like it. I do a little better than break even. If at some point I can sell more than I can propagate I may look into renting/leasing space for a small greenhouse operation.

  • ninamarie
    18 years ago

    Niche nursery. Perennials and native plants. Display gardens, unusual varieties, etc.

  • jeremy_b
    18 years ago

    Perennial gardens created, renovated, and maintained using organic methods. Also some stone work, design, and an occasional water garden. I am investigating getting into lawn care as well.

  • watergal
    18 years ago

    Interior plant maintenance technician. Which is a fancy name for "the plant lady". I'm the one who roams around the offices (and occasional luxury apartment/hotel/restaurant) downtown and in the suburbs, keeping all the potted plants and planters watered, fed, pruned, and pest-free.

    It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds! All the benefits of having thousands of "houseplants", some huge, without having to fit them in my house. All of the pleasures of gardening all day, without having to deal with sun, heat, snow, rain, etc.

    One of my favorite benefits is that I spend minimal time dealing with clients. I mostly stick to plant care and let the office staff deal with the clients. I find that the plants tend to be much more rational and complain a whole lot less than some clients do!

  • CynRi
    18 years ago

    Small greenhouse operation offering unusual annuals and
    perennials, am having a great season. I also sell at the local Flee market and farmers market. In the off season I
    work at the local ski hill as office manager.

  • Cady
    18 years ago

    Small-potatoes garden designer-installer also getting my feet wet with part time work as horticulturist/sales for large retail-rewholesale garden center/nursery and as an estate gardener for an upscale garden maintenance service company.

    Doing too much at once, but loving it.

  • AgastacheMan
    18 years ago

    Family operated wholesale perennial nursery which includes fresh cut and dried flowers and materials. We specialize in drought tolerancy, deer proof,heat tolerant, and high performance perennial and soft wood shrubs. The nursery is organically managed with OMRI sprays and organic fertilizers.

  • vandyken
    18 years ago

    Have run my own small landscape maintenance company for 10 years, and have spent 18 years in the industry.

    I'd trade a few years of experience for more youth, however.

  • laag
    18 years ago

    Somebody else's. Actually, two somebody else's.

    Full time in a land planning office (Falmouth) that can find me doing a lot more civil engineering than landscape design. A lot of the landscape design is conservation revegetation or mitigation. Some of it is ornamental. Some of it is getting people out of jams from their illegal alteration of wetland buffers (usually cutting trees or shrubs for a view). It is a small office where we all do everything and each of the licensed people check the work of the others, but might work on the entire project without anyone else drawing on it. Some projects are condominium developments, affordable housing, banks, police stations, fire stations, and a lot of big homes, many of which include the razing of the old one (add in the conservation issues on waterfront houses). The closer to the ocean, the more the land is worth, the more the owner feels the house has to justify the lot, the more wetland resources,....

    On Saturdays I do plans for a high end landscaper (Orleans)at the othe end of the Cape. That is lots of stonework, custom pools, large homes, lots of plants, and not a lot of budgetary woes. And the engineers already have the work limits permitted (usually). The limiting factor is that I have to work within the style of the company, but it is very much in context with the market it is in.

    Wetlands regulations in my area are growing a cottage industry that moves a lot of money.

    Landscaping is a diverse field as I always say. But you may be surprised how diverse the landscape design field is as well. It has been an interesting past five years when my career path had a detour when I found myself in a civil engineer's office. I had no idea I'd do what I do. Coming up with strategies to satify the regulations and help the client get what he wants is interesting. I never knew that psychology was actually going to be relevent when it was a requirement in landscape architecture.

    My task resume is pretty broad (and everyone likes a pretty broad, irrisistable joke, sorry).

  • Green_hands
    18 years ago

    Landscape/garden design, consultant on a broad range of gardening, orcharding and design issues and gardener.

  • gillie
    18 years ago

    We are a family run small vegetable farm selling retail
    and we plant and sell hanging baskets and planted containers
    plus some annual bedding plants and perennials to supplement
    our income before the veggies come in.

  • Ron_B
    18 years ago

    No pretty broads or broad ranges here, just a broader waistline.

  • vouts
    18 years ago

    Specialist, husband and wife team, perennial and shrub retail nursery located in rural France. We have a rapidly developing show garden, and we do sales on site, local markets and mailorder by internet. We propagate all our own perennials and buy liners for the shrubs.

    In my sparetime (ha!) I'm a wannabee jazz musician.

  • trudy_gw
    18 years ago

    I and my husband run a hosta, daylily and ornamental grass farm, also go to the local farmers market.
    Started as a hosta addiction, grew to a small business to feed my addiction.
    Still having fun!

  • trianglejohn
    18 years ago

    I keep reading this thread hoping that a husband and wife team will answer sepparately, not knowing that the other has submitted a response. Interested if they view their business the same way.

    All in all this thread has been a fun read.

    My usuall response is that I "put the whore in hor-ticulture! if it has anything to do with gardening I'll do it or sell it."

  • bonsai_audge
    18 years ago

    Teenage landscaping man-slave. Aka high-school student trying to get some experience (and money) on my own. On rare occasions I call in others to help me, and thus my job shifts towards the management side and less heavy-lifting/grunt work. Either way, it hasn't been the easiest. There's the huge aspect of time-management, and the whole concept of going to school for the day and having projects and homework to do after coming back from school hasn't really helped!

    But other than that, it has been quite fun and interesting work. I have a few jobs lined up currently (which I consider to be decent business :P ), but that's mainly because of school and lack of time.

    I'm not sure what type of business I plan to have once I get out of university (hopefully for a degree in Landscape Architecture), but one I would like would be with the National Capital Commission (basically a government organization formed to make the Capital attractive). I've heard many graduates from Guelph (where I'm hoping to go) often get contracts with the government for public spaces. But even if I don't work with the government, a small business that brings in enough for a comfortable living would be great. :P

    -Audric

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