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Nursery Update
We are geared up for a great spring in the nursery. You may have
noticed our new barn and office building. This is a huge step in the life
of The Plantsmen—I think of it as Phase 2. We have grown, we have
stabilized the business, and now we are responding to new demand
and new markets—some commercial and some ecological—to
complement our retail/residential business. We are growing the
business and growing more plants than ever. We are working with NY
State Parks, Tompkins County, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Cornell
University, and various other clients that allow us to scale up a bit.
But nothing about our retail nursery will change, other than for the
better: we maintain our commitment to customer service, quality
plants, and unusual plant diversity. And we continue to grow more
and more native species from our own local seed collection efforts.
Local native species are finally in some demand here in CNY, even
though that market has been well-established in many other parts of
the country for a long time. We are glad to keep doing what we’ve
always done, while satisfying this emerging market here. We continue
to strive for real quality in our plants, and an ambience of sanctuary at
the nursery itself. You will also see about one new acre of plant
production space on the side of the retail property that’s been vacant
for a few years, and you’ll now see our landscape operation in full
view over there as well. We had been renting off-site space for our
landscape division for about six or seven years, and are glad to
consolidate everything back onto our own property. But we will
continue to make the nursery feel homey and friendly—that is who we
are and that is not going to change.
Staffing Update
I’m happy to be bringing back a
higher number of our nursery and
landscape staff than we’ve ever
brought back from one year to the
next, and we are also excited to
have Amy German return to our
staff this year, as our Senior Nursery Manager—Amy worked for us
several years ago when we didn’t even have automated irrigation. We
are also glad to have Cat Taylor as our Junior Nursery Manager—Cat
was with us last year in the drought summer, and is such a nice fit for
The Plantsmen, with her energetic pace, her 360-degree awareness
of what’s going on, and her easygoing attitude. Jenny Walsh is back
with us this year as well, with her two green thumbs and a love of
plants and working outdoors in the sun (and rain). And Bridget
Gaines, who has been with us almost from the beginning as our
General Manager, is now our
Horticulture and Nursery Director—
Bridget is a true plant person, and as
a dedicated Plantsmen employee,
she’s been handling a lot of things
that needed to be done, even if they
were not directly plant-related: HR,
marketing, advertising, etc. I am
happy to see her working with our plants more directly after several
years of being such a team player. She will be overseeing everything
and everyone related to our plants now. And Bridget would not be
able to make that transition without Vic Pastore, who we recruited last
fall to help us with some of the things that Bridget had been doing. If
you have not worked with Vic yet, you’ll be glad when you do. Vic’s
creativity, sense of humor, talents and professional experience qualify
her to work anywhere, and we are lucky to have her on board. We are
glad she did not apply for the Cornell President vacancy when it was
open.
Also, after many years of doing
behind-the-scenes work from our
home office, Sarah Segal will be
coming out of the shadows and
working from a desk in the new
nursery office as well. This
represents a nice new phase for
the nursery and for our family, as
Sarah is able to move some of our
home office to the new building. For every nursery customer and
landscape client who I’ve been able to work with directly over the
years, Sarah has made it possible for me to not be at home during
those times. Sarah is also the person who helped organize and
stabilize the business as we emerged from the 2008-2010 recession,
when I was in denial about our accounting and bill-paying
systems. She helped us get out of the red and into the black, and
continues to do things for The Plantsmen that are not necessarily fun
but are critical.
Our trusted landscapers are back
with us too—Doug, Cody and
Brandon have been with us for many
years, and between them, I think
they’ve been at every property we’ve
worked on in the past.
That institutional memory is hard to
come by with a landscape team.
And it really is amazing what the guys do
as a small, low-impact crew without using
much equipment, in a short period of
time. We are also adding a few new
people this year, to the landscape and
nursery crews, and you will see them in
person or read about them on our
website and in our communications soon.
As a final note, we have announced our official opening day as April
15, 2017, and we are hosting our annual Spring Thing April 29-30,
2017. We look forward to seeing you at these great events.
Warm wishes for spring,
Dan & Plantsmen Staff