Here’s why you should go to the certified pros for your North Texas landscape and garden
By the time I was 13 I knew I wanted to be a nurseryman. By the time I was 14 I lied about my age so I could join a trade organization that would allow me to buy plants from wholesale nurseries. By the time I was 15 I was operating a retail nursery and landscaping business out of our backyard in College Station. (Is “micro-small” really a word?) I was hooked, and I knew where my career would be taking me.
College shifted me just a little. I fell in love with greenhouse production at A&M. When I visited Ohio State as a sophomore I saw a program that was about 40 times larger than what we had at Aggieland (in the 60s, before the A&M growth explosion), and I made the move. Both of my degrees are from Ohio State, one in floriculture (greenhouses) and my Masters in ornamental horticulture (nursery crops).
I left OSU determined to be the best grower ever, but my first job out of college was teaching in a vocational high school. Honestly, that was the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. My wife and I both taught in public schools just as three of our four parents had. It was exciting to see my students’ love of horticulture awaken as mine had.
But then the Extension Service from College Station came calling with a job here in the Metroplex. That was 1970, and Lynn and I have been here ever since. Still educating, I guess you could call it. But staying as close to the nursery industry as I can. It’s too late for me to think about changing my career path. I’ve been blessed with the roads that I’ve chosen, but the least I can do is to try to support those who can help gardeners succeed to the fullest.
As spring begins to unfold, I’d urge you always to shop where you can get the very best plants, products, and service. Find a place where you’ll be talking to full-time plant people — men and women who get up in the morning thinking about gardening. People who are thinking about gardening in March and April when it’s spectacular outside, but who are also thinking about gardening in the dog days of summer. It’s just what plant people do. They don’t move over to selling in some other department. They are plant people.
Perhaps the surest way to find that great help is to look for the name badges and emblems of Texas Certified, and Texas Master Certified, Nursery Professionals. They’ll be at member nurseries of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association. TNLA began this program 40-some years ago. I was there as it was being studied and put together. It’s been exciting to watch it unfold. Texas has been blessed all the while to have one of the strongest nursery industries in America thanks to the leadership of TNLA.
Most of the members of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association from a retailing standpoint are local independent businesses, not the national chains. You’ll be working with people who live in your city, whose children attend the same schools as yours, and who are members of your local Chamber of Commerce, intent on making your community better. Selfishly you’re there because you gain so much applicable advice, but you also realize how much you’re helping your town by helping them.
There are some things you can do to make their jobs easier. Shop early in the season before they get overwhelmed. Nursery parking lots aren’t full yet, but they very soon will be. If you have specific questions and you want to talk to one of those highly skilled people, go in soon, before the big land rush known as “spring.”
Take high-resolution photo prints and ground measurements of projects you’re hoping to accomplish. I can tell you from first-hand experience, it’s very difficult to offer landscaping suggestions when all you have to look at is a 2-by- 3-inch image on a cell phone.
The nursery person probably won’t be able to draw a landscape sketch right there on the spot, but they can offer suggestions of good plants for a setting. Then, if you want a more formal design, you can set an appointment to come back and work with a landscape designer. Talk to them about fees for the design and ask about delivery and planting. Many can offer a turn-key job so that all you’ll have to do is look, smile, nod, and pay for the plants and the services. It’s very appealing to many homeowners.
Just in my lifetime I’ve seen retail nurseries in Texas go from selling primarily balled-and-burlapped nursery stock (mainly in winter and early spring), then to metal containers, on to plastic pots, and finally large tubs and wire tree baskets. Somewhere out there, almost any plant seems to be available. Behind the scenes, there are firms whose job it is to search for the unusual sizes and species.
I’ve seen wholesale growers tool up for automated production. Incredible mechanization of plant propagation, specialized seedings, plug production of tiny transplants shipped halfway around the world overnight, cut flowers from other continents — it’s more than my mind can process.
Is this a fun industry? Yes, it is! Am I glad I got and stayed in it? You bet I am! And here’s hoping you’ll enjoy what my friends the nursery professionals of Texas have in store for you this spring.
Happy gardening!
