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