Nursery FAQ and Quotes

A concerned customer texted this question to a salesman last Thursday: 
"The leaves are falling off my tree. What should I do?"

Answer:  "It's called fall, and it's OK."

Sign from gift shop: 
"GARDENING
cheaper than therapy
and you get tomatoes"

Young tree expert's reply to customer: 
"The best time to plant is gonna be now."

Customer: "To go by our front porch, do you have a five-foot tree that won't grow more than two feet?"

Salesperson: "No, ma'am, but you can prune these to control the size."

Bush info sign: "... often used for boarders and hedges."

Customer: "How fast will this tree grow?"

Salesman Ned, pointing to sign: "Growth rate is moderate, which is relative – maybe one foot per year."

Customer, holding sample from home: "What's eating these leaves?"

Salesperson inspecting with worried look: "Have you seen any bugs?"

Q: "Which flowers will look pretty all year long and come back every year?"

A: [Here's a perennial clue from a favorite source:]

http://www.monrovia.com/?s=Daylilies

"... as a single specimen, small group planting, sheared into topiary, or in containers. Starburst® Red Evergreen Daylily: Everything gardeners love about daylilies with the bonus of evergreen foliage and spectacular blooms recurring [reblooming] throughout the season ..."

"Plant Savvy Newsletter | February 3, 2016

Finally! As the garden wakes from winter slumber, it’s time to treat yourself to a few special, lavish, luxe, romantic plants that set your heart aflutter ..."

(There's a sales pitch for you.  Can't wait till spring!)

Recently I was reading in the cozy company breakroom and found some good advice:

"It's what personal-productivity guru David Allen calls GSA, or 'gnawing sense of anxiety.'  ...  There are few occasions when you have the energy, the tools, and the time needed to work on your highest-priority items.  Sometimes the most appropriate thing to do, if you have 10 free minutes, is to water your plants."  – David Beardsley, writer based in Cambridge, MA; Fast Company, April 1998, p.66, "Don't Manage Time, Manage Yourself"

And on your "18th Birthday" – thanks, Google, for helping me through the nursery Q & A since last March.  Your millions of results are not always true and correct, but I love you!

Google defines ruck as "a tightly packed crowd of people."

Holiday Season?

There's the holiday season ... but first comes the prepare-for-holiday season, which became apparent to me on the first day of September, a Thursday at 5:55pm.  No scary surprise.  Halloween.  I thought, "Here we go again."

I have noticed days getting shorter, so my lawn mowing at 9pm is out. Tomorrow, September 22nd,  is the autumnal (fall) equinox (Latin for "equal night") – the beginning of a favorite time of year.

So get prepared, and have fun with the inevitable (defined as "certain to happen; unavoidable.")  No further comment for now, but we'll see.

Naturally Next: The Plants

Of course, this language blog must include a definition of plant as “a living organism of the kind exemplified by trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, ferns, and mosses, typically growing in a permanent site, absorbing water and inorganic substances through its roots, and synthesizing nutrients in its leaves by photosynthesis using the green pigment chlorophyll.”  – Google

(Whew!  Couldn’t have said it better myself.)

I have grown to love the plants, and have bought several since April, for Kay and me to enjoy on our frontier property.

A few fast photos I took at the nursery (plus one at home) will suffice.

Never Forget!

Remember how the attacks increased patriotism and brought our country together?
Fifteen years ago, today.  I will never forget it!  Nor will I ever forget the unselfish sacrifice of so many on 9/11 and in the days and years that followed.  God bless America!

Sunrise at our frontier home 9/9/2011

Family hike in Arizona mountains 12/28/2015

Life in full bloom on the home front 9/10/2015

"BUILDING AMERICA"

Nature of the Workplace

Based on a few fast notes Emailed from iPhone6 since last March:

Beautiful, usually calm, inspiring.

Seeing God's loving hand in His marvelous creations.

Being surrounded by trees, shrubs, and other perennials.

Focus on learning products and facts while serving customers..

Asking an expert.
Feeling joy from helping my fellow men and women.

Google defines variegated: "BOTANY (of a plant or foliage)

having or consisting of leaves that are edged or patterned in a second color, especially white as well as green.

synonym: multicolored"

Bedbug killer spray on sale @ half price.

Honking horns to lock doors in the expanded parking lot.

Walking/running far-out, dusty roads to see what's "in back."
Cool downpours needed by everything and everyone.

Observing what some people do to make dreams come true.

Guests asking for dwarf trees and shrubs that won't grow too much.

Shorts and more shorts. Mostly shorts, no matter what the weather. 
And T-shirts, of course.

Bald heads burning under hot sun; sunglasses looking cool, however.

Female Pagan Pokémon player looking for holly; (the plant has "origins as a Pagan practice" according to one unopened search result.)

Shopping and wandering – frequently a fun family affair including dogs.

Kids playing hide-and-seek among shade trees.

("Hide-and-seek or hide-and-go-seek is a popular children's game in which any number of players conceal themselves in the environment, to be found by one or ..."  – Wikipedia)

Big cookies donated by Nurseryman Cutler; homegrown fruit and homemade salsa (with tortilla chips) shared by other generous workers.

Ice cream freezer in front "for employees only."  (A boy asked the price of our ice cream.  Sorry.)

Mid-July work a great break from vacation preparation.

Tuesday 5pm: "Where are my sunglasses?"

"Oh – I'm wearing them.  Duh!  It's been a long day."

Super Saturdays 8pm:  Feeling grateful to arrive home and see Kay.

Working Naturally

A work in progress, selling at the nursery since last March – "I'm lovin' it." (My big hat goes off to McD 99-cent cheeseburgers and Kay's apricot jam sandwiches for keeping my energy level up within our budget!)

As I've commented many times, "Nice customers and employees with whom I work."  Forget retirement – who needs it?  ("A 20th-century concept," I say.)  Serving, learning, walking, running, lifting trees into trucks – it all keeps me young, I think.  And I truly feel blessed. 

Pioneering Continued

While we enjoyed a family trip in the Midwest last month, visiting Church history sites, the folks in Utah celebrated Pioneer Day around July 24th.  (More fireworks than ever, I’m sure.)  Kay and I hope our family, wherever they were, gained greater appreciation for the sacrifices made by the early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As Brigham Young’s vanguard company of 148 pioneers approached the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847, a group moved ahead to scout a route and prepare a wagon road through Emigration Canyon.  On July 21st, two leaders caught sight of the valley and the Great Salt Lake.

A month earlier, on Monday June 21st, another contingent of 130 persons had begun the trek west from Winter Quarters.  Charles Coulson Rich was in charge of his own company and the militia for that entire camp.

[A work in progress, to include excerpt from Charles C Rich by Leonard J. Arrington, ©1974, Brigham Young University Press.]