'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the greenhouse... not a creature was stirring...Just Kidding! The day after Christmas is one of our busiest days here at Davis Floral Company. I have tried to make people understand that for us the 4th of July means poinsettias and Christmas means geraniums.
We are in the beginning of our busiest time of year. We mostly grow annuals, which we sell both as finished products (what people put on the shelf ready to sell retail) and as young plants (rooted cuttings, plugs, starter plants -it has many names). Our small business of around 15 people full time quickly turns into an always busy machine that at our peek had 38 employees on payroll. It's mayhem like only greenhouse people know. I have heard it referred to as "100 days of hell" before. Well, traditionally that hell starts the week of Christmas, this year it was earlier.
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| Headed for a basket near you |
For those who do not know, most plants that are sold in your neighborhood garden center started as an unrooted cutting (1-2" cut from a stock plant) that was shipped in to the US from overseas. You see, the department of agriculture does not allow plants inside the country rooted in soil. But it is so much cheaper to produce them overseas, so they ship us the cuttings in little plastic bags from Kenya, Israel, Guatemala, Costa Rica, you name it. and we quickly stick it is a tray and grow it until it has roots. Once rooted the rooted trays of plants are shipped nationwide to other growers who then transplant them. Rooting the cuttings takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 14 weeks, depending on what plant we are working with. Then you transplant it and there it takes another 4-12 weeks until it is ready, again depending on what you are growing, what the finished pot size is, and of course my favorite: weather. So you can do the math from when Spring is, and you realize that the week of Christmas is when a good part of annual baskets cuttings need to be started. Fun huh?
Every year is the same problem: Christmas and weather. We need plants, but we have a short week and we never know what the weather is going to do. We went through great pains to order a bunch of stuff for the week before Christmas and the week after. You know, so Christmas week would not be so hectic. Big storms, big delays, and then 15 boxes of plants show up at 3 pm on the Friday before Christmas. We end up bringing in the whole production line on Saturday, and we still can't stick every plant. So we now have concerns of what will actually root, and we have replacements coming but coming when: Christmas week. Here we go again. |
| Christmas Day watering |
Still. Michael is the kind of boss that gives everyone off at Christmas. He stays home to do presents with the kids and then goes in and waters plants. Then we went to his parents for a couple of hours, then he goes back and waters plants. Then he comes home, we go back to our little gym to try and squeeze in a workout before sunset ( and play a game of laser tag with the kids in a dark warehouse). So here we are the day after Christmas. Waiting on plants, fully aware that we may be bringing people in on Saturday again.
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