Internship at Wasatch Shadows- Experience

Working in a nursery has its ups and downs.

It's exhausting, long hours, and the weather is crazy. The people you meet and work with are some of the best, you get to be outside all the time (yes, you get a great tan), and working with plants is obviously living the dream!

In this post I will be sharing about my experience doing my internship at Wasatch Shadows over the summer- or the first 15 weeks and what it was like.

It will probably be pretty long since it's for a class and is going to be like an experience journal.

Week One:

First week on the job!

On my first day a big shipment of perennial flowers came in that filled up the entire driveway. We spent the day checking them in from the driver, figuring out which ones were supposed to have gone to a different nursery, watering, and labeling. Lots of beautiful flowers- I am so grateful that I took a flower ID class or I would be SO lost right now. I've got a farmers tan already from forgetting sunscreen. At the end of the day- exhausted.

First impressions: this place is huge...it's a little under 10 acres. I was told that I on average we walk about 10 miles a day just going back and forth and helping customers. I have the same feeling I did when I entered the field after the MTC- like that language of plants that I learned in school is either completely different or I have forgotten everything. There is so much to learn before I could even feel comfortable helping customers.

Second day- my car was slipping and sliding on the way to work- lots of snow. For a bit we tried to pull orders- but it was cold out and pulling a cart around in the snow wasn't really practical. So instead we spent the day in the shed building patio furniture.

Day three- we spent the day putting away the flowers that came in. I've been assigned to the perennial/annual flower section- to be in charge of keeping it organized and helping customers there. I was able to get familiar with where everything goes by putting it away- but it was tiring on my back. I wish I had more ID classes for shrubs and trees.

Even though it is exhausting- overall I am happy to be working outside and with plants.

Shipment we got in in July

Shipment from June

Week two: 

This week the bar has been raised and I am now expected to help customers. I feel confident enough helping people find where certain plants are located. But a lot of the time they have questions like "What is a flower that will bloom all summer, is purple, less than 3 feet tall, and wont get eaten by the deer?" And my mind goes blank. It's like playing jeprody trying to guess the perfect plant for their yards. I hope I will get used to it- for now I am grateful I have a walkie talkie to call for help. :) And I'm grateful for the information tags on the plants so that I don't have to have every fact memorized. 

shrub beds

shrub beds continued- it's a big place

Week three: 

After about a week's worth of being in the perennial and annual flower section I feel like I am getting more familiar with lots of different flowers and their bloom times and heights so I am a bit better at helping customers. The more customers I help, the more I know- learning through teachings. 

Everything we do is to get ready for the "Mother's Day rush" everyone keeps talking about. It's going to be the busiest day of the year! We get lots of annuals in and set them up on the shelves. Lots of beautiful hanging baskets...I'm getting excited. 

annual shelves all full for mothers day!

premium annuals

geraniums!

Week four: 
Customers are also great for teaching ME things. I learned that variagated iris smells like grape soda, for example. Also hearing them talk about which bushes and plants have done great or not so great in their yard helps me to know what to recommend to other customers. I am feeling more responsible and able to lead my section. 
This week I was also able to start helping out in the rose section! Jay taught me some things about taking care of the roses and how they are organized. 
What is one thing that I would say people need to prepare for an internship at a nursery? Plant Identification classes and working out. I'm getting more used to the lifting and all the walking- but it still is a bit tiring.

Week five:

This week I learned how to dress properly for an entire day of working out in the rain. Snow= no customers, but we get to work inside. Rain= almost no customers, but we work outside. The first rainy day I was very wet and cold. After that I was more prepared with ponchos, rainboots, change of socks and gloves, etc. 

Mother's Day turned out to be a flop. It rained ALL day non-stop. So it wasn't very busy at all. We moved plants around, got soaked, and were miserably cold and wet. None of us were prepared. But looking back it is one of my funnest memories I have working at the nursery. We complained together, we tried to be optimistic together, were very grateful for any customer who came in. I have this picture in my mind of ringing out gloves, sitting in front of the heater at lunch break trying to dry out and drinking hot chocolate.

Week six:

I've found my way to be useful here at the nursery! Since I really like designing and desperately miss floral design- I figured I can still design via planters and hanging baskets for customers. My co-workers discovered that I love doing it and when customers need help designing a flower bed or planter they send them over to me.

This week I also learned a bit about trees so I can help customers over in that section as well. Another rainy weeked- but next weeked in Memorial Day weekend- so it should be busier.

coleus!

Week seven:

Even though it was a rainy Saturday on Memorial Day, for several days (when it wasn't raining) all we did was help customers and take care of the plants (deadheading and such). Didn't even have to water since it rained so much.

I'm also learning about pricing and measuring trees.

Week eight: 
Lots of sun, lots of customers! :) I like helping customers now- it's that interaction with people, and being able to help them pick out plants for their garden is more rewarding the more I know- that's why I've been studying on my days off as well. I think that in this business, the more you know, the more rewarding it is. Because when you are better able to help customers they are happier- and that's a pretty good feeling.  A lot of times people come in like a minute before closing and then stay for 30 min or an hour. We don't close until they are done. Even though everyone is tired, any customers help the company, which in turn helps us- so it's all good. 

Week nine:

We are doing a lot of sales for the month of June and so there are a lot of customers (to make up for the rainy May that we had). 

All of the roses are in bloom!

I've been spending a lot of time organizing the perennial flower beds to make sure everything is lined up and where it is supposed to be. It is taking a long time- especially with all the varieties of hostas that we carry. But it is fun. :) This week for staff meeting I am doing a training about columnar trees- which I know nothing about- so I am doing research about them and learning!

Roses- June is rose month!

Week ten:

This week I did research on snails/slugs in the garden (what they do and don't like, how to get rid of them, etc.)

Spent a lot of time organizing plants, but now I am even more familiar with the varieties that we carry.

I learned how to help with pond plants and the Koi fish- I'm still not very good at catching them, but I know how now. :)

all for ponds!

Lots of hostas!

Week eleven:

We are doing a lot of consolidating. There are less customers with all the heat, but less plants with all the sales. Since we wont be getting in many more annuals it's time to consolidate down, get rid of the bad ones, and take down some tables. There is also a lot of watering to be done in the heat. Difficult to find the perfect balance so that plants don't dry out and don't get overwatered. But watering is good for me to not get too hot- since I can squirt the hose up in the air every once and a while.

We had a hail storm for about 10 minutes on one of the days. As big as nickles coming down hard. It destroyed some of the plants and made others look bad with holes in them. Just another one of those weather problems that you learn to laugh with and keep going.

watering

Week twelve:

Even hotter this week, even less people coming in. This week I worked on organizing the "Specialty Conifers" section. It was good to get more familiar with those plants, bad for getting poked by trees.

Specialty Conifers

Week thirteen: 

This week we started another sale- for July. All the annuals are 50% off and a lot of other things are on sale as well. I can't imagine it is the best for the owners of the store to have things going that cheap- but you do what you have to I suppose. It does help for getting customers back to the store. We are also planting up some plants in our display gardens and "cleaning up the yard." That means that when not helping customers I either get to get my hands in the dirt, or I get to weed and prune and deadhead. .

On display

Pretty hanging baskets

Week fourteen:

I've been working on the display area where we keep ceramic pots- putting the really pretty plants out for display. This week I made six gigantic hanging baskets for the front of the store. I also work more hours now- but it's funny, because when I first started this job I was EXHAUSTED at the end of each day, now I go home after an 11 hour shift and I still feel like I could run a mile.

Week fifteen:

I went out with Heidi to see what it is like to be a landscape designer. I watched as she talked to a client and got ideas going for designing their yard. It's a great reminder of where these plants are all going and how they all fit together to create beautiful homes.

Pomegranate Yarrow and Red Riding Hood Penstemon

I'll continue working at the nursery throughout the summer- it's a fun job with great people and lots of vitamin D! :) I'm glad that I got to work at Wasatch Shadows over the summer.