Same as other retailing the usual situation is a core group of key employees doing office functions etc. and the rest are often seasonal clerks and car loaders who aren't being used by management as anymore than bodies - when it gets busy during the peak spring season there can be a lot of bouncing around from one station to another, in response to customer requirements. Hence "monkeys". They all have a pyramid structure, same as other stores, with most of the people "on the floor" not being the best informed and best paid part of the staff - any operations that are doing otherwise are the exception rather than the rule. In his book on the subject called Profitable Garden Center Management (which I must have loaned out and never gotten back, as I haven't seen it in years) Louis Berninger (sp) described an actual garden center that had had an expert employee called Otto who was available to customers and able to answer their gardening questions, said every garden center should have their own "Otto" to meet this need. Note that he was talking about a single employee providing this function - of course in combination with other duties - and felt it necessary to point out the desirability of having somebody interacting with shoppers who really did know something. I know people who have been awarded the CPH - I can talk circles around them about plants and gardening. What it boils down to is that in actual general practice the advertized cadres of multiple expert staff persons always on hand to answer your every question is a lie. Both at big box plant departments and at large independents. Hence the numerous posts over the years complaining about getting a bum steer from somebody at a "nursery" - whether they were actually talking about an actual stand alone garden center or a big box plant department. In retailing in general the irony is that at the same time that diversity and complexity of modern inventories is driving an increasing demand for service retailers are moving in the direction of more limited service. This post was edited by bboy on Fri, Mar 21, 14 at 15:33

The winter honeysuckle IS very nice. It's listed by the U.S. Forest Service (among others) as an exotic invasive plant of Southern Forests, but I've had one growing in a sort of forested area in my back yard for many years, and I've YET to see a single volunteer spread up around it, so I'm not sure how much of a threat it is... The scientific name is Lonicera fragrantisima. They bloom from as early as Thanksgiving to as late as March, with white or yellow honeysuckle-looking blooms on a shrub that grows to 10 feet or so and have a wonderfully sweet, rather powerful, sort of citrus smell that can catch the nose from many feet away... In full sun, they may completely defoliate in winter and bloom with no leaves at all; mine gets only partial sun, and blooms with most of its leaves still on (it never loses all its leaves), so the blooms are difficult to see at a distance, but you sure can smell them) Another shrub that blooms prolifically once established in January and February with small yellow flowers is Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum). It truly DOES bloom when there are no leaves, and even when it's REALLY BIG, the height tops out at about 4 feet because it has relatively thin stems which tend to grow in an arch and end up back on the ground... The really NEAT THING about that is that every stem that touches the ground on any soil with the least bit of looseness and fertility WILL ROOT and sprout a NEW plant, and thus the shrub continues to spread and branch out into an ever-bigger shrub... I got mine by digging out a few of those new shoots from the back of a HUGE one at Hatcher Garden (with their horticulurist's permission a few years ago, as I'm a volunteer there). It was early March and I left it out, bare-root, on my patio for about three weeks for about three weeks before planting it, with NO WATER, and it STILL LIVED... Took it a couple years to start growing well, but this past year it really took off and I should have a sizeble shrub in another year or two. There are LOTS of other choices, but you can really find what suits you best by doing a search best suited to your needs, and I have a GREAT new website put together by the S.C. Native Plant Society to link you to below that should REALLY HELP. You can search for plants there by a lot of different parameters, including color, bloom color, season of bloom, etc., and while the website's database is FAR from comprehensive, most of the plants it does have include pictures -- many shot locally and including shots taken at various times off the year. Best of luck and Happy Plantings! Jeff Here is a link that might be useful: NameThatPlant: Native Plants of the Carolinas

Hi, I haven't been to this nursery yet, but one of the instructors at the IES in Millbrook said they had great plants, and all native. I certainly plan on getting there sometime this spring. I should think they would have a good selection of woodland plantings: http://www.catskillnativenursery.com/index.html Also, the Dutchess County Conservation Center sells various shrub and tree seedlings once each year for very good prices - these are bare-root seedlings. The website is : http://www.dutchess.ny.nacdnet.org/products.htm However, you must go to their location in Millbrook to pick up the plants. But, being able to get a bundle of 10 Witch Hazel seedlings for $11 could be worth it :-) Philomena

Common snowberry would probably grow, provide winter color. Your conifers are likely to be mostly Douglas firs. Salal, Oregon grape, evergreen huckleberry and ocean spray are typical associates on sites tending towards dry. Ceanothus (C. velutinus) and manzanita are found on the hottest, most exposed and/or sandy sites here. Columbia manzanita is so prone to spotting and blackening of the foliage that it is not really a satisfactory ornamental on the whole. There ARE some old ones in local gardens here and there, on rockeries and in other exposed positions. Often when examined up close the foliage is infested. Indian plum is characteristic of floodplains and other places where soils become damp in winter. Red elderberry also prefers it moist and fertile, the lush look of many deciduous trees and shrubs and woodland wildflowers hints at what they want. All occur on sites less than perfect in nature, and can be readily coaxed into growing in gardens made not on sites they would be found on spontaneously using simple tricks like watering a little in summer or planting against a south-facing wall. Going on walks and looking at nearby undeveloped lots, uncleared portions of city parks and other places where there is still natural vegetation and noting what grows where could be highly instructive. Keep soil fertility and moisture regimes in mind, as well as light exposure. You can actually analyze a site using the native plants that are growing on it.