Best of luck in your search. Finding and keeping good help is something I do not miss at all in changing careers from retail to wholesale sales. :)

I thought you were through with men.

Excuse me?

LOL, Can you send your leftovers down my way to Boxhill! We are looking for PT help too!

Mary, we're getting a zillion applicants but the extent of their experience is something like "their mom used to garden a lot". LOL!!

I got the same thing when I was a florist. I would put minimum five years shop experience in the ad and would get tons of people with none. So frustrating. Took up so much time and some people got angry when I told them I would not interview them or to not come in and fill out an application. Being artistic or gardening at home or arranging flowers for your church does not mean you are a professional/commercial floral designer.

I don't think the average person realizes how much experience one needs to actually be of any use in a garden center and dealing with the public is another ballgame.
I worked in a garden center many years ago, One day I got a phone call from my then local garden center asking if I would like to come and work for them part time. I explained I was just a backyard gardener, they were so desperate they hired me LOL.
I had a crash course on what they had for sale and then I was let loose on the unsuspecting public. I think I managed to fudge my way through the first year learning as I went. I guess I must have done alright they kept hiring me back each season.
Unless you have a background in Horticulture in todays market with the wide variety of plant material and chemicals which by the way you have to have a pesticide dispensers license to even sell the stuff, the average person is way over their heads.
I took the course for Pesticides the 4th year I worked in the garden center and then took the government exam to get my licence, which at time was good for three years.
IMO to learn the business today, without any horticultue background one needs to do an apprenticeship, start at a low wage, start out as watering gal/guy, be very pleasant with the general public and point them towards knowledgeable staff.

A......

am, it's refreshing to encounter someone that actually understands the situation.......I do think it only occurs with someone who has done that type of work previously :-) It even takes a bit of training to get someone to be able to water properly and while we do need unskilled help as well, the more folks know, the more valuable they become. Customers at garden centers ask their questions of anyone they can identify as an employee and it's very frustrating to them when the unskilled seasonal staff can't answer even the most basic question or point them in the right direction to find that specific plant on their shopping list.

Meanwhile, the veterans are run ragged, specially at this time of year :-)

Qualified applicants respond to attractive offers, same as with other industries. The fully experienced take salaried positions (management jobs) or start their own operations. Low pay seasonal jobs are filled by suitable candidates. Chronic griping about calibre of employees responding to these "opportunities" borderline ridiculous.

Some years back saw a want ad in Honolulu newspaper with $8/hr! in big letters like it was real high pay. Cost of living there multiple times higher than in other states.

gardengal, I know about the watering too. my boss instructed me when watering certain greenhouses, make sure you water all the containers in this greenhouse and then go back and do it again. Maybe the unskilled but very needed help could wear T-shirts with Trainee, I can try to help, but don't count on it slogan on the backs with a smiley (sp?) face. The customers are forewarned and they can be directed to someone that can. I must have picked up something in the time I worked at the garden center. During their slow time they left me in charge a few times so they could take a very needed rest. Yes there is a lot more to working in a garden center than selling a few petunias.

A......

Positions for those with experience are not exactly at the bottom of the wage scale. And many of the best that do apply (albeit, too few) are not exactly looking to earn a living wage doing this - many are retired, have a spouse with a decent income or otherwise financially independent and a modest garden center paycheck is merely a supplement.

gardengal you just described me, DH made a decent income, the kids were in school, I got to do my favorite thing, working around the plants that I love and getting paid for doing it, how good can it get, that nice discount didn't hurt either. LOL who am I kidding I left most of my paycheck there too :oD

A......

It's hard for independent garden retailers to hire good help at decent wages, and then compete with the big box stores.

Very true, Terry, but, then again, that's one of the main reasons people go to independent nurseries. Still, it's hard for me to understand why anyone with a substantial amount of knowledge and experience would want to go to work as a temp for temp wages, unless the job is just for fun - kind of like one of those Walmart "greeters".

One place I worked at had a retired couple come in to help with the spring rush. They had English accents, which somebody probably thought would help them appeal to customers.

Mary, I should have guessed you had something to do with Boxhill. I will have to visit sometime; I have heard a lot about it but never been there!

I remain greatful to those who gave me my first serious long term nursery job, when I was just out of college and didn't have a lot of experience. It was hard for me to pay the bills and the job didn't end up being a great long term fit, but it was a valuable experience as far as starting up my career in general.

Anyways, I'd pretty much agree that the wages paid by nurseries for those with a few years or more of experience are, for the most part, just not keeping up with the cost of living. Nursery owners, in my opinion, really shouldn't gripe about this too much (well maybe a little, but not more than I gripe about wages, LOL) - if they can't pay enough to keep qualified help, perhaps they need to examine some aspect of their business practice that needs refinement or find some niche market to remain competitive. Of course this phenomenon is true of other low paying fields as well. It's great for someone who has a house paid off or has a spouse/partner who's earning a higher wage, but without an advantage like that the numbers just don't add up. As for me, I completely gave up on trying to earn a living working for someone else in horticulture a couple years ago. Whether I can do it working for myself, or I someday abandon hort for another field, remains to be seen!

A related looming problem, as I see it, is that nurseries are so bent on tapping the wealth of the baby boomers that they forget about the next generation. Most of my friends buy their plants at the box stores because they think they can figure out how to "do their yard" themselves (and usually they can, but with boring plants) and their primary concern is to save money. I think that if independent nurseries hope to be in business 30 years from now they should do whatever it takes to attract all gardeners, not just rich gardeners, and especially younger ones. For some nurseries this may mean reducing prices; for others it may involve a change in the general atmosphere or plant selection. Those will be the nurseries that can pay enough to keep qualified help in the long term.

The average age of the experienced, seasoned staff at my nursery is well over 40 :-) I agree that this is not a profession that attracts those just starting out in the business but is appealing to those that worked in hort in other capacities over the years and are not necessarily put off by relatively low pay. With many of our permanent staff, the nursery is only one of several, hort-related occupations they pursue. The most successful nursery employees in any capacity are not there because of the income it provides but rather because of their passion for plants and the profession. Few ever get rich in any horticultural-related field, the Dan Heims and Dan Hinkleys of the world aside!

And Ian, you make an excellent point. The industry as a whole is re-evaluating its demographics and is beginning to focus on the next generation of gardeners, whose requirements are quite a bit different than those of the baby boomers. "Outdoor living" rather than gardening or landscaping is the new catch phrase and it does have an entirley different set of considerations.

I paid above average wages and offered far above average benefits.

I hired plenty of trainees for other positions but I needed experienced help too and spent many hours over the years with people who applied who were not even close to being suitable and it was frustrating.

Gardengal, have you tried contacting the local extension Master Gardeners? Most of them are retired, love people and while most often don't have work experience with plants they at least have their training which includes finding the answer if they don't know it.

Ran into somebody I know who has a $100/hr, mixed border, looks-like-it-came-out-of-an-English-gardening book, elaborate planting design business recently. Probably it's safe to assume anyone hiring them would have a pretty serious interest. I asked about the idea that 30-40-year-olds aren't gardening, that we are in/entering a down cycle. They replied that none of their clients are in that age group.

I have some 30-40 year old clients, I often target them in my marketing (that age group only makes up for about a quarter of my clients). In general, they are looking for gardens that are much more low maintenance than an English Perennial bed. 30-40 year olds are more interested in raising the family and having a beautiful garden that needs minimal care (at least that's what I've discovered). They are drawn to plants that have 4 seasons of interest, unlike a short blooming perennial or a rose bush that looks dreadful 9 months out of the year. Grasses are hot, tropicals, and natives (not always in the same space). For that age group, myself included, I think they just want to walk into a nursery and be taken seriously. If your nursery staff stare down their noses at anyone under 50, your likely to only get the older crowd. Unfortunate for the younger gardeners, it's not about the budget, the box stores just seem less intimidating.

Blank stares are more of a problem than staring down noses, in my experience.

Hey now, I'm smack dab in the middle of that 30-40 year old generation and I have a to die for English Cottage Garden!!! At the local "upscale" nursery, I wasn't taken seriously at all at first, now all the ladies there know my name! I would ask them all the time for unusual plants. They even started carrying some that I requested. I do have to admit though that most of my friends and family in my age group aren't as into it as I am. I put my IPOD on and stay out in the garden all day. My neighbors tease me about it. I even like studying organics, composting( I want to take the City of Tacoma Worm Composting Class.) I would also like to join an Antique Rose Group. My love of gardening came from my parents. They have always planned and had beautiful gardens.

Gee, maybe I should apply at the local nursery.....

Gardengal, excellent point likewise. Another angle of looking at this is that passion for plants 'creates' good customers - and thus employees who get excited about them are the most valuable ones to the nursery as well as the ones who are happiest with what they do regardless of the pay. I think most people aren't trying to get rich in horticulture, myself included - just trying to make enough to live reasonably comfortably and save money for the future! I'm sure that many who try to get rich in horticulture fail, and of the few that succeed, most of them didn't intend to when they started whatever it was that turned out to be successful.

Nwnatural, you may be observing something a bit different than I am. What I have seen is that it IS about the price. It's all the 20- and 30- somethings who walk into the independent garden center to get the advice they need (or sometimes, if they have time, just for the experience of the pleasant atmosphere) and then go buy the plants at Home Depot because they cost less. But that really depends on where you are, I am sure. In certain tech-boom parts of the region that age group has a lot more money. Out here in suburbia I also see a lot of interest in landscaping and much less in gardening... outdoor living being perceived as more of an urban phenomenon.

A funny thing happened to me the other day at my favorite local nursery. I was arranging some plants to see if my idea of a plant combination would work when a women approached me and asked if I could help her. I did. For about 30 minutes I helped her pick out some stuff for a hot, dry, sunny area. I gave her advice on getting them established and explained what was necessary to keep them from drowning in the winter etc...

I hope she doesn't come back in looking for me again because I never told her I was a customer and didn't work there!!!

I've done that a few times too!

What I really like (and it just happened again yesterday) is when I'm pruning some of the plants or driving the forklift at the nursery during work, and someone asks 'Do you work here?' I'm always tempted to say 'No I just come here to cruise around in the forklift' or whatever it is I'm doing.

Don't go into a garden center wearing green. You will be approached over and over.

LOL This happened to me at the Palmer Garden Center in Auckland New Zealand. I believe I was wearing green at the time. It was kind of fun but I was surprised that my lack of a Kiwi accent didn't give me away!!!

Maybe they thought those from outside the area knew more about gardening, as have some here.

Well, this Saturday my husband and I went to the other upscale nursery in town and asked for a Dawn Redwood. The lady 50ish said, "Oh, good for you, you know what a Dawn Redwood is." We bought it there too didn't try to score it cheaper at a Box Store. We fully support smaller nurseries and try to buy everything we can there. We especially like the Pacific Northwest Natives - Woodbrook Nursery. As an outsider from the area, I am trying to learn a lot about Natives. I also like filling in my garden with Native Plants too :o)

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodbrook Native Nursery

And to get one cheaper at a box store you would have to be able to find one at a box store. As a rule prices are somewhat less, quality is significantly less, and selection is severely less at box stores than at fully developed independent garden centers.