Eastern Iowa garden center businesses remain hard at work

Even in the off-season, garden centers don't really have an off-season.

Culvers Garden Center and Greenhouse in Marion closes right after the Christmas season and reopens March 1, in time for spring. But Jennifer Shull, general manager, said that doesn't mean her staff is sitting around waiting for the weather to warm up.

'Right after the first of the year we start planting in the greenhouses,” she said, noting they have plants begun in about half of Culvers's 14 greenhouses thus far. 'We start planting things that take the longest like geraniums and grasses and a lot of hanging baskets.

'I'd say we've planted a little over 10,000 items in the last four weeks. So that's why we are closed to customers - to focus on production.”

Shull noted that those two months also allow them to take care of projects that can't be accommodated during the flurry of activity in the spring and summer.

'Closing down and not being as busy traffic-wise gives us the opportunity to revamp things, like remodeling our store and putting in new flooring in the bathrooms,” she said. 'Plus we can do maintenance on our benches that hold the plants. We are taking care of any odds and ends so that we are prepared when we open March 1.”

Despite being closed, Shull said they figured out a way to let customers in on the fun through their Drinks in the Dirt event planned for this Thursday.

'We invite customers into the greenhouse for beverages and desserts, and they get to experience spring,” Shull said. 'Since we aren't open then, it's nice for them to get into the warmth of the greenhouse and enjoy it.”

While Earl May Garden Center, on the west side of Cedar Rapids, it remains open year-round, it, too, uses these weeks of lighter customer traffic to prepare for the busy season.

Earl May employee Mary-Joe Doyle pointed out a row of sign holders that she was staining a dark-chocolate color to match the outdoor tables and benches for the spring season.

'Each year during this time we do a project like this,” she said.

Last year, she recalled they painted the inside of the store.

'This is our time to regroup,” Doyle said.

For example, the store recently rearranged the layout of houseplants, a staple customers can find all year in the store, and removed all the 2016 seed packets to make room for the new year's packets.

While hours are reduced, Earl May employees appreciate that they stay open and that it affords them the opportunity to have more time to interact with customers on slower days. Doyle and manager Doug Laftsgaarden noted this is a good time for customers to come in with questions as they prepare their ideas for spring.

'We need a break to catch up, clean, paint, organize and regroup” Laftsgaarden said, 'but we start doing special orders at this time or talking about landscaping projects, mulching or lawn care.”

'And honestly, some people just want to stop in and breath it in, smell the dirt,” Doyle added.

Having slower customer traffic or no customer traffic at all, means reduced staff numbers.

'We use different departments to help with the greenhouse until the season starts rolling,” Shull at Culvers said. 'Then most of our nursery and garden center staff comes back to help set up the store a couple weeks before we open to refresh everything.”

About 10 employees Cedar River Garden Center in Palo are working now to prep for spring, said Heather Sage, who handles landscape design and hiring. When it reopens by mid-March, the center will have a full team of approximatelt 45 employees.

'We will have many people back on here the week after Valentine's Day to start seeding because then we have about three weeks to get the work done in case it gets warm early,” Sage explained.

'We start all our vegetables here from seed and do about 40,000 vegetable seeds, so we spend hours and hours on that. Then we do annual plugs and grow all our hanging baskets ourselves, so we are filling an incredible amount of containers with soil, shifting and moving and making sure our greenhouses are open and ready to go.”

While the working pattern is unconventional for most industries, local garden center employees said they value the winter downtime.

'We have a different store layout each year, and in the garden center it gives us time to move around benches and put in extra aisles to improve traffic flow,” Shull said. Plus, it's very refreshing to see what is coming up next.

'We get a sneak peek on what trends are for the year. It's a new season so we can try new things.”

Sage agreed the break is important for their staff.

'We re-energize. It's kind of like being a teacher - this work is stressful for a long period of time and incredibly draining physically. So a lot of us just recoup and get our bodies ready to go again for the season.”