Just in case you haven’t heard about it, today is the day of the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. We would like to think that our newsletter is so good that you feel it’s the only source of information you need, but that would mean you are just now finding out it is going to get dark this afternoon! Our main customer base is not in the arc of totality. I believe we are only going to hit 97%. So, for us, it’s mostly been business as usual. A couple of weeks ago, I heard that some of our customers are expecting an influx of people into their area of up to 2 million! There have been a lot of recommendations in the news on how to best enjoy this rare event in our area. I hope that you make the best of it. 

But since we’re in the business of plants, I’d like to ask you…
What would you consider a “Total Eclipse of a Plant?”

In the ever-changing annual market, they have bred for sun tolerance in Begonias. In recent years, Proven Winners has brought on the Double Delight and the Solenia Begonias. Both series are recommended for sun to part sun. They aren’t recommended for shade at all!

But my question is, “Why?”  So many plants are sun tolerant already.  Shade varieties are the minority and need to be sought out for troublesome spots in the landscaping.  Where are the shade-tolerant Coneflowers? How about a good tall shade-loving Ornamental Grass? Why are we breeding (in my opinion) in the wrong direction?

On the other side of the moon, are there sunny plants eclipsing themselves by taking some shade? Who is trying to bring the bright colors of roses into the dark corners of the garden? David Austin, that's who. His English rose collections have some full sun roses that will take shadier locations. Some of Dave’s roses only need 4-5 hours of sun. Ironically, one of them is called “Bring Me Sunshine”.  They are a step in the right direction of bringing more plants over to the shady side. 

Now, that’s what I call a total eclipse of a plant!

Looking for more options to keep continuity between sun and shade? Check out our resources on the website or give us a call. We are happy to help!

This year marks 20 years that I have worked in the horticulture industry, the majority of it for a major brand that shall remain nameless, though I think you’ll figure it out. One of my favorite privileges of working for the brand network was meeting plant breeders. They are an eclectic bunch of people. From backyard breeders to corporate breeders, the only thing I can say most of them have in common is how humble they are about the accomplishment of bringing a plant to market. The brand I knew took a minimum of 3 years of trialing and only accepted 3% of those trialed for introduction. Which is why I was always awed when someone would gesture toward a person in a room and say “That’s so-and-so, they bred the (insert plant name here).” It was always someone else pointing them out because when you met the breeder, they would never mention it themselves.

Did you know that Christensen’s has our very own Rockstar? He’s too humble to mention it himself, but Jeff Good found a sport on his Weigela and has been working with the Proven Winners shrub division to bring it to market.

Bubbly Wine™ has bold, bicolor lime and deep green foliage with a petite, pretty pink flower. With a height of one and a half to three feet, but a width of two to three feet, Bubbly Wine is often a ball of color in the garden. Like all variegated plants, you may see some reversion to solid colors, but trials have shown this to be at a lower rate than most industry standards.

There’s something to be said about impeccable customer service. If you take a “customer is always right” attitude when servicing your clients, you start from an excellent place with a servant’s attitude. Something that, frankly, in this day and age, isn’t as common as it used to be. Many of the most highly regarded business recommendation books carry some level of that advice.

"We don't want to push our ideas onto customers, we simply want to make what they want." Laura Ashley

However, there is an argument to be made that merely satisfying your customers is not the best answer for industries that rely on creativity. And even if you think landscaping isn’t a creative field, it is… or it should be. I often think of two famous quotes when I think about a customer survey or a focus group. Henry Ford supposedly said, “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” And Steve Jobs said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

We often see the same version of landscaping repeated street after street, city after city. In some cases, regulations make the similarity mandatory. In other cases, efficiency of production has created matching homes, since they were all built and landscaped almost in an assembly line fashion.

There are many reasons to diversify your customers’ landscapes.

• Diversity prevents mass devastation – Think of Boxwood blight or Emerald Ash Borer
• Diversity encourages mental stimulation for everyone involved, from the designer to the homeowner, to the passing neighbor that’s sleepy on their commute.
• Diversity increases diversity. With different landscapes come different habitats and food for creatures. You can see this in the bee population… diversity gives the pollinators more food at different times of the season with more opportunities to pollinate and it can create honey variations.

Over the years, mass production has increasingly whittled away at the natural diversity of everything from grocery store selection to fashion to transportation.

Having made the case for a wilder version of landscape, I also realize that some customers will not love a creative landscape. They need uniformity and a basic level of landscape.

The difficult dilemma is finding those customers who don’t know they’re waiting to be delighted by the unexpected.

Note: I do realize the irony of quoting Henry Ford, the same man who successfully implemented the assembly line and said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black” in an article about creativity.

Being from the North and a country music fan, I started hearing about Kudzu in songs by HARDY, Morgan Wallen, Alabama, Scotty McCreery and more. You can’t get far into country music before an artist compares something to the invasiveness of a Kudzu vine. My favorite being “My mama said addiction runs like a kudzu vine on our family tree…” Being in horticulture, I had to investigate this mythical beast of a plant and learn more about it.

Kudzu, or if we’re being scientific, Pueraria montana, was introduced at the 1876 World’s Fair Centennial Exhibition. Originally from Asia, it didn’t really make a splash with Americans.  Farmers couldn’t figure out how to leverage the plant for any sort of profit and it was quickly gobbled up by grazing by livestock. It wouldn’t have actually taken off, if it wasn’t for a supplemented government program. It’s estimated that around 1945, there were about a million acres planted. That was a far cry from the 8 million acres the government hoped would be planted and the incentivization ended. 

While the Kudzu on farms was plowed under or grazed away, the Kudzu on roadsides and railways grew to cover much of all the other vegetation, seemingly consuming the south at a rapid pace, up to a foot per day. This very visible conquest became the easy target of writers, poets and lyricists. This plant has taken on a cultural reference far surpassing most other southern plants. It has wrapped around the people to become an icon.

But in the end this plant doesn’t live up to the myth that’s been created around it. Horticulturists agree that it poses less of a threat than Asian privet, Japanese honeysuckle and invasive roses in the south. It does not grow inches in days and cover millions of acres. The U.S Forest service reports that in 2010 only 227,000 acres of forests are invaded by Kudzu. It sounds like a lot, but when you consider that over 1 million acres of the US are covered with Purple Loosestrife, you can see that it’s not nearly the problem we face from a local invasive species.

And some horticulturists even think it’s on the decline. It’s certainly debatable, but as many farming corporations, universities and the government have been attacking it with herbicides, mowers, fires, goats and replanting, it is possible that they are starting to get a handle on the spread. Another factor is the Japanese kudzu bug that has begun infesting large areas of kudzu and sucking the life out of the myth.

Kudzu’s Entanglement of South Begins to Unravel by Dan Chapman
WorldWideScience.org

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I know, with all the pink popping up, it’s probably hard to forget. Since 1 in 8 women will be affected by this debilitating disease in their lifetime, you may even know someone diagnosed and receiving treatment. While my grandmother fought it twice and was victorious both times, my aunt passed away 12 years ago at the age of 46. As you can see, this cause is very personal to me.

There are many ways to join in the fight against breast cancer, but one of the easiest for people in the horticulture industry is to buy and install the Invincebelle® Spirit II Hydrangea arborescens.

The Invincebelle® Spirit II takes the groundbreaking breeding of the original and improves on it with brighter color, more abundant flowers and a stronger rebloom. The entire plant is more compact and bushier with stronger stems.

The Invincebelle® series is a step forward in arborescens breeding, but what makes Spirit really unique is the mission to eradicate breast cancer. Donating one dollar per plant, Spirit and, now, Spirit II have raised over one million dollars for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Myra Biblowit, BCRF President & CEO, has said, “Proven Winners has made a real and tangible impact on advancing breast cancer research—raising over $1 million since 2010 to fund more than 23,000 hours of critical research through BCRF.”

Founded by Evelyn H. Lauder in 1993, BCRF-funded investigators have been deeply involved in every major breakthrough in breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. This year, BCRF will support the work of more than 275 scientists at leading medical and academic institutions across 15 countries, making BCRF the largest private funder of breast cancer research worldwide. BCRF is one of the nation’s most fiscally responsible nonprofits and is the only breast cancer organization in the U.S. with an “A+” from Charity Watch and Charity Navigator’s highest rating of four stars. Proven Winners® is very pleased to be working with the BCRF and plans to continue fighting this deadly disease.

Even if this particular cause isn’t close to your heart, it may affect your customers. I chose to plant an Invincebelle® Spirit in my aunt’s memory and have planted even more because the show of color is spectacular. Consider choosing this beautiful variety when installing Hydrangeas. It may mean only a little to you or your customer, but it might mean the world to women affected by breast cancer.

I like to call this time of year ‘the season of anticipation.’ Over the years, as I’ve developed my patience, I have come to enjoy the sweet ache of waiting. My son, on the other hand, is in anguish waiting for each holiday to arrive, starting with Halloween. And after each one is over in the blink of an eye, he’ll be in anguish until the next one arrives.  

Of course, I have been trying to teach him the value of waiting. We've defined "patience" as "waiting with a good attitude" in our family.  If you ask him what patience is, he'll use that exact quote with an eye-roll and sing-song voice... which is sort of the opposite of the definition. 

In true childhood fashion, the lesson didn’t really sink in until his teacher had them plant seeds and they watched them germinate in a clear cup. He dutifully informed me that, “Even though you can’t see it, the seeds are working hard underneath the ground, taking up nutrients and growing roots.” I told him that the holidays were the same thing. Even though he couldn’t see it, Mom and his family were working hard to prepare for the events. He scowled and ran off.

Nothing in horticulture elicits more anticipation than bulbs. As so many aspects of our life have sped up (I blame online shopping), nature continues to keep her own time. And, for me, there’s something reassuring in having to patiently wait for an investment into the landscape. I’m sure for you, as landscape professionals, bulbs can be a hard sell in a “Want-It-Now” culture.

But the reward of early spring blooms in multiple colors and forms is something that everyone loves. This time of year, it’s important to communicate with your customers about the benefits of planting spring bulbs now.

Come in and see the many options we offer. Take pictures to share with your customers. I love our “wall of bulbs”. It’s a wonderful way to see and choose your favorites. This beautiful and tempting full rack of color is the reason I purchased way more bulbs than I can plant by myself. Fortunately, I have a ready supply of labor because my son has become very excited about planting. Of course, once we plant our tulips, daffodils and allium, I’m sure he’ll be in anguish for spring.

I’ve noticed over the last several years that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or Michigan-based Biggby, the lines in the morning are outrageous. No matter how fast your favorite shop can get you through, you’re spending time in a line waiting. As I sat in line for 15 minutes one morning, mindlessly scrolling through social media, I realized that I wasn’t efficiently using my time. And while I don’t have to be hustling all the time, this was a poor choice for me, personally.

Where are the black holes in your day that you lose time? (Which is money, right?) How can you optimize these moments to better use your time? For me, that coffee shop line turned into an investment in fancy loose leaf teas and infusers for home and time to load the dishwasher while that tea is steeping, leading to clean dishes when I get home from work. The satisfaction gained from this very small routine change has led me to look at other areas to streamline.

Now is the time for action! It’s time to implement a plan to streamline or stop losing time. In the case of the tea, I had to invest in the infusers and a teapot and be sure I’m stocked with supplies, such as travel mugs and tea. However, in the case of unwanted gaming, I deleted the app off my phone, so I don’t slip back into the habit.

The most important thing to remember is that if you get off track, you can always start over, go back and recommit to improving your time management. You can always treat yourself to a coffee shop once in a while, but if you realize that it’s become a habit again, go back and reacquaint yourself with new flavors in the tea or coffee section of the grocery store to rekindle your interest in steeping or brewing at home.

So, you’re probably wondering how this applies to Christensen’s, since this is our newsletter. Well, I’m glad you asked. Our Christensen’s App is available for free and can be used to look at availability and prices. It’s a shortcut that can save you a phone call and some time. You can also call, e-mail, or text your order ahead of arrival. When the order is in the system, we can assist you quicker. We know you love seeing our friendly staff at the Plant and Hardscapes Centers, but we can get you moving faster if we know you’re coming. We want to help you optimize your time.

...through "Guerrilla Art"

I have a friend who earns his living in an unusual field – he is a graffiti artist, commissioned to place his art on buildings. When we met, he oversaw pest management at the greenhouse we both worked at. Since then, his hobby has become his passion and livelihood. He has travelled the country splashing his art on the walls of Miami, Chicago, Kansas City and more. If you’ve been in Detroit or Toledo, you may have seen his work.

I’ve always thought of landscape color plantings as a form of “Guerrilla Art”, which is a term applied to certain forms of street graffiti. There are a lot of similarities if you think about it. Graffiti and landscaping are out in public space for everyone to see and enjoy (or critique). Also, the color theory needed for public space is the same. Both need to consider sight lines for how the art will be viewed. Both need to adjust for mere moments of attention versus minutes or hours of retrospection in a museum or walking garden. If people are speeding by on a freeway, the audience needs to be able to see large blasts of color to interpret the art. Bigger and bolder is most often better. And planning for surroundings is essential to get the cohesive aesthetic the artist is trying to achieve in the outdoor arena.

Do you consider yourself an artist? Most landscapers I know would not. However, it’s hard to deny that the masterpieces they create in yards and public spaces are works of art. I would argue that the medium you use is the hardest to work with, since it is living (or must incorporate the living, if you’re creating a hardscape). Further complicating your living artwork is timing. If you work in annuals, this is less of an issue, but perennials, flowering shrubs and flowering trees all need to be installed with their bloom season in mind. Perhaps you should start listing “Artist” on your business cards… or “Guerrilla Artist” if you want to be edgy.

When I met my friend, he was in a phase of his life where he didn’t express to others that he was an artist, but the transition has transformed his work into his passion and he can’t hide his creative prowess any longer. Obviously, we don’t all need to quit our jobs and become graffiti artists to capture or recapture our passion. We can continue to be artists in our current jobs and turn our love of landscape into artwork the public can enjoy.

For some helpful color theory tips to elevate your art, check out Makenna’s article from last year.

I’ve always thought of myself as traditional. I’ll be the first to admit, in my personal life, I am not an “early adopter”. For example, I finally started feeling comfortable using my iPod right about the time that Apple decided to begin discontinuing them. I find comfort in the familiar and have turned into a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to trying something new.

However, the agriculture industry was all shaken up by last year's introduction of the Cosmic Crisp apple. I sat up and took notice, mainly because I love Honeycrisp apples but think they are expensive and difficult to find. I like this variety so much that a few years back, I did some research on them. It turns out that Honeycrisp are difficult for an orchardist to cultivate and ship to stores. Not just a little difficult… really strenuous. It only wants to bear fruit every other year. Because of its thin skin, about 35-40% of the harvest is damaged and cannot be sold. And on top of that, the labor to harvest is increased through preventative measures to carefully pack to prevent damage in shipping. The final straw is that cold storage is difficult and generally only viable for 9 months.

So, what does all this mean for apple producers? A whole lot of hassle on a consumer favorite apple that just keeps growing in popularity.

Enter the Cosmic Crisp. Bred for superior taste, appearance, shelf life and disease resistance, this variety took the things that made other apples difficult to sell or produce and tried to solve them. It seems they have succeeded. Taste tests with consumers have gone well and cold storage tests have gone even better with more than a year of storage capacity.

My status as an early adopter might have to change, because I tried Cosmic Crisp the first season they arrived in grocery stores, last fall. I’m such a fan that I’ve been looking for them ever since. Unfortunately, quantities are limited and more expensive. So, I really didn’t solve my Honeycrisp riddle, merely moved it to a new focus. However, I have hope that the Cosmic Crisp will improve in both availability and price, since they are not facing the same production issues that the Honeycrisp are still struggling to overcome.

In our industry, we see hundreds of new plants come onto the market every year. Breeders are striving to improve the flaws in each genus. Are they succeeding? Yes. How do we know? We’re “taste-testing” them individually and watching what the experts at University trials are reporting. Your team here at Christensen’s does their research on all the plants we offer. We’re happy to point you towards the best options for your installation.

Did you find some great new people to add to your team? Those first hours with a new employee can set the tone for your entire working relationship, so read on for some tips on making the most of them. Time invested at this beginning point might not seem like a big deal to you, but can mean the world to a tentative new employee.

Many company owners and upper management have been at their company for many years or even started their own company. It can be easy over the years to forget the “new job jitters.” Here are few thoughts from a new employee to help supervisors make the transition go smoothly. 

I think the most critical piece of advice would be, “Don’t overwhelm new employees with meeting everyone all at once.” It can be difficult to process names and positions all in the first day, when everything from the location of the facilities and parking to the technology might be new. If you’re a small company with a handful of employees, meeting everyone might be possible, but anything over 7-10 people could be too much to remember, especially if all of those people are wearing masks.

Additionally, instead of having meetings with other employees, have them shadow your existing staff. This will help create their own bonds, allow them to learn your company from many perspectives and understand the nuances and company culture.

Make the paperwork seem less important than the new employee. The easiest place for a company to start with a new employee is to overwhelm (and bore) them with the paperwork. While the forms and handbooks are important, taking some time getting to know the employee and getting them acquainted with the position will make them feel like you see them as a person, not as a number.

Give them an idea about the rules you’re strict with and the ones you’re flexible on. Communicating the nuances of a company culture can be difficult to do in a handbook. Giving verbal examples, such as, “lunch is at noon and it is important for you to go on time” or “lunch is usually around noon, but if you’re caught up in a project, you can be flexible with your time” helps a new hire to understand your expectations of their behavior. Most new hires are eager to fit in and providing as much communication with them will help them quickly assimilate to your company.

Remember that in our cyclical industry, a new employee might feel new for a whole year. Continue to be patient with their inquiries and think of them as new until they have seen how the seasonality affects their job.

Spending some extra time with a new employee can help improve your turnover rate, which helps with your bottom line. A recent survey from BambooHR showed that as many as 31% of new employees leave in the first six months, citing the top reasons being poor onboarding experiences, a lack of clarity surrounding job duties and expectations, or a less than stellar boss.* Since interviewing, hiring and onboarding new employees can be costly and time consuming, improving on a new employee’s starting experience is an investment in your company and its future.

* https://blog.bonus.ly/10-surprising-employee-retention-statistics-you-need-to-know