Digger magazine

Serving the Northwest Nursery Industry for Over 50 Years

  • Digger-Employment_banner-2020-728x90px.jpg
  • NG_banner-2020-728x90px.jpg
  • FW_banner-2021-728x90px-1.jpg
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Nursery News
    • Features
    • Plants
    • Growing Knowledge
    • Operations
    • Nursery Country
    • Meta
  • Issues
  • Events
  • Farwest
  • Columns
    • Director’s Desk
    • Mike Darcy
    • Pivot Points
    • President’s Message
  • Employment Classifieds
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
You are here: Home / Columns / Christmas is here

Christmas is here

By Josh Zielinski — Posted February 27, 2018

Josh Zielinski

Josh Zielinski
OAN President

From the looks of this title, you may be wondering if it’s a misprint or if December’s article somehow crept its way into the wrong issue. By now, even the discounted holiday decoration aisles have all been put away, right?

It’s not a mistake. For many of us in the nursery business, March is harvest time. Or, as we say at our early spring staff safety meetings: “Get ready, Christmas is here!”

Of course, any new team members are a bit confused and probably making a quick glance at the calendar, but sooner rather than later they begin to understand. Hopefully, they don’t look at my calendar. I’ve chicken scratched “Christmas” on March 1 for years.

As growers, we spend months on end getting all of our plants ready for market — planning, planting, pruning and grinding away, day in and day out. Retailers engage in a similar amount of planning, purchasing and projects, so everything is ready for customers to come pouring into the parking lot when the sun starts to shine.

It’s honestly pretty grueling work. It’s easy to lose sight of why we do it all when we’re in the middle of an unpleasant task, like applying pesticides at 1:30 a.m. on a warm August night, or repainting the customer bathrooms on a wet and cold January day.

But then, one day we get up to a distinctive noise that isn’t exactly sleigh bells or reindeer hooves on the roof, but it’s equally magical. It’s the sound of semi-trucks roaring into our docks and driveways. We are somewhat abruptly reminded of why we’ve been doing what we’ve been doing all year long. Christmas is here!

As an industry, we spend a lot of time producing plant material — often years. When it’s time, we carefully select the orders, pack the plants and trees neatly into trailers and ship them to destinations near and far. The plants are then unloaded and matched up with the perfect customer. It’s a monumental effort that everyone in our industry takes part in each season.

We quickly become absorbed in the fervor of the “holiday” itself, scrambling for more supplies, more labels, more trucks and more labor. More, more and more. It’s good fun work and there’s so much urgency that the days quickly fly by.

Should we run out of plants or supplies, it’s time to check OAN Nursery Guide and www.nurseryguide.com for countless listings of the usual and the obscure. The book and website are an indispensible resource for the buyer and the seller. So sellers, be sure to get your plants listed. And buyers? Keep your Nursery Guide handy.

And grab your coffee, your raingear, and maybe hum an out-of-season tune, because our industry is going to be busier than the North Pole for the next few months.

Cheers to a great shipping season!

Download a PDF of this article

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Filed Under: Columns, President's Message Tagged With: Digger, Digger magazine, OAN, OAN Members

Avatar

About Josh Zielinski

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Trade shows in the time of COVID

A demand ‘renaissance’ for nurseries

Western Nursery & Landscape Association falls victim to pandemic

MANTS 2021 to move online due to COVID-19

Nor Cal trade show canceled due to COVID-19

Reflections on Farwest

More articles

NURSERY NEWS

McHutchison and Vaughan’s Horticulture appoints new leadership, sales team

Friends of Nurseries awards announced by OAN

Oregon Garden Foundation reclaims management role

Zielinski appointed to state board of ag

Disaster loans available for drought-stricken nurseries

More Nursery News

FARWEST SHOW UPDATES

People’s Choice Award winners announced for the 2020 Farwest Show New Varieties Showcase

Augmented reality app allows New Varieties Showcase voting

Farwest Show launches virtual contest to crown 2020 New Varieties Showcase winners

MANTS 2021 to move online due to COVID-19

Growing with the industry: Farwest memories

More Updates from Farwest

From the pages of Digger

January 2021 – Nursery Country

December 2020

The Transportation Issue — November 2020

The Advocacy Issue: October 2020

September 2020

August 2020 — Farwest Edition

More issues of Digger

Connect with us online

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
​

News

  • Nursery News
  • Growing Knowledge
  • Nursery Operations
  • Meta

Features

  • Plant Features
  • OAN Members
  • Oregon Nursery Country

Columns

  • Director’s Desk
  • Mike Darcy
  • Pivot Points
  • President’s Message

Resources

  • OAN Home Page
  • Job Listings
  • Subscribe to Digger
  • Advertise in Digger
  • Online Plant Search

© Copyright 2020 Oregon Association of Nurseries · Admin