Five things to know about the PMC for April 29, 2021
Sales
As they do this time of year, sales have slowed down considerably. They are slow enough that a new sales report is not warranted. A final sales report will come out after the season has ended. The last report had sales comparable to this time last year and exceeding the sales budget for the year. The PMC will continue selling plants next week but around May 10th the sales season will come to a close. Stock will have been in the cooler long enough and the conditions will be too warm and dry for bare root stock that has been in cold storage too long. If anyone does need anything let us know next week. Keep in mind that the cooler blowout sale continues so there are deals to be had.
Sales Manager
The Sales Manager position is still being advertised. Not too many resumes have been received. One or two folks who expressed interest look like they could be potential candidates. The position will remain open for at least another week and it will be posted on additional job boards as well. If you know someone interested in native plant sales, please direct them to the job announcement.
Second Weeding
The staff has been feeling good about completing the first round of weeding and pleased with how clean everything looked. As it turns out, however, that was only temporary. It seems that almost overnight the beds stopped looking clean. It was almost as if someone came in during the night and planted weeds where none existed the previous day.
However it happened, a five-person weeding crew was hired and they are diligently cleaning things up…which will once again prove to be a temporary fix!
Spring Seed Planting Commences
The PMC plans to begin spring seed planting in mid-May. The seeds go into stratification with that timing in mind. Occasionally some of the seeds have different plans, which is why the seeds are checked periodically.
On the last check, it was discovered that a few lots were starting to germinate in the bag a couple of weeks early so they were dried, ground was prepped, the seed drill pulled out of storage and the germinating seeds were planted so that they could continue germinating in the ground which is much better than in a bag.
Life Goes On
One of the best things about working with plants is that no matter what predicaments that we Homo sapiens find ourselves in, the plants keep on doing what they have been doing since the dawn of time. They help put things in perspective, which we find quite helpful these days!
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Jim Brown, WACD PMC Nursery Manager