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To higher standards …

I’m old school, I’ll admit. I would admit it with pride were I not wary of the consequences. These days, “old school” is the rough equivalent of “barbaric” in the minds of many “new schoolers.” To wit, consider the following true story:

As my sons grew up in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, I would always coach their youth baseball teams. Generally loudly. I was animated, passionate, competitive within reason, and demanding within reason. I set the bar high because I remembered how I gained every time any of my mentors set the bar high. For more than a decade, that was how Coach Y rolled.

Fast forward 20-something years, when a friend with an 8-year-old recently asked if I might want to help him work with his son’s “coach-pitch” youth team. Remembering how much I enjoyed the first run, I told him I would be honored to join the staff. And I was …

Until one batter into the first game. That’s how long it took for me to realize I had become a dinosaur. During that first batter’s first time to the plate, he was tossed the allotted seven pitches. He swung at none. The umpire called him out and pointed him to the dugout. He went — and was enthusiastically embraced by virtually every member of the home team crowd. “Good job, Ace,” was the refrain from more than one onlooker. “You’ll get ‘em next time,” said a few others.

Timeout!

With all due respect to this collection of members of Generation X, Ace did Xactly nothing for which to be applauded. Taking seven pitches is not a “good job.” And the odds of him “getting ‘em next time” were largely predicated on the notion that he would at least have TO TRY to get ‘em at some time. After the inning, I went to the dugout and asked the kid. “Do you want to get a hit?” He nodded. “Then,” I said, “you have to swing the bat, It kind of works that way. You swing the bat. The bat hits the ball. You run to first. Everybody cheers, and all the girls like you. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Again, he nods — and adds, “but I hate girls.”

“Then, next time pretend that ball is a girl,” I told him. He said he would — then, keeping his word during his next at bat, he took a healthy cut at the first pitch and whacked it past the shortstop, all the way to a left fielder more intent on chasing butterflies than stopping a swiftly moving ground ball. For those keeping score at home, our leadoff batter’s FHE (first hit ever) was a double. I predict it will also be the FOM (first of many).

I write all this not to boast about my ability to cultivate 8-year-olds into Hall of Famers. The truth is it was probably more luck than skill that his bat even hit the ball. No matter. Now, the kid thinks he’s a hitter — all because the bar got raised just a little. He got a hit all right — but only because he finally decided to swing the bat.

I’m sure there are some nifty Web sites I could cite to reinforce this point. But, as I said at the top, I’m old school. And, by the way, I’m proud of that.

-- Yale

A woman’s perspective

I have a buddy in the industry who “gets it.” Actually, Thomas Birt, owner of Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery in Tucson, Ariz., does a lot of things right. He travels the country and sometimes the world to find plants and decorative items that his competitors won’t carry. He shops trade shows -- and not just those of the hort variety. In fact, I met him more than a decade ago at a gift show in the Northeast, far away from the green goods and gifts you normally see in his neck of the woods. “What was he doing there?,” I asked. The preceding sentence was the answer. He wanted to carry items the other guys didn’t carry.

But all that isn’t why Thomas Birt is one of the smarter garden center operators I know. His method is in his madness. He lets a woman do all the buying for the store -- all the fru fru, anyway, as he puts it. Cathy Bishop has been the sales manager at Mesquite Valley since 1991, and Birt concedes that hiring her was the smartest business decision he has ever made.

"She has that woman's perspective that is so important,” Birt said. “Without her we wouldn't be half what we are today. She has a real sense for the female shopper. I can make structures happen, but she gives the nursery emotions. She makes it a more fun place to shop."

Of course, not everyone would agree with me about Bishop’s place in the garden center world -- or about Birt’s genius for putting her in that position. In fact, I recently ran across a blog that thumbs its nose at the idea that catering to a woman is important. While I can agree with the story’s premise -- good customer service is good customer service, whether it’s catering to the male or the female -- I have to chuckle at the notion that the woman shopper doesn’t guide the ship.

And, no, my wife didn’t tell me to write that.

-- Yale

Florida orchid grower takes top prizes

The New York Times recently profiled orchid grower Robert Fuchs, a successful and controversial figure. Last month, Fuchs won several top prizes at the 11th annual World Orchid Conference in Miami. His growing operation, R.H. Orchids, is known for its exotic array of orchid specimens.

-- Sarah

And the people shouted, “Moore!, Moore!”

I didn’t sleep much on the night of July 15, 2006. For reasons I can’t explain, I had convinced myself that there was something utterly frightful about turning 50 years old.

OK, not the turning part, per se. The part that scared me was BEING 50, because, I figured, that was really close to BEING dead -- or at least much closer than I was on the night of July 15, 2006, as the clock ticked down my final minutes as a 40-something.

When it reached the magic minute -- 1:11 a.m., for those keeping score at the Wichita Falls General Hospital nursery -- I remember thinking, “well, that was awfully nondescript.” And it was. Fifty came and went without so much as an earth tremor. My wife didn’t even awaken for the occasion, which is just as well, because, despite my angst in the days/minutes preceding, this really wasn’t an occasion.

Here’s something that is:

Ralph S. Moore turned 101 this week. And he is celebrating by donating all of his breeding stock to Texas A&M University’s horticultural sciences department to assure continued research in miniature roses.

Texas A&M already operates a rose breeding program and maintains the Robert E. Basye Endowed Chair in Rose Breeding. Moore’s collection will expand the breeding effort beyond traditional varieties of roses to include the miniature types. In addition to all remaining plants and breeding stock, Moore’s gift includes 80 rose patents, a book collection and an unspecified cash contribution for program operation.

Information about Texas A&M’s rose breeding program and for opportunities to contribute in support of this effort can be found here.

As fascinating as the site is, I’m betting information about Moore’s century and a year are an even better tale. For instance, I wonder how he celebrated his youth -- like, say, the time he turned 50.

-- Yale

Garden center exec enters congressional race

Walt Minnick, chairman of the SummerWinds Garden Centers chain, is running for a congressional seat in Idaho, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported. Minnick is 1 of 3 Democratic candidates vying for a win in the 2008 primaries.

-- Sarah

Garden center manager is Britain’s oldest boss

Britain’s oldest boss celebrated her 100th birthday by completing her regular 9-to-5 shift at Whitehall Garden Centre, the Daily Mail reported. Phyllis Self still drives herself to work and handles all the correspondence, payroll and personnel issues for a staff of nearly 200.

-- Sarah

England has one. Can’t we?

While doing research for an article on horticultural recycling for Garden Center’s Project: Green series, I was thrilled when I came across a Web site of a recycler that specializes in horticultural and agricultural recycling, Southern Agri Recycle.

I’ve learned that recyclers are the big stumbling block in recycling horticultural pots. Not that it’s their fault. Recyclers handle every industry’s recycled goods, and there are a lot of extra steps needed to successfully recycle horticultural pots.

First, the pots are made from far too many different types of plastics. Take a look at the bottom of the pots in your store, and you’ll see No. 2, No. 5 or no recycling code marks.

Those three are the most common categories, but just about all seven of the recycling codes can end up on the bottom of a pot.

Since each plastic is processed differently -- such as melting at different temperatures -- you must sort them. Then there’s the dirt problem. A light dusting doesn’t matter too much, but how many pots are crusted in mud? Just a couple of those in a large delivery to a recycler can cause the entire load to be rejected.

Which brings me back to being thrilled at finding a recycler that understands horticultural pot recycling -- it specializes in hort pots. Cool!

Then I clicked to the contact page and found that the recycler is located in southern England, not the American South. Sigh.

I couldn’t resist setting up an interview, though. I wanted to see if the model could be replicated here in the U.S. And I have to say it seems to my uneducated self that it would be very easy to do.

Are you a sustainability geek, too? Then you’ll be interested in my interview with David Jones at Southern Agri Recycle.

Pike Family Nurseries files Chapter 11

The Atlanta based garden center chain Pike Family Nurseries filed for bankruptcy today (Nov. 14), citing the region’s extreme drought as the reason, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported (free registration required). Pike plans to keep operating as it tries to pull itself out of bankruptcy and has secured $11.75 million to finance operations, the Atlanta newspaper said.

More on the Atlanta garden retail scene:

* The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a Pike timeline.

* Other garden centers suffer the effects of the drought.

-- Carol

Monrovia, Dan Hinkley partner

Dan Hinkley, respected plant hunter and founder of Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Wash., has joined Monrovia’s new plant team. Hinkley will help identify new and unusual plants for production.

Monrovia will also be sponsoring events featuring Hinkley. He will address a variety of topics including landscape design, unusual and underappreciated plants, plant hunting, the importance of foliage and texture in the garden, drought-tolerant plants and xeric garden design.

-- Sarah

Inspiration date

What a great weekend! First, I get to have dinner with the great Doug Boyd of The Maine Bucket Co. Then I run into the just-as-great Thomas Birt of Tucson’s Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery. These men are significant to the industry in different ways, but they share a trait that permeates the green field: they’re good guys.

That’s something that has always struck me as significant: people in the business are by-and-large wonderful folk. I travel the country and see the same thing everywhere I go. This industry is marked by hard workers who have a passion for what they do and a compassion for those who benefit from it.

Take Doug and Tom, for example. Both could have considered retirement by now. At the very least, they could have considered slowing down. Instead, Doug tells me, “I just enjoy what I do so much that I really don’t have any desire to give it up.” To that end, he has expanded his custom display business to the point that it outsells his buckets/planters/deco items. He also has begun partnering with plant companies to create win/win sales items that look great and that are displayed impressively.

Tom, likewise, has stepped up his work regimen. When he was in Dallas for the TNLA Expo over the weekend, he made sure to arrive a few days early to expand his horizons. First, he went to the Dallas Gift Market to see what unusual “diamonds” might emerge from the rough. Then, he traveled to a recently opened outdoor specialty store, just to check out what it might be doing to attract customers that he hadn’t thought about. Of course, there’s not much he doesn’t think as these reports indicate. The reviews are in for Tom’s store, and they’re marked by a collective “Green Thumbs Up” from the customers.

Indeed, these two men typify what I appreciate so much about this industry. If I wore a hat, I would surely doff it to them. I hope they’ll settle for the notion that I think they’re great.

Or, did I already mention that?

-- Yale