Our busiest spring season ever is finally coming to an end

[Chris_W]

I can almost declare the spring shipping season over now, and wow, what a ride! After the crazy warmup in March, trying to dodge frosts and freezes and still maintain some decent looking plants, things went fairly well overall, we filled more orders this spring than ever, and lived to tell about it. In order to keep up we were working after dark a lot of the time, and last week we had 3 nights where we worked until 4:00am and restarted at 8:00am the same morning. A few things didn't fair as well as we had hoped, and some plants showed more frost damage than we realized after being shipped but we'll make good on them, and after the hostas start to grow a new flush of foliage (will it ever rain?) we will put a lot of stock back online.

Thank you all for your support this year and in years past. We are thrilled to be able to do what we do and look forward to many more busy springs like this one

[ogrefcf]

Those are some tough hours! Hopefully ya get some time to relax a little! I figured you guys were really busy. I was checking what you had for sale today and it's almost nothing right now lol! Can't wait till things get back in supply so I can get an order in.

[morgansrgr8]

Any hosta from you frost damage or not are better than I can find around here. Your root systems are to die for. And that is where it counts. Wish we werent on a fixed income. Altho I have very little grass left now. hehehe

[nanny_56]

Those are very tough hours for you all to work but glad to hear you have had such a great spring season! Hope it continues for you guys!

[thy]

Lots of hostas looks bad this year and even some daylillies, never seen that before ... they will come back just fine so I do not think you have to do anything at all, just weird weather

[viktoria]

It is just amazing how quickly hostas recover from frost damage. Three hard frosts at 7-10 day intervals is quite another matter! Nevertheless, this is what it looks like here now.

Viktoria

[Chris_W]

Hi Viktoria,

I wish it looked that great here, but there is a lot of damage showing. Ours were that tall and then we had frost on and off for a month followed by 2 weeks of warm weather followed by a 28 degree freeze on April 29th, but that was actually the last frost we had for the year! So yes, things are recovering pretty good finally. If we could just get some rain now we'd be all set

[jgh]

sorry about your weather - so far our best spring in, I guess, my whole gardening life.

Glad the sour weather didn't reflect a sour business climate for you... busy is good when it pays the bills! But I know you are always at that point of too busy means more employees means dipping profits means making less money to get bigger and maybe make more money and maybe not be such a quality supplier of fine plants. Got to be big enough, can't get too big without problems...

Hang in there, guys!

[Chris_W]

You have some excellent points there Jim. While bigger and more sales would be great, I do believe that this sometimes results in reduced oversight and possibly reduced quality. I've seen it happen too many times. Part of the reason for the longer hours was that I had to let one of my best helpers go this spring. Unfortunately he couldn't get a handle on his drug problem, though we really tried to help him out and gave him numerous chances and second chances to turn things around. When he showed up sober he was fantastic. When he would show up in the morning high as a kite it was a totally different story. So we figured we would fight out the last few weeks of May and then take the summer to try and find some new help for next spring.

[jgh]

(note... I am now going to make light of a very serious subject. Chris made a valid and important point and I wish all the parties well. I worked in drug abuse and prevention for over 30 years... I'm now an old guy and prefer to laugh as often as I can...)

Wow... thanks for the tip, Chris... may have just discovered the key to improving my productivity... so you are advising against whiskey before breakfast?

My wife's dad was born in 1916, so we are children of the 50's and 60's - so think Mad Men. Drinking was an integral part of all activities. Some of "the guys" shared an old "up at the cabin" tradition with me when I joined the family. Before going to the lodge for breakfast, one needed a little pick-me-up... also functioning as hair of the dog from the night before. It consisted of a small, wide glass of very cold orange juice. A spoon is placed on the surface of the juice to allow the careful placement of a layer of vodka over the juice.

One just slams it down - alcohol and chaser in one glass. The effects were devastating to me. The cold juice soothes the alcohol burn in the esophagus - but the vodka hits the stomach like a hand grenade. I made it to the lodge, but remember little of breakfast...

[kaylyred]

Chris, congratulations on a successful season! The hostas I ordered looked barely worse for the wear as far as frost damage is concerned when they arrived, and they're growing splendidly right now. As always, I'm a satisfied customer.

You mentioned worries about getting more business than you can handle and that having a potentially adverse affect on quality. I've seen that sort of thing happen, too. I think we all have. 15 years ago, I ordered my first perennials from Spring Hill, and they were very nice. The customer service was top notch. Now, sadly, I wouldn't touch the place with a ten foot...sunflower stalk. I've also seen local nurseries that I've always loved get too big too fast and start to show a downturn in quality for whatever reason. I hope nothing of the sort ever happens to Hallson. Somehow, I think you have too much integrity to let it happen. Hence, those very long spring hours you guys put in!