Careers

Anybody in here considering a career in horticulture (if you don't already have one)? I would like to have a landscaping business myself.

Me too. Already doing it part-time, along with working at a nursery part-time, but I'm about ready to go all in. This airline career is in a nose-dive.

Scott

What do you do at the nursery? That seems like a fun job.

I am the "volunteer" caretaker for the trees in my neighborhood park. Late at night, flashlight, shovel and wire cutters in hand, I go out and push the mulch volcanoes away from the bases of the trees and remove stakes once the ties start getting too tight. Shhh. They think I'm a clever mole.

I'm looking to hire a couple of good people here to help with our arboretum. Of course, just like everywhere else, there is no money available. Wana work for me for free? Your odds of getting rich in this field are about as good as those of becoming the next NBA phenom. But then, money isn't everything, is it . . .

Guy S.

Mulch volcanoes are a swear word around here. I can't believe how many people mulch up the trunks of their trees by about a foot. Ridiculous. I knock the mulch down and spread it around too when I can.

I've been at it now commercially for 11 years. I started this 'monster' out in a 13x16 greenhouse and have graduated to at 27x60 and 30x60. Continually adding more products each year. Tree & shrub sales have really taken off over the past couple of years as has perennials.

It can be an exciting career for darn near anyone who enjoys gardening. The biggest thing I find about it is, you have to love it and enjoy it. There are times I get sick of it, but those are minimal. It's really neat how you get the excitement factor from customers at times. Especially first time visitors. But, all in all I wouldn't change a thing....I want it to continue to 'grow' and expand as there is a need for it here in southwest Montana. And, like any job, it's what you put into it that makes it rewarding.

I am always looking for a job as a propagator in USDA 9 or above. But, getting a green card has become almost impossible. I help out at a small nursery locally propagating, label printing, potting, finding new stuff and today pulling mailorders.

I tried to start my own nursery about 6 times, lost about $65,000 from 1) Redneck attack who almost killed me, 2) farmer/land owner take-over - didn't respect the lease and forced me out of my 100' greenhouse 3) fire that melted the metal and glass roof of the 1 acre greenhouse I rented with others 4) stress almost did me in. I'm now bankrupt but I still think of starting a nursery. For now helping my friend out works well. I grow palms, trees & shrubs, exotics liners and tons of cuttings and seed including citrus, eucalyptus, bottlebrush, bananas, etc. My friend was on the evening news today showing off his tropical gardens.

I totally lucked out today. I drove past city crews cleaning the palms in the middle of the boulevard. I got a full truck of palm seed.

Great thread, I too, dream of owning a landscaping business.
I think I'll call it "Straw Hat Landscaping". I've already started accumulating much of the smaller equipment, such as shovels, hoses and of course books to refer to and learn about landscaping from.

Heck, I'd settle for planting shrubs and flowers for a house-builder if it paid enuff!

Will

I'm a teacher full-time and aspire to garden during the summer months. I wouldn't mind having a part-time gardening job. But then I wouldn't get to spend so much time in my yard!

I am so glad to hear all of you young people interested in starting your own landscape business. My son had his own company for twenty years and then got multiple myeloma and his "partner" stole the compnay away from him while he was going through a stem cell transplant. He is now doing well and working for a friend who has a very large landscape business. Wish you all lived closer...could give you tons of "equipment". Good luck,,,it is a happy career but not alot of money.

Has anyone considered looking for horticulture jobs with city/county or even state agencies. I would think it would afford more job security than having your own business, and might be better than working for a corporation.

Just a thought.

Plus, running a Web site is a full-time job that propagates the gardening bug. My site has been hit today by numerous k-12 addresses. I LOVE that!

http://www.treegrowersdiary.com/

P.S. The blog (sans movable type, so the commenting has to go through e-mail for now) is SO much fun! SOMEday I'll make money off this thing.

very impressive site!

I'm a horticulture student. Plan to have my own business someday too, maybe an interior plantscaping company or seasonal container planting company, or both! One of my mentors has an interior plantscaping company, so I plan to pick her brain and then go head to head with her, LOL. Really, it's best to keep it small and simple to start with. Have heard too many horror stories of "partners" who got burned. Minority status could be a potential plus as well.

escambiaguy, I worked at a nursery job last summer, it was the most fun I've ever had working in my whole life! (It paid $7/hour). The summer before that, I planted annuals for a nearby village, that paid $11/hour and I got to be outside for a few weeks in spring. So I would have to warn you, you must LOVE getting dirty, hot and wet, for very little money.

Other than that, it's a great career field, with loads of inherent satisfaction.

Joulz - love that volunteer spirit! Yo're a gal after my own heart.

The 'getting dirty, hot and wet' part isn't so bad. The 'very little money' part is always a problem. LOL

Oh boy!

Scott

well...we went outside the "box" a bit we do integrated tropical design gardening. our customer base are usually businesses that want an usual looking area to invite people in.

i also design flower beds, containers, and boxes for a local landscaper. i'm sooooooo lucky because i just do the designing, price out the beds and don't have to get my fingernails dirty...at least not doing that. ( i get my dirty fingernails and toe nails from my own gardens thank you very much!:) i get a fee and go home...don't make much money at either but love what i'm doing.

i also volunteer with a horticulture therapy program and community projects in my county. volunteering doesn't pay well!!!!!!

i'm thinking this isn't the biggest money making way to go but we are loving what we are doing!!!

and guy........what i would do to work for you.......!!

I'm jealous of my teenage son who just got a job for the summer at the State Arboretum. Sigh. I told him he has to share what he learns with me.

McGlory - Don't forget to pack his lunch for him then, since he will be making SO MUCH MONEY! LOL

tobee - sounds like a great gig you've got there. Money isn't everything. Do you feel comfortable sharing what you charge? And what does the customer get for that fee.

But there are careers in horticulture that do pay well escambia guy! Turf management as in golf courses and ball fields, has some well-paying positions, also engine repair & maintenance, certified arborist, entomologist, to name a few. The point I was trying to make is NOT to discourage you, but to give you a reality check. This is one field that you literally start at the ground level and work your way up!

I must admit that the arborist that trim trees are very brave. I had some trim my 100ft tall pecan trees and they climbed nearly to the top. I almost had a heartattack when one of them fell off and was dangling from that rope. There is no way I could do that !

My friends Georgie and Beau are arborists. There's no way I could do that either!

PrairieGirlZ5 the fee charged for the beds and containers etc are based on what type of bedding and containers they want .

example.....a local business wants unusal 30 inch flower pots in front of his or her business with matching window boxes. i sit with them discuss color and if we will be doing the maintence and upkeep or if they are looking for easy care. based on what they chose i give the price. (of course we have many pics for them to get ideas from) for me just coming out for consult is 50.00 an hour. depending on what they chose pricing is how the final pricing is. the pots for rare type planting runs approx (if they already have the pots) 100-150) each. if we have maintence we charge on a monthly basis. window boxes....example using a moss format and we have to supply would run approx 75-200 depending on size and plantings.


bed designs. i am called in by the landscaper this person would like a low main flower bed.......or would like to incorp tropicals into the landscape. first speaking with the home owner or business once again and understand the extent of what they are looking on depends on the price. once that is decided i tell the landscaper where everything goes and what type of maint is necessary. he pays me by job.....example the first job this year's total was 8000.00. i was paid 1500.00 because this job was mostly my design but all the labor of the landscaper and i purchase the plants at his cost. that was a total of approx 4 hours work for me. now........we only get about 12 jobs a year because we are small and that is about all that can be done within our planting time. in this case i do not get paid unless we get the job.

but in our case we have an cert arborist, horticulturist, hardscaper, backscaper(lawn main) ipm cert person. all of us working together to make this work! this is our second year..:) i was delighted when they came and asked me to design the flower beds etc. coming from the above list of talent and just downright great people it was truly an honor.

Well heck tobee, that's $375/hour! You may be the only one I know who is making money in this field. Or did I misunderstand you? Do you have to pay everyone else a cut?

edited to say: I really, really appreciate your candor, as this is the direction I'm headed. If you're at all uncomfortable elaborating on the public forum, please D-mail me. If you're able to be as specific as possible, it's what I need to know. I'm not trying to be nosey, I need to know how to go about this, so that I can make it work for everyone involved, same as you. (That is also what I was making when I left my job 5 -1/2 years ago, I want to know how realistic it would be to hope to match that number.) There are trade-offs, as in anything. I left a job that had profit-sharing, 401K plan and health insurance benefits. Now my husband has family insurance benefits, and we can save our money in an IRA. Since my son is in kindergarten, my schedule needs to be flexible right now as well. TIA for your time. ;-)

This message was edited Apr 15, 2006 4:30 PM