"It's the most wonderful time…of the yearrrrrrrr!" Remember that Christmas carol? Not a relevant song to be singing right now you think? Well if you work at a Garden Centre you realize that it is"the most wonderful time, of the year." "With cash registers ringing, and hanging baskets flying out the doooooooor. There are customers parking, and dogs in cars barking. Can' t keep the lobelia in stock, There are truck drivers honking, and wagons are falling, full of plants onto the flooooooor." Sing it with me, my bloggy buddies, because after 18 years of working the Mother's Day weekend, the most exhilarating, and exhausting, weekend of the year, this is only the second time I have ever had it off.
We gear up for this all year long, a frenzy of growing, planting, decorating, and purchasing, all to present a beautifully perfect, gift wrapped collage of color, each bloom cherished, babied, and pampered, until it is perfection in a pot. All for you, so when you come to buy your Mother's Day gift basket, you get to wait in a enormous lineup while the cashier frantically rings up the 129 customers in front of you. The Mother's day weekend is the busiest weekend of the year, seconded only by the landmark May long weekend. This is the weekend that all Garden Centres both dread, and look forward to. As one former employer of mine used to say"it's all downhill from here." This is the make or break weekend. Bad weather can bring down sales by the thousands, good weather will increase sales three fold. Imagine making a weeks worth of sales in two days, it is a dream come true. After slogging through a wet and cold winter, a exceedingly late spring, and mercurial rain storms, hail, and frost, our time has come. So when it is finally your turn to pay for the beautifully primped and outrageously expensive hanging basket, that has been nurtured, clipped, and fertilized in the spa-like greenhouse for over 5 months, make sure you do one thing. Give the cashier a huge smile, because she, like everyone else that works there deserves it.
