Nursery Update

We are geared up for a great spring in the nursery. You may have

noticed our new barn and office building. This is a huge step in the life

of The Plantsmen—I think of it as Phase 2. We have grown, we have

stabilized the business, and now we are responding to new demand

and new markets—some commercial and some ecological—to

complement our retail/residential business. We are growing the

business and growing more plants than ever. We are working with NY

State Parks, Tompkins County, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Cornell

University, and various other clients that allow us to scale up a bit.

But nothing about our retail nursery will change, other than for the

better: we maintain our commitment to customer service, quality

plants, and unusual plant diversity. And we continue to grow more

and more native species from our own local seed collection efforts.

Local native species are finally in some demand here in CNY, even

though that market has been well-established in many other parts of

the country for a long time. We are glad to keep doing what we’ve

always done, while satisfying this emerging market here. We continue

to strive for real quality in our plants, and an ambience of sanctuary at

the nursery itself. You will also see about one new acre of plant

production space on the side of the retail property that’s been vacant

for a few years, and you’ll now see our landscape operation in full

view over there as well. We had been renting off-site space for our

landscape division for about six or seven years, and are glad to

consolidate everything back onto our own property. But we will

continue to make the nursery feel homey and friendly—that is who we

are and that is not going to change.

Staffing Update

I’m happy to be bringing back a

higher number of our nursery and

landscape staff than we’ve ever

brought back from one year to the

next, and we are also excited to

have Amy German return to our

staff this year, as our Senior Nursery Manager—Amy worked for us

several years ago when we didn’t even have automated irrigation. We

are also glad to have Cat Taylor as our Junior Nursery Manager—Cat

was with us last year in the drought summer, and is such a nice fit for

The Plantsmen, with her energetic pace, her 360-degree awareness

of what’s going on, and her easygoing attitude. Jenny Walsh is back

with us this year as well, with her two green thumbs and a love of

plants and working outdoors in the sun (and rain). And Bridget

Gaines, who has been with us almost from the beginning as our

General Manager, is now our

Horticulture and Nursery Director—

Bridget is a true plant person, and as

a dedicated Plantsmen employee,

she’s been handling a lot of things

that needed to be done, even if they

were not directly plant-related: HR,

marketing, advertising, etc. I am

happy to see her working with our plants more directly after several

years of being such a team player. She will be overseeing everything

and everyone related to our plants now. And Bridget would not be

able to make that transition without Vic Pastore, who we recruited last

fall to help us with some of the things that Bridget had been doing. If

you have not worked with Vic yet, you’ll be glad when you do. Vic’s

creativity, sense of humor, talents and professional experience qualify

her to work anywhere, and we are lucky to have her on board. We are

glad she did not apply for the Cornell President vacancy when it was

open.

Also, after many years of doing

behind-the-scenes work from our

home office, Sarah Segal will be

coming out of the shadows and

working from a desk in the new

nursery office as well. This

represents a nice new phase for

the nursery and for our family, as

Sarah is able to move some of our

home office to the new building. For every nursery customer and

landscape client who I’ve been able to work with directly over the

years, Sarah has made it possible for me to not be at home during

those times. Sarah is also the person who helped organize and

stabilize the business as we emerged from the 2008-2010 recession,

when I was in denial about our accounting and bill-paying

systems. She helped us get out of the red and into the black, and

continues to do things for The Plantsmen that are not necessarily fun

but are critical.

Our trusted landscapers are back

with us too—Doug, Cody and

Brandon have been with us for many

years, and between them, I think

they’ve been at every property we’ve

worked on in the past.

That institutional memory is hard to

come by with a landscape team.

And it really is amazing what the guys do

as a small, low-impact crew without using

much equipment, in a short period of

time. We are also adding a few new

people this year, to the landscape and

nursery crews, and you will see them in

person or read about them on our

website and in our communications soon.

As a final note, we have announced our official opening day as April

15, 2017, and we are hosting our annual Spring Thing April 29-30,

2017. We look forward to seeing you at these great events.

Warm wishes for spring,

Dan & Plantsmen Staff