Gardener972

So as I'm calling around to different nurseries for a banana, I get, "Yep, we have 'em." I ask them, "Do you know what the name or variety is?" Their response, "No, it's just a green banana. I have a big one, and dwarf green one." OR "No, it's whatever grows around here." OR "No, it's just what they send us."

Most are bare root. Now... what are you going to guess these bananas are? How well will I do with a bare root plant?

Dean W.

I know what you mean. I stopped by a nursery and asked them what kind they had. They said they were the yellow kind.

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Dean

AllenF

And I thought that all of the uneducated nursery people were in Alberta.

At least they know that Bananas exist. Even if the only ones that I can get are Dwarf Cavendish and Basjoo. I asked the 3 big nurseries in Edmonton about ordering agaves and supervisory employees at all 3 had never heard of agaves.

Allen

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Gardener972

And that's a common plant!! I have agaves I'm trying to get rid of!

Ahava

Eh most of the people in the lawn and garden dept at my job don't know anything about plants. I've gotten used to people not knowing anything at garden departments, I don't even bother asking anymore. Sad eh?

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microfarmer

Sad is a polite way to put it.

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Richard

I started working in the garden department of an "orange box store" here in San Diego a month ago. To work as a sales associate in the garden department, you have to pass 8 two-hour garden certification training courses and the 1/2 hour test at the end of each one. If you don't pass, your job is watering, sweeping, stocking, and helping people find products (e.g., where is the steer manure?). If you do pass, your job is answering horticultural questions plus all those other tasks. Today at the end of my shift I moved all the Zebrinas out of the fruit section and into the ornamental tropical section, and moved all the Passiflora edulis vines out of the ornamental vine section and into the fruit section. Both of these errors were performed by a supplier and not an employee!

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AllenF

Gardener;

Agaves are not very common up here for some reason. If you want any, they have to be ordered from British Columbia or Ontario.

Allen

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mskitty38583

everytime i go into the other store...i ask to see the hort. specialist they are suppossed to have there to," answer all my gardening questions" as they advertise,"you can do it, we can help".. but each time i go in there all i get is the manager who knows absolutely nothing about plants and even less about ferts, soils and mulches. so i go to my fav gh instead and he can," answer all my gardening questions", and he dosent act like im taking up his time. that is the kind of thing that makes you want to buy from someone. when they take the time to answer you and go out of their way to find that one little plant thats stuck in the back corner of the green house covered up by another plant.not the i dont know, attitude. i went into a walleyworld the other day just to see if they knew what they were selling and asked about a chinese fan palm. there were 4 sitting in the corner, and they told me they didnt have any. ??????????????

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Richard

I'd do the same thing!

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mrbungalow

I come from the capitol of incompetance: Bergen, Norway. Who else would build 6 turnabouts on the city-freeway??

For instance: My local nursery has just discovered that exotic plants can survive and thrive here in Bergen, after a few customers have told them for about 5 years. This winter, they left all their surplus musa basjoos outside in small pots, thinking they would cope with -6 degree weather with no problems. They were offcourse dead as dead can be. Just a TINY amount of common sense goes a long way.

Besides growing plants, I make my own beer. There are about 2 stores here in Bergen that are in the business of selling raw materials for beer and wine-production. Neither of the store owners supply real beer-malt, and don't even know wich yeast is best for lager style beers. I ask: Why be in the business if you need customers to educate you??

"If you want something done, do it yourself."

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Ahava

Guess some things are the same all over the world! I work at Walmart, and the one thing that I hate is how we get sent products, like vacuums for instance, but we don't carry that vacuum's replacement bags o.O and I get to feel like an idiot when I explain to customers we don't have something like that. *sigh* I blame it all on the upper managemant. Who does the ordering for these companies I ask you? Because I know Walmart isn't the only one who does that kind of crap. Are they smoking something when they do this job? These people are supposed to have degrees in business management? And so it comes back around to plants... unless the manager or the caretaker is there, you could go up to the girls at the garden dept and ask them something as simple as, "How do you plant tomato seeds?" and they would look at you cluelessly and giggle. *rolls eyes*

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damaclese

boy do i know what u meen about wally world i was in there last night and asked the gardin atendint if she had any canna bulbs and she said she didnt even know what they were i just walked away it was easer then blowing a gaskit

damaclese

richard good for you im a 45 year old man living in vegas and i have to say that u are totaly right they dont do it right and i think its becaus they just dont give a EDITED if they do a good job or not im working for Starbucks and the Kids drive me nut not only are they planly under egacated but they dont even care to luren and there maners are atroshes this is why i only go to a real nursery now it beats being frustrated my main nursry is so helpfull if they dont know they always walke me over to there books and look it up for me or they take my nuber and call me back its realy nice and i love them for it im sending them some of my bananas when they ripin

51st state

[quote=mrbungalow;36454]which yeast is best for lager style beers

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Heineken yeast of course!

How's it going Erlend? weathers set fair here and I'm planting out

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Gardener972

Twice now I've been to the orange box store and w'world and told them how to water the plants. They just tell me, "I was told to water all the plants." I've taken them around to all the plants and told them what TO water and what NOT to water. Like... they water the cactus every day. Give me a break! No wonder the plants look like crap all the time! And I did it with MY time and didn't get paid a dime just because I love plants and can't stand to see them drown. Sigh... now my blood pressure is up.

Ahava

[quote=Gardener972;36559]Twice now I've been to the orange box store and w'world and told them how to water the plants. They just tell me, "I was told to water all the plants." I've taken them around to all the plants and told them what TO water and what NOT to water. Like... they water the cactus every day. Give me a break! No wonder the plants look like crap all the time! And I did it with MY time and didn't get paid a dime just because I love plants and can't stand to see them drown. Sigh... now my blood pressure is up. [/QUOTE

Oh I know it, but they doubly don't care because whatever starts to look bad gets damaged out and thrown in a compactor. I've seen them wheel buggy fulls of wilty but still thriving and very much alive plants. I have to walk away, makes me sad.

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Richard

I'm happy to report that the folks who water the plants at the orange box store where I work are good caretakers of plants. Now if customers would put things back where they found them a few feet away, I might have more time to help people with their questions!

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Ahava

Ain't that the truth! /sigh. Just don't hold your breath. LoL

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