Not Again!
As I write this column, clouds are rolling in from the West for the tenth straight day of rain in metro-Chicago. We’re soaked, and it’s hard to get anyone motivated. Construction on the high-rise across from my apartment has halted, the house beside our office building has shin-high grass and I’ve had my favorite garden center all to myself the past few times I’ve been in, not to mention the labors of getting contributors to meet their personal deadlines for the magazine.
The weather this spring has been unbearable, and I know those of you in the South, Southeast and Northeast know what I’m talking about. Storms, cold, intermittent searing heat we’ve had it all, exactly when we didn’t need it and in abundance. And if it’s been a struggle for me in my climate controlled office, I can only imagine what it’s been like for those of you on the front line, so to speak.
So what makes us keep going? Why do we come back every year for another round? The people associate editor Catherine Evans interviewed for her season review (see page 6 for details) are already making plans for next spring. Surprisingly, none of the plans include finding a new career!
I know all the lures of the industry: working with a beautiful product, having chlorophyll in your blood, being the second generation (or third or fourth), being an eternal optimist, etc., etc., but come on, is all that really enough? How do the people in horticulture find the motivation to start a new year after the fourth, or is it the fifth, year in a row that didn’t meet projections
Living the dream
I know previous columns have found me speculating on this topic, and I still don’t have a satisfactory answer. Except to say pure love. It’s an anomaly about horticulture that I haven’t seen in any of the other fields I’ve worked in. People are horticulturists; they don’t do horticulture. Compare this to something like accounting or manufacturing where you go to the office, produce a product or render a service and go home.
In many ways, I think being in horticulture is like being a rock star or an artist or something like that one of those professions where you hear people say how fortunate they are to be able to make a living doing what they love. You never hear that about building design or street paving. People in horticulture, whether its breeding, growing or selling plants, have found a way to earn their living with the thing they love: plants. And I guess that’s why the industry is recession proof not because consumers keep buying when they have no money, but because we keep serving them, even when we put to bed another painful spring.
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