From the CNGA Women in Horticulture Presentation by Dr. Gabriela Chavarria
Halloween without pumpkins?
Thanksgiving without cranberries?
Dessert without chocolate?
Most of the food that we eat is produced naturally. If it’s produced naturally, it involved a pollinator. It involved an animal that brought it to your table. Bees are our heroes. We take them for granted and they are disappearing.
I do love...
Ours is a quick-moving, no-nonsense business. When we are in the heat of the season, there is little time for a lot of hand holding or a prolonged courtship with every customer that you encounter on any given day. Time is a precious commodity and every contact and moment must count. So, it is vital to get down to...
On Saturday, August 10, we invited the public from Colorado to visit and judge over one thousand different annuals from 25 different companies from around the world. We gave each visitor three flags to place in front of their favorites. Our collaborators really desire consumer input versus just professional input. The weather was not the greatest on this Saturday...
The future is bright for those willing to invest time, money and sweat equity in a nursery or greenhouse business. One key resource that must be paid attention to is: PEOPLE. Where is the next generation of horticultural professionals coming from? As I’m sure most seasoned green industry veterans know, the paths to a career in nurseries and greenhouses...
Creating a strong health and safety culture doesn’t only reduce injuries; it helps keep your workers’ compensation costs low.
Here are the necessary steps in establishing a safety culture:
Management Support and Direction
Management must be a role model for safety. This includes establishing the company’s safety vision, goals and rules, as well as practicing what you preach in everyday safety practices.
Active...
2019 has brought many positive events to the Colorado Department of Agriculture, beginning with the appointment of Kate Greenberg as Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture, and a governor who has challenged all of us to look to the future to support change, encourage high value agricultural enterprises, and facilitate an agricultural industry for the future, not the past.
Tracking Invasive Pests
A...
Internships = Inspiration + Relationships
By Ashlie A. Tagawa Mohr, HR Manager at Tagawa Greenhouse Enterprises LLC
At Tagawa Greenhouses, we are proud of our internship program, and over the past 20 years, we have hosted both domestic and international students for our six-month to one-year internship programs. We believe that the future of our industry depends on the future generations....
At 73 years old, Alameda Wholesale Nursery is one of the oldest wholesale nurseries in Colorado. The company offers more than a thousand varieties of plant material and planting supplies to landscape contractors. Stan Brown, CCNP, has been leading Alameda since 1964, and is currently president, marketing manager and B&B tree buyer. He received the CNGA Hall of Fame...
Whether your company is still relatively new to online retail or established in e-commerce, Amazon.com has an impact on your sales. As the gigantic online sales portal that continues to swallow markets like an insatiable black hole, Amazon is a force that cannot be ignored.
Some retailers find success in concentrating on all the benefits of maintaining a highly curated,...
How did the company get started?
Our initial family business was Bookcliff Gardens, which was started by my father, Ed Settle, in the early ‘70s. We left Bookcliff Gardens to start a landscape company and leased the property we’re on today, which has become the wholesale holding yard and retail store. In 1980, we acquired land north of Grand Junction...
