A Summer of Trying Something New

This summer I had the opportunity to work at a greenhouse in Westfield Indiana called Perennials Plus. I stumbled upon this position through a simple conversation with one of my friends dads who said he could help me find a summer job. As I did research I found that working at a greenhouse would be a great idea to broaden my horizons and get experience on the horticultural side of things. I learned more about landscaping, perennials, and shrubs than I thought I would never know. My time in the greenhouses were spent moving pots, taking inventory, helping customers, pulling orders, repotting plants, and watering. I also had the opportunity to take on a more official position helping on the office side of things. I learned how to check customers out, I answered calls and emails, became familiar with using a point of sales system and even aided in decision making. The most exciting thing for me was getting to be in charge of some projects like updating the website, conducting surveys, filing documents, and placing orders. 

The interesting thing about Perennials Plus is that they are eighty percent wholesale and twenty percent retail, so I had the opportunity to interact with both kinds of customers and notice the difference in trends and the ways they operate as businesses. Perennials Plus buys all plants and shrubs from plugs, repots them, and grows them out until they are mature, which is very interesting to me since most greenhouses or nurseries do not grow their plants from starts. 

I learned so much in my internship this summer, not only did I broaden my knowledge of plants, but I got to experiment with new plants that I never knew much about before. I also learned about running a small business and a lot about customer relations. Overall it was a wonderful experience and I hope that5 my time there nis not over forever, I would love to continue to learn over the next few summers if the opportunity presents itself.