Message from the President ]

Katie Miller WSNLA President

Retail Ready Sales Manager Skagit Horticulture/Skagit Gardens

By the time you are reading this we are past the spring frenzy. Somehow no matter what words I use to describe it, I never feel like I capture all of the intensity that we go through for 12 weeks each year. The highs, the lows, the anxiety, the excitement, the stress, the little bit of sadness and the immense relief when it is over.

But today is another busy day in May for me, and we have been given some beautiful bluesky weather. Mother’s Day is now behind us, and we heard from many of our customers that they had record-breaking weekend sales! There is no doubt that this is going to be a May to remember when we can see it in the rearview.

Because I live in the world of wholesale, reflection on the spring season tends to inspire conversations about how we can do more (grow more, sell more, ship more) in spring. We always come back to phrases like “more with less” or “more efficient”. Our proposed solutions typically involve some kind of technology, to help streamline process, handle information, and reduce human error. Many of you reading this article probably have similar conversations in retail and landscape because there is some aspect of spring that “if we could just do X better, faster, stronger, we could achieve more!”

We so often look to technology solutions, whether we are talking computer software, robots or heavy equipment (maybe someday we will even be considering AI?!) because the intensity of spring is such a brief part of our whole year, but it sets the tone for how successful we will be financially for the months ahead. And unlike other industries there is only one spring each season. Nine months are spent prepping for three and when it is over, we take a deep breath, maybe a nap and start prepping for the next one.

The irony for me, and I am confident that I can write here that I am not alone, is that I didn’t get into this business for the technology. I did it for the plants. I love the flowers and the dirt, the way the greenhouse smells in March when all of the hanging baskets for Mother’s Day are freshly planted. Or the vivid colors of pansy and viola in bloom on a sunny day in August. The fresh green leaves that suddenly appear on the first warm day in spring. All of those moments are the farthest thing from technology. What we offer as an industry to the average consumer of garden products is a reprieve from technology.

So many of my days are spent behind a keyboard, crunching numbers, tinkering in spreadsheets and working out the finer points of process so we can do more next year with technology to satisfy the needs of those looking to enjoy life with less. Life is funny that way sometimes and if I’m honest I’ll be right here next year not just because I love the flowers, but I really love that because of what we do, we are able to bring more plants to people who love them as much as I do.