A bit of non-grass info for y’all! Here’s a little peek into the other side of being a part of the nursery…

I’m back from my road trip to speak about marketing at the San Diego Flower & Plant Association’s Annual Growers Meeting. It was a great trip that ended up being a bit longer than I had planned on…

The meeting itself was great – buffet, drinks, raffle prizes, a brief tour of Thompson Rose where the meeting was being held – met new people, got to see some familiar faces…

The following day we were lucky enough to be given the grand tour of Olive Hill Greenhouses! Denise, her husband Will and the main man Tony, gave Darren and I a thorough walk through of their facilities – it was really interesting to see! Growing indoor plants was quite different from what we do as perennial propagators and even from what Darren’s family does as a grower. The 2.5 hour tour was the perfect way to top off our work trip! And all the beautiful plants we got to take with us (as many as the Mini could fit) didn’t hurt either!

Lots and lots of colorful bromeliads (amongst many other types of beauties)! Aren’t you so jealous!?

Their awesome living wall in their office. I think I want one too now!

One last stop before the trek back to Fresno…a quick pop-in at McCall’s Meat and Fish in Los Feliz to visit Darren’s brother at his meat shop to take a little something back home for dinner. With spicy lamb sausages and their house burger blend in our ice chest, we were finally off! – be sure to check it out if you’re the foodie sort!

…then halfway through the grapevine, my tire began to shred…

Long story short…we had to stay the night in Gorman, because it was too late to get anything done. All of the local shops were not set up to change tires on a Mini and also did not carry any tires that would have fit anyways (Mini’s don’t come with a spare – they ride on run-flats, but run-flats only work if your tire isn’t on the verge of disintegrating).

We hauled all our stuff into our hotel room, plants included, and had pizza delivered to the room – which I found through the clever advertising they placed next to the tv channels sign (menu on back with Holiday Inn Express discount too, clever indeed!)

Unloading our goodies…I think our hotel room was the nicest one that night!

 

We woke up bright and early to be towed to the nearest BMW dealership in Bakersfield so that they could change out the tire – then walked to a chorizo breakfast – then 4 hours later we were finally on our way back home.

It was a great trip – minus the tire scare/hassle – but it’s good to be home and in a car that’s driveable 🙂