G&S Nursery Spring 2018 Newsletter

INSIDER
SPRING 2018
DARING TO BE
DULL
WHAT’S INSIDE | THIS ISSUE
CHOCOLATE
NEW FACES
BLUEBERRY BUSHES

New G&S Team Members
JAKI EVANS—Accounts Receivable & Credit Manager
Of all the roles filled by people in a company, in many
respects the job that requires the most intestinal fortitude
may be the A/R manager. That role is now being filled by
Jaki Evans, who comes to us after a long career in credit
collections and accounts receivable. It is Jaki’s responsibility
to examine the credit applications from clients with a steely
eye and weigh the benefit of granting credit terms against
the risk that somebody might take our plants and not pay
us for them according to those terms. The stakes are pretty high. If she says no to the
request, she must face the displeasure of a potential client as well as the sales rep who
is advocating for the sale. If she says yes, and the client doesn’t pay on time, she has to
explain her decision to management and try to negotiate a way for the struggling client
to make good on their obligation.
Jaki came to G&S from Huskey Truss in Nashville. She was looking for a way to relocate
to Jacksonville so she could be closer to family, and the opportunity to come to work
for G&S seemed like an answer to prayer. “This is an incredible team,” she says, “Everyone
is so upbeat and energetic!”
If it wasn’t enough to able to spend more time with her son and other kinsfolk now
that she’s moved, Jaki is also looking forward to enjoying the many attractions that
Jacksonville has to offer—especially the beaches.
TOM AARON—Nursery Manager
We’re still not quite sure why Tom agreed to come work for
us, but we’re glad he did. Tom has an extensive resume in
the horticultural field, from managing multiple landscape
crews in his most recent job with Brightview Landscape
Services to running his own award-winning orchid propagation
business in the early 2000s. Tom brings an arsenal
of large scale nursery best practices and a love of growing
things that inspires all those around him.
But he lives in Neptune Beach, and our nursery is located in Lake City. Why would a guy
with such heavy-duty qualifications sign on for that kind of commute? Tom will tell you
the opportunity to be part of such a great team made the offer to grow with us irresistible.
In his own words: “The leadership at G&S, the culture, and willingness to create
best in class quality standards was key in my decision to join the team.” He will also
describe it, like Jaki, in terms of answering a divine appointment. “I feel like I should
be here,” Tom says. “I feel like working alongside Zack (Kirsch) and the others here will
sharpen me as I sharpen them—like the proverb that says “iron sharpens iron.”
Tom lives on the coast with his wife and 5 kids. He loves to take them out on the water
to go fishing and surfing.
2

The Trickiest Time of
the Year
Winter in north Florida always
seems to play the same joke before
it finally leaves us for good.
You know what I’m talking about:
the cold weather tapers off, the
balmy breezes start to waft across
the fields in late February and early
March in a sustained fake-out that
lasts for weeks before the sucker
punch of a late winter freeze
comes along.
I’m experienced enough to anticipate
that one final blast before the
first week of April—it’s about as
predictable as the weekly need to
buy diapers for my baby daughter.
But for the plant material we grow,
it comes as a new revelation every
year.
That’s what makes it tricky.
Fortunately, we’ve learned some
tricks through the years to avoid
taking a bath on a lot of cold-damaged
material. This year, we were
doubly prepared, thanks to the
added expertise of our new Nursery
Manager Tom Aaron, whose
bio you can read on the opposite
page.
Hopefully your landscapes weren’t
badly affected by that final cold
snap, or by the general ornery demeanor
of this winter as a whole.
If you were, take heart. We have
operators standing by, ready to
help you any way we can to help
you move forward towards a
beautiful and verdant summer!
On a personal note, my youngest
daughter, Elizabeth just turned 1
on March 1st. That just doesn’t
seem possible to me how fast my
kids are growing up!
Cheers!
Zack Kirsch
General Manager
386 754-0161
sales@gsnursery.com
3

Daring to be DULL
Do you have what it takes to
be dull?
Many men live in fear that
others would consider them to
be dull; for a proud minority,
however, dullness is a quality
worn as a badge of honor.
But let’s not confuse dullness
with being idle, grumpy, boring,
or nerdy. Although there
may be some overlap between
being dull and some of
these other adjectives, those
adjectives do not necessarily
apply to all dull men.
We get this information off of
a website dedicated to the
celebration of dull men everywhere
found at www.dullmensclub.com.
The founder
of the
Dull Men’s
Club is
a man
named
Grover
Click, who
currently
Grover Click, founder and assistant
vice president of the DMC
lives in
London.
He
formerly lived in New York and
began his club within the auspices
of the New York Athletic
Club. It began one day when
he and some buddies were
in the club lounge, perusing
the latest copy of The Winged
Foot, the club’s newsletter.
The Winged Foot is devoted to
news of all the clubs-within-theclub—clubs
for squash, sailing,
skiing, etc. One of the friends happened
to observe, “We don’t do
any of those things.”
“That’s right; we are rather dull,
wouldn’t you say?” said another.
“Let’s start a club-within-the-club
for dull men,” said Click.
It was not long before the Dull
Men’s Club was having weekly
meetings and its own column in
the Winged Foot. Membership
steadily grew until it was capped
at 17—the number of chairs available
in the meeting room. The
logjam of applicants on the waiting
list gave way to additional branches
forming and eventually to the
website being launched.
Nowadays membership in the
DMC is conferred on anyone who
enjoys the website and identifies
as a dull man.
So, is this a club for men only?
Mr. Click addresses the question
of sexism in the DMC as follows:
“It is our committee’s view that
a woman cannot be dull. It is an
impossibility.” He continues, “This
is because women are exciting.
Moreover, women would be offended
if we said they were dull. It
would be politically incorrect to do
that.”
Women who find that answer satisfactory
are free to enjoy the club
as a sort of associate member
under the classification of “Women
4

who appreciate dull men.”
Dull men are nothing if not
industrious. There are a variety
of resources compiled on this
site, such as an exhaustive list
of baggage claims departments
in airports all over the world
with particular attention paid to
whether the carousels move the
baggage in a clockwise or counterclockwise
fashion. Cancun’s
luggage spins counterclockwise,
while Almaty’s airport in Kazakhstan
bags circulate in clockwise
fashion.
Another section is devoted to
“safe excitement,”
such as riding inside
your car through
the car wash or
popping bubble
wrap bubbles,
and yet another
hosts nominations
for the
“Dull Man of
the Year”
award.
Possessing a healthy dose of
wry humor appears to be the
medicine that makes being dull
a badge of honor as opposed
to a fate worse than death.
5

Featured
Plant
DARROW BLUEBERRY
Vaccinium Darrowii
This issue, we’re featuring a native
shrub that has so much to
offer: color, resilience and even
delicious fruit!
This long-lived perennial grows
to a height of 2 feet with a widespreading
habit that fits in with
the ethos of using native, undemanting
plants in landscapes.
This shrub is native to central
and west coast Florida from Fort
Myers to Pensacola. It likes acidic,
sandy soil and has low tolerance
to salt. New growth has a
russet tinge, and it bears showy
flowers and fruit in season. It is
a favorite of bees, and birds and
other wildlife enjoy poaching the
berries when they ripen.
10 gal: $10.50!
Prices good through the end of May 2018
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
—Alfred Hitchcock
6
386 754-0161

LIFE IS LIKE A PACKAGE OF
CHOCOLATES...
Observant consumer Joseph Brungard
is bringing a lawsuit against
the Ghirardelli Chocolate Co., alleging
that the chocolatier is misleading
consumers into thinking they
are getting more chocolate squares
in in their bag than
they are actually
paying for.
The products in
question, individually
wrapped
squares loosely
packed into a
larger bag, come in
a variety of flavors.
The complaint,
a class action
brought by Mr.
Brungard against
the company and
whoever else is
behind the alleged
deceptive practice,
was filed in October
of 2017.
Brungard and his
lawyers contend
that the number
of squares listed
on the outside of the
bag is frequently not the same
as the number of squares actually
in the bag. When he placed a call
to the company, the customer service
agent on the other end of the
line first put him on hold and then
responded with the information
that the squares are in fact sold by
weight and not by count.
Not satisfied with this
answer, Brungard demanded
to know how
it was that the count
was often one short of
the number of squares
listed on the outer
bag. To this, the customer
service operator
offered to have him
speak to a manager
at a later time. The
manager never called,
and so the suit was
brought.
The outcome of the
lawsuite has yet to be
determined.
One can’t help but
wonder: could this
lawsuit have been
avoided by a simple
follow-up call from a manager?
G&S NURSERY’S $50 GUARANTEE
Have you heard about our in-stock guarantee on our core material? If you order any
plant on our guaranteed list and we don’t have it ready in inventory, we’ll pay you
$50! Some of the plants included in this $50 Quick-Ship guarantee are:
4” Asiatic Jasmine 4” Big Blue Liriope 4” Mondo Grass 4” Dwarf Mondo Grass
see www.gsnursery.com/ups-shipmnents for more information
7
www.gsnursery.com

1550 SW Bedenbaugh Ln.
Lake City FL 32025
RIDDLE OF THE MONTH
The old woman gazed at the portrait on
her wall and remarked,
“Brother or sister, have I neither; but
that woman’s mother is my mother’s
daughter!”
Who’s portrait is it?
ANSWER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:
LEATHERMAN
Two winners!
Sidekick
Multi-tool
w/ Sheath
One winner!
LAST MONTH’S RIDDLE:
CROSSWORD CLUE:
Architectural term for the feature
pictured here:
HARDCOVER
BOOK
Dull Men of
Great Britain
B a l u s t r a d e
LAST ISSUE’S WINNERS
Devin Dissel
Tray Davis
Carrie Casey
Send answers to newsletter@gsnursery.com before May 20, 2018. All correct
answers will be entered into a drawing to win a prize!