busy

It was a very busy day in the plant centre, busyness that by close of trading translated into healthy takings through the tills.  There are some days where by the end we all feel we have worked very hard finding plants for people, and answering endless questions about their gardening problems, and the actual money taken over the counter seems pathetically low compared to the effort involved.  Today customers were spending, despite the drought, the incipient hosepipe ban, the record price of petrol, the granny tax and all the other reasons why they might have decided to stay at home with their wallets and purses tightly shut.  Busy is good.  It's what keeps the boss in the business and me in a job.

There were a couple of tedious telephone calls, one from a woman who seemed to seriously expect that we could mail order to Devon a Cercis that was over a metre tall and wide, in a pot the size of a small dustbin.  We had spent a very long time going over the prices and sizes of the various specimens of 'Forest Pansy' in stock before she mentioned mail order, and even after I'd explained that we couldn't send something that large she still tried to describe to me what she wanted it for.  I don't care whether she was going to use it to screen the neighbour's conservatory or deck it with prayer flags and make it the centrepiece of a new cult religion.  I still couldn't put it in a cardboard box and send it to Devon.  The second was one minute before closing, from somebody who wanted Magnolia x soulangeana 'Alba Superba', but had left the soulangeana out of the name while insisting on spelling Alba for me, in case I couldn't.  Once we'd worked out what kind of magnolia it was that she wanted it then transpired that she was looking for one that was already 8 feet tall.  I took her details and promised to check what we had in stock and ring her back in the morning, while warning her that it was fantastically unlikely that we would have one that large.

The new tea room did reasonably brisk trade, and the catering student the owner has recruited to run it at weekends seemed very much in command, though she is still encountering new issues, such as how to run the dishwashing machine, and what to do about people who want to pay by card given the tea area doesn't have a credit card machine.  She seems a quick learner.  She and the owner spent some time debating how many slices various cakes should be cut into.  There never seems to be any left over cake for the staff room.

We didn't manage to put out for sale half the plants that we were supposed to, according to the manager's list of things to do.  The watering took me until gone half past nine, and later in the day I spotted areas that had been missed.  We haven't quite caught up with the warmer weather and longer days in terms of our watering routines, which are not yet as slick as they will be in another few weeks.  At least it seems as though the layout of plants is fairly sensible, without any groups of pots at key places where they  would be in the way as we manoeuvre the hoses around.  I spent quite a lot of the day on the till, which I don't mind once in a while, but will have to watch that it doesn't become a routine on Saturdays.  I know that my two colleagues had lists of things they were supposed to get on with, but so did I.  Till duty should be shared out equally, since it isn't as much fun as being out in the sunshine on a nice day.