Our Son, the Garden Expert

The advantage of owning a family business is that it introduces your children to many of life's lessons without "preaching" about the importance of courtesy, conscientious work, budgeting and organization. Their opinion about "preaching" may differ since they frequently bring up the fact about their father's typical response whenever they asked for a special toy or activity: "Do you know how many bags of fertilizer or pony-packs of plants we have to sell in order for you to buy what you want?" Differences of opinion aside, it is true that from a very early age our children Tasia and Eric helped us at our garden center from answering telephones, pricing the inventory and manning the cash register (their favorite job besides buying snacks from the vending machine). Initially both thought the challenges of running a nursery business was not in their future, and our daughter took another path as an editor, but after college, our son decided he enjoyed working with people and plants. Initially he opened his own store in the Bay area and now works in management for Armstrong Garden Centers.

Last Saturday, Eric co-hosted with us on the radio show for the first time and I must admit, my heart filled with pride as he fit smoothly into our garden talk. With his pleasant, deep radio voice (similar to his father's), I couldn't help but remember when he was 6-years-old, the accurate advice he would give our customers and their amazed reaction to his gardening knowledge. Bruce and I would always stay within earshot when he waited on customers to make sure Eric gave the proper advice, but he never failed and now his expertise is appreciated by all who come in contact with him at work. Best of all, he is passing on his passion for gardening to our grandson, Samokai.