Constance on the job.

You could run into Constance anywhere in our  Potomac store because she works in all departments, as needed, which for her helps keep the job interesting.  “Never a dull day,” and all that.

Life before Behnkes

Unlike her co-workers (Alex, Orion and Christopher) Constance is anything BUT locally grown.  Her dad was a Foreign Service officer and she grew up in Athens, Greece. (Cool!)  Back in the U.S., she studied art in New York City, and her first career was in the museum world there, and later in Minneapolis.

What led her to the D.C. area was her parents’ move here after her father’s retirement in the mid-’90s  She soon discovered there were no jobs to be had here in her field, so decided to start a second career doing post-production work for television.

Sounds exciting, but at the end of the day she just wanted to be outdoors, not in an office, so for her third career she sought work in nature , and came to work at Behnkes in 2010.

Her Gardening Life

The change to gardening was a career move but actually the combining of her work and off-work lives because she’s always grown plants of various types and her parents were avid gardeners.  How avid?  All the family vacations were to visit gardens!  Her dad was an orchid hobbyist, and their house was so filled with plants it could be mistaken for a greenhouse.

So what’s her Hyattsville garden like now?  Mostly perennials, shade-loving ones, and all natives – because of her passion for wildlife.   She’s gotten rid of almost all of her front lawn and has plans to rid the lawn in the back next.

Her Non-Gardening Life
Yes, she has one, and it’s all-nature-all-the-time.  Constance volunteers for City Wildlife and for the Washington Animal Rescue League, where her husband works.  (That’s one of this blog-writer’s favorite non-profits – the go-to place for all my cats.)  He’s also an avid birder.

Posted by Susan Harris.

A familiar face to Potomac shoppers is Christopher Lewis, manager of the garden shop where everyone is buying bulbs and lawn fertilizer this time of year and tools and assorted garden solutions throughout the year.

Origins
Farm boy here!  Christopher grew up on a farm in Howard County, and went off to Susquehanna University in PA to study geology.  That led to work in the oil fields of Louisiana, then using his engineering talents closer to home as a supervisor of construction at BWI Airport.

Eventually Christopher decided to get away from the bureaucratic pressures of that job and pursue his life-long love of growing plants, first by studying horticulture at the USDA Graduate School and entering the Montgomery County Master Gardener program.

Working in Gardening 

Christopher started working at Behnkes in 2005 and with the help of Larry Hurley and financial support from Behnkes, studied for and passed the test to become a Certified  Professional Horticulturist.  Next, he achieved specialty certification in Integrated Pest Management.  At Behnkes he has worked with trees and shrubs and has been the manager of the garden shop for two seasons now.  Before coming to Behnkes, Christopher worked for another garden center and as an “indoor plant technician” keeping plants alive and healthy in office buildings.

Off-Work
After hours, Christopher gets to tend to his own garden in Silver Spring, where he pursues his passions for edibles and native plants.   He’s also the proud owner of his own bee hives, having completed the Montgomery County Beekeeper training.

And when not gardening or working in a garden center, Christopher’s a busy family man, joining his two sons in their Boy Scouts activities (Eagle Scouts – done!), and as an active church member.

Potomac shoppers, meet your expert in shrubs and trees.  He’s Orion – like the constellation – Taylor.

Orion could hardly be more of a local guy, having grown up in and around College Park, and he always knew he wanted to work outside.  Park Ranger sounded good to him, but gardening called in the form of a lawn maintenance companies.  Orion began his career with Behnkes in 1987, starting from the ground up, pretty literally, as a laborer.  Since then he’s worked in woodies, perennials, at the Largo growing facility, and then came to the Potomac store in 1998 and has been there ever since.  Orion is a Certified Professional Horticulturist.

Life in the Country
Orion and his wife have settled into a very rural life up in Sharpsburg, MD – and up is the right word since it’s at a high enough altitude to be a full zone colder.  There, she tends the cottage garden out front and in the back Orion tends his pond, rock garden packed with perennials, and kitchen garden.  He’s also trying fruit trees, with mixed results (the curse of the our region!).

So what shrubs does this woodies manager like best and grow in his own garden?  Small conifers – like Hinoki cypress, and a few yews and Daphnes for still more evergreen interest.  But come spring, his garden gets colorful with the flowers of his many flowering shrubs – roses, spireas, hydrangeas, crape myrtles – all the great favorites of Maryland gardeners.

Orion’s an avid birdwatcher, and attracting them to the garden is a top priority.  To that end, he’s included a bird bath and plenty of feed-birding plants, too.  He’s proud to tell you that his garden has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife habitat – kudos!

Life beyond Gardening
Sure, Behnkes employees garden in their off hours, but what else?  In Orion’s case, another passion is American history.  And not just by reading about it, but reenacting it!  He and his wife portray Civil War-era civilians at local events like the Sharpsburg Heritage Festival.  And next up, they’re going Colonial, so we’ll soon be seeing Orion sporting a tri-cornered hat.  (Photos coming soon!)

Other fun activities include fishing and camping – all outdoor stuff.  And working on their 1780s house.

Trends in Potomac?

But back to work.  Asked what special requests Orion is hearing from his customers, there’s no hesitation before he answers “Deer-resistant plants!”  (Thus, the photo above.)  Plus, he gets lots of requests for native trees, thanks to a growing interest in them generally and Maryland’s help in buying trees – as long as they’re natives.

Larry Jennings, In-Garden Advisor, in his own Garden

by Susan Harris
Did you know that Behnkes has in-your-garden advisors, also known as gardening coaches?  I’ve been doing garden coaching myself for six years now and I’ll boldly assert that coaches provide their clients a tremendous amount of help for very little money.   Here’s the kind of help that in-garden advisor Larry Jennings provides when he visits the gardens of his clients:

In-Garden Advisor Services and Fees

• Identifies plants and explains how to care for them
• Suggests plants for particular spots (e.g., visual screening)
• Assesses plant problems, then recommends products/treatments, tree pruning, and more
• Offers design ideas for adding more curb appeal
• Finds the best space for a vegetable garden (or delivers the news that there isn’t enough sun anywhere – sorry!)
• Helps clients figure out what they can physically do themselves and what they may want help with (Behnke’s Basic Planting Service)

Fee:  $100 for the visit.

Why it’s needed: People need an objective, trained set of eyes to focus on their situation, especially to correctly assess the amount of sun a plant will receive (usually less than people think) or to suggest plants for pruning or even removal – for example, those oversized evergreens around your front door.

More Types of Help that Larry Provides: Some in-garden advisor customers also pursue one or both of the other two services below.

Simple Design.  Whether it’s where to put a new bed, how to add some privacy, or how to help you remake your full back yard, Larry helps design the space and the features in it so that the homeowners can achieve their vision on their timeline, with their budget and abilities.  He provides a plan for the customers to follow, as well as an estimate of the required amounts of soil amendments, fertilizers and mulch required for their project.  Fee:  $35 hour.

Why it’s needed:  This one’s obvious – because most homeowners aren’t garden designers, and need help from someone with design skills and plant knowledge.

Personal Shopper. By appointment, Larry meets customers at the nursery and helps them select the plants to fulfill their design, per the plant list created in the design process above.   Fee:  $35/hour.  No minimum.

Why it’s needed:  In Larry’s words, “While sales help is available in all Behnkes Departments, only with a personal shopper is someone taking you from woodies to perennials to the garden shop for the right supplies, making sure you have everything you need, etc.  This service saves customers hours and makes sure they accomplish the task without being overwhelmed by Behnke’s large inventory over several acres.”

Now’s the best time of year to get started with in-garden consultations and simple designs, so call soon to schedule an appointment.  You’ll be really glad you did. Here’s the number:  (301) 754-2654.

This staff profile starts in the Eastern part of Germany, where Helmut Jaehnigen was born 75 years ago.  He went on to earn a masters in arborculture in Heidelburg and pursued his career in Switzerland, Sweden, and Holland – countries that offered better pay than Germany at the time.

Fifty years later, Helmut still works at Behnkes because, as he puts it, “I can’t just quit.”  Though according to Behnkes management, they won’t let him quit.  Behnke granddaughter Stephanie Fleming says “We love him!  The customers used to think it was HIS nursery.”   And even now Behnkes has customers who call to ask when Helmut is working (part-time, finally) before coming in.

Buying eventually got harder, though:  “‘Those damn computers – they done me in”.   Because of computers, buyers really don’t have to travel anymore, though they sure need to be IT-proficient.   These days Helmut still attends the big trade show in Baltimore every January, where the tree growers greet him like their favorite uncle.