All Roads Lead To Something.

Boy this has been a week. I started a series of short rose "how to" videos about a week ago and I'm having a blast doing them. I've kept it quiet from my rose world but I spent 15 years touring the U.S., Canada and even the Caribbean first as a comedic juggler/magician, then as a stand-up comic. I even toured Renaissance Fairs in a 1968 VW Camper Van. This whole odyssey ended up on late night TV at ABC as head writer and then comedy segment producer. You might say not only do have I a bit of being a "Ham" in my background but I know how to use it!

I've wanted to write, shoot, produce, edit and host something like this for years but events got in the way and like so many things it went on the back burner. But now that we are moving forward my creative juices got flowing and an outlet needed to be found. Enter the Flip Mino and a down loadable version of Movie Maker Software. This nifty little camera is ready made to put video on the web. Marry it with You Tube and Move Maker Software and we're off.

While at ABC I loved post production work. Taking all those individual segments of scenes and assembling them into a comedic bit was like making a jigsaw puzzle with laughs. And I'm having blast with this too. Not as many laughs but if they make roses less intimidating I'll take it.

What this brings me to is that who knew some 30 years ago when I entered the Dell Arte School of Mime and Comedy and spent two years there learning all kinds of great things it would wind its way to producing rose videos for my nursery. From old Italy to Hollywood to Campobello SC. Not even Robert Frost could write that into "The Road Not Taken"

While you go through life never question why you are on the path you are on. In the end there is a purpose to it all if you just open yourself up to see it. Then suddenly all those jigsaw pieces of your journey merge into one thing. Your Life. I hope it's one less traveled by.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Paul mentioned March being the beginning of our spring. I know that while driving around town the daffodils were popping up and the Forsythia has even started to show color. That however was three whole days ago. On Saturday we (I use the term loosely, as I was pulling orders) began propagation. Paul and Michael were hard at work trimming back the plants in the greenhouse and going to town! I love propagation time. The smell of the soil, the feel of the babies in your fingers as you stick them. It makes one feel almost maternal. At least it does me! I always say a little prayer as I tuck the trays into the tunnel with the misters.

This year is different, it was a cold rainy day here in Landrum. Alex came into the greenhouse and proceeded to find the warmest spot, on the heat mat. No dummy, this boy. He reluctantly gave up his spot to the trays that were filled. But what a sight! All those new cuttings on such a day. It was warmer in the morning and we really felt the spring like temps. It came crashing down around us as the day wore on. By the time we closed up the rain was downright cold and the sky was iron gray. Sigh... So much for spring.

So now it is Monday. Yesterday evening the snow began. Real snow, not just a few flakes. We are surrounded by a sea of white today. The town has shut down and the kids are all out making snowmen and snow angels. I was hit by a snowball around 10:30 last night. Jim came in with snow down his pants. A good time was had by all. So the temps can go back up and we will welcome the sun! Come on spring!

Catch ye breath while ye can

March 1 is coming. That to me is really when our season kicks into high gear. With a little luck, hard work and creative advertising the phone will start ringing more often, the website will see more traffic and the mail will bring orders.

But this year?? How can anyone predict what is going to happen this season. It's not a normal year for anyone out there; not just us. So I tentatively put my forecasts down in MS Excel and now I sit back - and don't wait.

The worst thing to do at anytime is sit around and wait for business to come to you. Instead you have to go get it. After all it's called marketing not entitlement. But how do you do that after two years of weirdness and your finances are stretched thin.

I thank my lucky stars part of my upbringing was about finding a way to make things happen. My Mother says I am the eternal optimist and I take after her late little brother, my Oom Lex. Oom is Dutch for Uncle by the way. I also know she says this with affection as she was very fond of him; as was I. He loved thinking outside of the box. Me, I don't think I ever got in the box in the first place.

The Internet is literally handing small businesses like us incredible ways of reaching people without burning through a lot of cash. Even when I started Ashdown some eight years ago an ad in a decent magazine ran upwards of $1500 and reached maybe 100,000 people who forgot about it two months later. We now have a page on Facebook that costs nothing and could potentially reach 175 million. Well it doesn't cost nothing. Just my time and hey, that's free as far as I'm concerned.

Forums, Blogs, Facebook pages; this list goes on and there reaches a point where you have to focus on what you can (sorry Twitter) but all together these things bring folks to our little nursery and they begin to add up.

What prompted this thought was watching President Obama's speech last night to Congress. While he has programs to jump start the economy he also let us know there is no such thing as a free lunch. We have to do our part too. So off to Facebook to update our free page.

Are you listening Wall Street?

A simple little thing.

Turn on the news these days and it seems all you see are stories about people like Bernie Madoff, R. Allen Stanford and all kinds of other people whose only goal in life seems to be taking what they can from whomever they can. It's enough to make your faith in people disappear like so many billions of dollars investors trusted those thieves with.

Then along comes a small gesture that makes you realize those people splashed on the nightly news are the exception and not the rule.

We had one of those gestures last week. I was working in the office with the door closed because it was cold so I obviously didn't hear the customer drive up. I may have been on the phone when they knocked or simply distracted by something. Trish was out so I was holding the fort on my own.


Towards the end of the day I went outside into the barn and found the note in the picture sitting on the table we use as a desk out there. Just a few simple words:

"Please call me: I took one potted sombreuil and need to pay for it. Thanks"

When Trish came back she called the customer who cheerfully gave her their credit card and paid for the Sombreuil.

A simple, little gesture but how immensely uplifting - particularly in these times.