People love trees and plants

It's fun to do a landscaping job for someone who really loves plants.

The thing is, that's mostly everyone who calls or emails me. So people are usually really, really happy about their plants. Are things 100% perfect? No, of course not.

Actually I wanted to write about all the positive experiences but one negative experience jumps out at me. This is a good platform for me to give my side of the story.

A customer called for arecas. I gave her the sizes and prices. She said she had a row growing and that she needed two more. What could be easier?

I drive across town and show her the two best arecas I could find in the nursery. Her reaction? She says they are "too orange".

"Well, ma'am arecas in the sun usually take on an orange tint," I explained.

"No they don't."

So I noticed arecas all over the neighborhood. I walked across the street with her and showed her the orange looking areca fronds. She still didn't agree. She wanted something GREEN.

She pointed to a pygmy date palm and said she needs color like that.

"But that's a different species of palm."

Now she was mad at me for being persistent. "I KNOW that's a different species of palm. I can't use the palms. I'm sorry. Good bye."

I was so shocked at having to lift two heavy trees back on the truck. I have so many happy customers. I wanted to start dropping names and giving numbers about revenue and web presence and number of acres my family owns and their revenue...

But that would've been pointless. The customer is not always right but it is her right not to buy arecas if she doesn't want them. It seems stupid to refuse a perfectly good plant and waste my time and require me to drive all over town spewing gas fumes only to send them back for being orange when they get that way in the sun.

If she thought they were too small, I could accept that (even though they were overgrown). If she realized she was broke and she couldn't afford it, I could accept that (even though she lived in a big house). I could accept almost any reason for wasting so much of my time and gas, but slightly orange arecas? I mean the second result a google search brings up is this: "Leaves are ascending, curved at the apex with sheaths and petioles yellow or orange tinged."

If you don't believe your own eyes across the street, at LEAST believe google. If it's on the Internet, it has to be true.