Low Perception of Value in the Horticulture Profession; Are You the Culprit?

Plant For Profits Column, Leslie F. Halleck

What is your perception of the value of horticulture…and do you really understand what horticulture is?

As someone who has worked in the horticulture industry for a long time, and advises many horticulture businesses and career transitioners, I am acutely aware of the big gap between the actual value that horticulture provides and its perceived value with the general public and customers. Much of the time, horticulture is conflated with home gardening or houseplant keeping. If you work with me or you take any of my classes - especially if you are in say horticulture certificate program- you're going to learn there is a big difference between home gardening as a hobby in one home garden, or an amateur houseplant passion, and actually operating as a professional in the horticulture industry.

Commanding value and getting paid what you’re worth in the horticulture industry can be a tough prospect. Low perception of value on the part of customers translates into low wages in the industry. Regardless of the fact that it actually takes quite a lot of knowledge and hands-on experience to properly provide horticultural services, do plant and agricultural research, grow amazing greenhouse crops, educate customers, and be great at plant retail. That’s just to name a handful of jobs of the many you might perform in the horticulture industry.

Unfortunately, those working in the industry - or trying to transition their profession into horticulture - often make the mistake of giving too much away for free. I understand that people interested in plants and gardening often feel the drive to be generous with their growing knowledge. We want to be nice people who cultivate plant passion in others, right? Of course. And yes, even with my firm boundaries I've still generated quite a bit of free content for hobbyists over years because there is a give-before-you get component to marketing in the horticulture industry. You can get a lot of information from my website, in the form of articles (like this one) and plant profiles, as well as my Plantgeek Chic Blog. BUT, there is a saturation point you’ll reach where you’re working really hard to help everyone on your time and your dime, yet there’s no real ROI to speak of for you. You get burnt out, feel unappreciated, and you’re still not earning what you should be.

And all that knowledge and advice, free or overly cheap consultations or speaking gigs, articles you’ve written for pennies - time and knowledge you’re giving away all the time? You’re the one creating or contributing to the low perception of value. If you’re giving it all away for free all the time, how is anyone else going to value it when you really need to get paid? At some point, you just need to learn to say "no" or "pay me".

I get it. Amateurs and hobbyists who become very passionate about their new interest and passion often turn straight to social media these days, becoming plant evangelists and influencers. They are excited about what they are learning and want to share it, lots of it, for free. That's great, as it can help the industry drive interest. But there's a downside when it comes to understanding horticultural expertise. As a society, we’ve normalized valuing passion, relatability, and entertaining personalities over in-depth education, credentials, true expertise, and real industry experience. Most of the general public just doesn’t know how to distinguish between impassioned amateurs from subject experts and professionals when it comes to horticulture. This makes it tough for those of you working in the industry or hoping to make a career transition. So you need to be mindful about how you decide to share advice and content if you expect to actually earn a living at it.

While after many years I’ve mostly weaned friends and family off of texting me their plant, gardening, landscaping, tree care, insect, irrigation, and greenhouse questions every day, all day, it’s still a pretty regular occurrence; and of course there’s always the onslaught of social DMs, emails, etc. Funny enough, I never text my accountant for regular free advice, or my GP, or my lawyer, or heck the plumber! I mean I could, but I'm going to get billed. You gotta pay to play with most professionals; horticulture is no different. This is exactly why you will not see me spending a lot of time giving out a lot of free plant advice or answering a million plant questions on social media. It's also the reason I have firm boundaries when it comes to speaking fees, writing fees, in addition to my consulting fees.

Look, you can't complain about low wages in the horticulture industry or profession whilst constantly giving away your knowledge and expertise for free. It’s a tightrope that you have to walk between being not being overly generous, balancing the marketing value in a give-before-you-get economy and leveraging free content appropriately, and knowing your own value and commanding prices that are commensurate with the value of what it is that you do; be it running a plant shop or garden center, garden design services, qualified tree care, horticultural consulting, and so on.

When you make horticulture your profession, or you run a business or provide services in the green industry, part of your job is educating the public on the value of horticulture. That usually starts with reflecting on, and setting mindful boundaries around, your own time and value.

In case you missed it, here's a link to a column from a few weeks ago on knowing your value with your customers.

If you'd like my weekly column delivered to your email inbox, you can sign up for my Plant For Profits newsletter HERE, along with my other newsletter options.