Career Links Vol 2 No 5 March 2003

Cultivating a New Career:

donna.jpg (168 KB) Donna Salkil

An Interview with Donna Salkil,
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Horticulture and Greenhouse Technician

Interviewed by Kit Gorrell Frankenfield,
Employment Systems Technician,
JCCC Career Services Center

Donna Salkil teaches two classes in the Horticulture program here at Johnson County Community College. Donna’s passion for plants, the greenhouse, the college grounds and the classes she teaches is unmistakable. For more information, you can reach Donna by email at dsalkil@jccc.edu or by telephone at (913) 469-8500 Ext.4536. Program information is also available on the Internet at http://web.jccc.net/academic/science/courses/horticulture/Default.htm Information about JCCC’s Horticultural Science Center is available at http://web.jccc.net/academic/science/greenhouse/greenhs.htm The American Horticultural Society also offers a great deal of information about careers in horticulture at http://www.ahs.org.

Career Services Center: What do you do at JCCC, Donna?

Donna Salkil: I teach Fruits, Vegetables and Herb Crops and Home Horticulture. I also maintain the greenhouse and the Horticultural Science Center. I’m responsible for keeping track of what needs to be fixed, calling in orders, etc. I do all of the mechanical work in the greenhouse that I can and take care of the plants. I have 10,000 square feet of gardens and an orchard I’ve started because I teach the Fruits, Vegetables and Herb course. We’re going to expand the gardens as far as they will let us go on campus. We’re going to have an orchard with small fruits. Last year, we had a big vegetable garden with a lot of vegetables. My class gets to grow plants and they really enjoy it. I’m teaching Home Horticulture now and these students are starting all the cold crops, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli in the greenhouse. The students help with the plant sale, which is always the first Friday in May; they learn how to propagate plants, and grow everything that they would grow at home.

I am also somewhat of a “plant doctor” for people here at the college. I get a lot of calls that the extension agents in Johnson County would get about plants. I receive emails asking questions, and people even drag in plants that are dying and ask me what to do for them. I do a lot of plant disease diagnosis, which I enjoy. People bring me seeds and want to know what kind of plant it will be. I laugh. Sometimes I can tell. Sometimes I tell them to leave me the seeds and I’ll plant them, find out and then let them what it is. I get questions constantly from the community, for example, people who know I raise bananas and other weird things. I even get asked to come over to people’s homes for advice on what to plant in their gardens. Sometimes I go out in the community and speak to different gardening groups.

CSC: What is horticulture?

DS: The word “horticulture” means garden cultivation. It means plants that are cultivated by man, as opposed to wild plants.

CSC: It sounds like a fun job.

DS: It is a lot of fun, especially if you like to grow plants. We have a big spring plant sale. We made over $4,000 at last year’s sale. We probably could have brought in a lot more, but I’m saving some plants for the gardens on the grounds. All the money goes to charities on campus, such as the Science Emergency Fund and the Scholarship Fund. We do that a couple of times a year, whenever we get extra plants. We are also involved in lots of other projects. We grow herbs for Hospitality Management. We grow things for different classes, like botany and some of the life sciences classes that need weird plants to show students or do experiments with. I have a collection of ‘weird plants’ because that is something that I enjoy.

CSC: How did your love for this start?

DS: When I was growing up, my grandmother had big gardens including a rose garden; I just helped her all my life, and I liked it! So I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. I can remember she had a beautiful rose garden on one side of the house, and I could remember the names of the roses. I was probably four years old. She had some beautiful plants, and now that I’ve gotten older (I didn’t know what they were at the time) but I remember some of her plants and what they looked like, and I’ve had to go on these wild expeditions in search for them to find out what they were, so I could find the same things that she grew in her garden.

CSC: How long have you been at the college?

DS: I started here in 1990, but I was just over in the little greenhouse by the Science building. When I first started, I was a student just taking a home horticulture class here at JCCC. I had a really nice job and was making a good income, but I wanted to take some horticulture classes. They had the greenhouse and nothing was being done with it. So I suggested that they let me use it. I was given permission, but was told, “We can’t pay you anything.” I filled it up and suggested that we have a plant sale, and we did; it was very successful. The school then decided to pay me for working in the greenhouse about 10 hours per week.

CSC: So you created your own job?

DS: Yes, pretty much. When I finished school here, I went to Kansas State University to get my Bachelor’s degree in Horticulture Science. I had a couple of jobs in commercial businesses and came back here, when the job came open again in the old greenhouse, and worked part-time for about 3 years. They were starting to plan for a larger greenhouse around that time. When that happened, I was here to say, “This is what I’d like.” So I got to help design our Horticultural Science Center and pick out the furniture. I really have a custom-made greenhouse here.

CSC: I think it’s admirable that you began your education, and followed your dream in your 40’s (or midlife).

DS: It was such a piece of cake, after working all those years. I had a good job and was making a good salary. My company had changed hands and it was time to do something different. I asked myself, “What would I do if I could do anything? If I had a choice?” Well, I would just grow plants. So I decided that if I didn’t quit and go to college, I would never finish. If I didn’t do it then, when I had the perfect opportunity, when was I ever going to do it? So I gave my notice one day and enrolled in college the next.

CSC: So the student that goes through the horticulture program earns a certificate?

DS: We have a 1-year certificate program, which gives you enough horticultural knowledge to work in a garden center or nursery, or other retail-type stores that work with plants.

CSC: And then they could go on for a four-year degree?

DS: We have five classes right now that transfer to K-State toward the Horticulture Science degree. Woody Plants/Trees I & II, Herbaceous Plants, Intro to Horticulture, and Plant Propagation.

CSC: What could someone do with a 4-year degree in Horticulture Science?

DS: You could do any number of things. You could work in a college setting teaching; you could be a grower for a big commercial greenhouse, or work in a garden center and supervise.

CSC: What tips do you have for students entering the field of horticulture?

DS: You’d better like it and not mind getting dirty. When people get a degree in horticulture, I think they assume they are never going to get dirty again in their lives. But unless you like to get dirty, you better not be in this occupation, because even people that supervise end up “working” with the people they supervise. Being in the dirt is part of the job. I like to get dirty, and I get paid for it! Also, you should consider becoming fluent in Spanish. If you’re going to work in the commercial horticulture field, you’re going to need to know how to communicate with the employees. I used to work for a large company that had seven acres under glass. We grew commercial plants. Almost all the work force was Hispanic. If you’re going into that sort of business, you need to know Spanish. It’s not the most lucrative thing in the world, but if you are really excited about working with plants, it’s the one of the best things you can do. It’s so much fun!

CSC: What would a typical day and year be like for a horticulturist?

DS: It depends. If you worked for a “mom and pop” company, it would be like what I do. There’s a lot of variety. You could be seeding, watering, maintaining demonstration gardens, selling, doing commercial ordering, making deliveries, and giving a lot of people advice. If you work for a big commercial greenhouse, you might be doing the same thing over and over. I spent seven months one time growing a quarter of a million poinsettias. Nothing but poinsettias. I thought I was going to go nuts. And they even gave me a couple of other crops, and I was still bored.

People who are horticulturists spend from March to May working at a very fast pace, sixteen hours a day and even longer if they own their own business. So you’ve got to be able to shut everything else out when necessary. Also, it’s not pleasant in a greenhouse in the middle of the summer. There’s no air conditioning. And we work outside a lot. I often am crawling around in 100 degree heat.

In March and April we’re seeding like crazy. We’re in here every day, putting things in, and transplanting. I couldn’t do it without the volunteers. I have three or four regular volunteers and others who are more sporadic. I’ve got some people who are very dedicated.

Around February we begin starting plants in the greenhouse. In the spring we plant the gardens and during the summer we are maintaining them. In the fall we dig up plants that need to come in for the winter, and make cuttings of things we want to save. We shut down all the mechanical systems that we don’t need through the winter, washing out water tanks and doing heavy cleaning. There’s always something to do. December and January are our slowest months, but we pull the catalogues out and start planning and ordering for the next season. We try to keep biological control in the greenhouse. We use a lot of soap and oil, but try to stay away from the more poisonous products to control insects.

CSC: What advice do you have for a person considering horticulture as a career?

DS: Some plants are easy to grow, but others are not. Poinsettias and Easter lilies are difficult to grow. Getting the experience with complicated plants will only help you. If you want to learn how to do horticulture, a big company would be a good place to start, or to learn whether you want to be a horticulturist or not.

CSC: What companies in the Kansas City metropolitan area would employ students that complete the horticulture certificate?

DS: You could work for Hermes if you are interested in trees; also, Longview, Family Tree, and The Grass Pad to name a few. There are a lot of greenhouses in Johnson County.

CSC: What is turf management?

DS: It’s grass. Growing and maintaining grass for golf courses and parks, for example. We offer a few classes in turf management. If you want to make money in the horticulture field, you could be the head person at a golf course maintaining all the grass and plants and make a nice living.

CSC: What characteristics do horticulturists need to have to be successful?

DS: You’ve got to be a self-starter. There’s no one around here telling me I have to plant a certain plant on a certain day. I have to be able to see what needs to be done and do it. If you are waiting for someone to tell you, you’re out of luck. Also, you have to know business. I have seen people that were really good at growing plants, but had no business sense at all and went out of business pretty quickly. I’ve also known people who were good business people, but didn’t know the plant industry and it wasn’t fun at all to them, because there are lots of easier ways to make a living. This industry is not without its stresses, especially in the spring.

CSC: What do you love about your job?

DS: I love plants and I get paid to have fun. Someone’s going to find out some day! I have a lot of flexibility. I get to make decisions about the gardens on campus, and as long as I take care of them and they look good, I can plant this campus any way I like it. It’s fun. We get to pick out all the trees, plants and shrubs for our campus, look through the catalogues and be creative. I spend all winter looking through them and making plans for the spring. I love getting plants started, selling them and growing something else, but also I’ve got plants here in the greenhouse that are thirty years old. The growing part is the part that I like. People [from the college] come in here all the time and walk around in the greenhouse and say, “I’m here for my sanity fix.” Being around plants is definitely therapeutic. I use quite a few volunteers here in the greenhouse. I have a few people who are retired and they say, “It’s therapy.” It’s better therapy than anything else because you’re planting, you’re creating, you get dirty, and you see the results of your efforts. It’s a good time.


"To make a prairie, it takes a clover and a bee. One clover and a bee and reverie. The reverie alone will do. Bees are few." Emily Dickinson