How to Identify Different Plants

During the interview for my first job in the nursery industry, the owner who was hiring me asked what I knew about plants.  I told him I knew nothing.  He said he’d hire me if I agreed to learn all the plants they grew.  I had to test at least 90% accuracy with full botanical name within three months or else I’d be fired.  I agreed.

My first job was as a Regional Sales Manager, which was basically an inside sales rep with a very large account area and no outside rep support.  It was a big job on its own without the challenge of having to learn all the cultivars.  I had to introduce myself to all the customers, manage and ship orders, win new sales, etc.  I would have to be creative to achieve success in the job and still pass the test.

What Not to Do

The first thing I did was take home the picture catalog.  It was a nice, glossy, colorful magazine which showed all of their plants in one convenient place.  I tried studying off of that and found that reading and looking at pictures was not enough to make it stick.  I’d read through the whole catalog and get to the beginning only to find myself as unfamiliar as I was the first time. 

The next strategy I employed was good old flash cards.  I cut out pictures of each cultivar and glued them to 3x5 cards while writing the full botanical name on the back sides.  This was something I did back at college for tests.  It worked like a charm when I was trying to memorize the pre-op inspection test for my Class A CDL some years back so I tried it again here. 

I’d get off work, have a quick supper, and lock myself in the bedroom drilling on those cards for hours.  The one thing it did was give me some familiarity with the names.  I would practice saying them out loud to work my way through the Latin pronunciation.  Still, after a few weeks of this, I was able to guess the right name for the picture but was struggling to associate the names with the physical crops on the ground, which would be the actual test. 

Strategies that Worked

Once I realized I’d plateaued with the flash cards, I decided to spend an hour or two each afternoon in the field.  I chose the closest lateral to the entrance, parked the car, and began walking slowly.  I’d stare at the crop sign and repeat it a few times until I felt I had it then I’d look at the plants and try to pick apart what made them unique from the ones next to them.  Because of how they grouped plants, the cultivars within a genus were typically together which made this strategy more effective. 

One habit I picked up was to physically touch the plants, feel the textures, etc.  Tiger Eye sumac have a pleasantly soft, fuzzy stalk.  Blue Arrow junipers have a similar growth habit to Skyrocket but one is pokey while the other is soft.  Memory is a tricky thing, and I found it helped me to learn the plants by creating more links between the plant’s name and its characteristics.  It could be textures, aromas, or even the hue of the foliage. 

There were some cultivars that I found too similar at first to tell apart very well and it was all the more challenging that I was hired in December so my first test would take place before the deciduous plants broke dormancy.  For these, I employed an unconventional method.  I memorized where the plants were geographically on the nursery.  I didn’t realize Admiration barberry were variegated until months after I was tested on them.

The final and best method that I employed was to inspect the material that was being prepared for shipping on my orders.  There are a few great things about the shipping dock.  First, as a sales rep, I needed to inspect my loads anyway for quality control, so it was a combo deal to use that time to learn the plants.  Second, there is nowhere else on the farm with as concentrated a variety of products.  It’s a great opportunity and one no aspiring sales rep can afford to miss.

Final Words and the Big Test

The only way to learn anything is to engage with it.  Live it, breathe it, fit it in when you have a spare moment, fit it in before work, after work, before bed.  I have to find time and make time to learn and grow.  The more time I spend engaging, the more I refine my process and try different things, the better and faster I’ll learn it. 

It was a drizzly, winter Oregon day when I’d finished my first three months with the company.  Time for my big test.  The owner and I drove around together in his pickup truck and he’d point way ahead so I couldn’t see the crop signs and ask, “What is that one?”  I’d give it my best shot and we’d continue on. 

Although I don’t recall the exact percentage that I hit, I’m pretty sure I came up short in the end.  I recall him giving some pretty strong hints when it came to Pinus sylvestris.  He was a very good sport and kept it fun.  In the end, he seemed satisfied to find that I had engaged with the products, was eagerly learning, and took the role very seriously.  We worked together for four years, and that job set the stage for a whole career path. It all started with this challenge to learn how to identify different plants.