You never know who you may meet in a K-Mart parking lot. Shortly after I came to work here last spring, I purchased a small orange tree at K-Mart to help decorate the newspaper office.
As I was putting the plant in my car, I heard a man”s voice bark that I should have bought a palm tree. It was an unusual icebreaker, but, the voice was connected to a friendly face and his forward approach worked. We had a pleasant conversation.
The speaker introduced himself and his wife as Mike and Mary Daugherty. He said that he was the sales manager for Lake County Palms, the company that is bringing palm trees to Lake County. I told Mike that I had just moved here from Colorado, where there are no palm trees. I confessed that I don”t know much about them. I mentioned that I was surprised to find that they survive in this area.
Mike explained how Lake County Palms specializes in hardy trees that are acclimated to colder temperatures. They had just spent four years getting trees adjusted and were now starting to market them. At the end of the conversation, I told Mike that I would consider the possibility of planting a palm tree. I also assured him that I wouldn”t think of buying from anyone but him. Mike gave me his business card.
Throughout the summer, I labored to improve the outside appearance at the Record-Bee building. On weekends, I worked on a number of projects to spruce things up. There is a concrete, circular flower garden in the back parking lot that contained only a small rosebush and a shrub. The rest was ugly, hard-packed dirt where an oak tree once stood. I wanted to turn this area into something special.
My first inclination was to fill the planter with flowers. The more I thought about it, though, the more I considered the effort it would take to maintain a large flower garden. I coupled that with the fact that I am no gardner and moved on. Next, I remembered Mike and his palm trees and I envisioned the circle as kind of a tropical island in a sea of asphalt.
I called Mike and explained my vision. He took a drive over to our lot and inspected the circular flower garden. He agreed that the area would be perfect for the oasis I had in mind. A few days later Mike toured me through Lake County Palms” inventory. They have a huge number of palm trees with a variety of species. He named the types and described the qualities of each. As we left, he told me work at picking a favorite. After a few days, I settled on the Mexican Fan Palms.
Mike said he would coordinate with his business partner, Dr. Wayne Scheideman, for the planting schedule. Mike explained that Wayne and his wife, Tina, are owners in the business and Wayne especially loves to work on the planting element of the operation. The appointed planting day turned out to be a beautiful, warm, Sunday afternoon in September.
Wayne arrived pulling a trailer with three gorgeous stair-stepped fan palms and two small decorative palms to complete the grouping. After “Backhoe Bob” Silveira expertly dug the hole, Wayne used the forks on his Bobcat to move the potted palms from the trailer and place them in the hole. If Wayne is as skilled a doctor, as he is a palm tree planter, and I suspect he is, he”s quite a doctor.
When Record-Bee employees showed up Monday morning, they were amazed at the transformation. One employee remarked that taking a break outside now makes her feel like she has had a mini-tropical vacation. Mike and Wayne succeeded in creating the oasis I had envisioned.
Always keep an open mind. A chance meeting in a store parking lot, or elsewhere, has the potential to lead to amazing results.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. He can be reached at gdickson@record-bee.com or called direct at 263-5636 ext. 24.
