Behind the Business: Learning from Each Other

Chris Beytes

Interns have been a part of Bailey Nurseries for more than 50 years, says Terri McEnaney, who has housed, fed, worked and played with many of them.

“It’s a tradition,” she says of the internship program, which goes back to her father, Rod Bailey, and his brother, Gordie. “Every company’s success is built by its people and we have had some great contributors over our 110 years.”

Pictured: Juan Lozano (right) with Fernando Vilifan, who he’s been mentoring for the past 10 years. 

Even before the interns, employees from various cultures have been a part of the nursery industry. For a good part of Bailey’s history, Hispanics were the backbone of the labor force.

“My grandmother would ring the bell to bring in the workers from the field for meals that she would prepare in the old homestead’s kitchen,” Terri recalls. “The work ethic and dedication of these people and their commitment to family and community is honorable.” 

Juan Lozano is one example. Juan came to work for Bailey’s in 1975 as a young man from Mexico. Recalls Terri, “One of our managers, Freddie Garcia, had a heart attack and could no longer run the crew. My dad saw something in Juan that Juan didn’t see in himself and promoted him to foreman. Juan said that he didn’t know much about ball & burlap, but Rod told him he knew more than he thought.”

Today, Juan is one of the most respected managers at Bailey, mentoring younger employees like Fernando Vilifan. Juan says taking this job has been “the best decision of my life” because he feels a part of the success of the company and a part of the Bailey family. 

As mentioned, Bailey’s intern program is more than 50 years old, and has featured both domestic and international interns. Today, many of Bailey’s key management positions are held by one-time interns. There’s Shane Brockshus, who started as an Iowa State student in their pot-in-pot fields in Minnesota and today leads their West Coast operations. And John Fisk, a classmate of Shane’s, who runs their Minnesota container operations.

Then there’s JoAnn Kern, who works in sales management. JoAnn, like many of Bailey’s employees, was an Iowa farm girl who knew a lot about corn and soybeans, but little about oaks and hydrangeas.

“She had never heard of Bailey, but she learned a lot during her internship and has made it her career,” says Terri. “I’ve never seen someone with so much energy and work ethic.” How much? “She was loading a semi during spring annual season the same day she delivered her daughter, Kelly,” says Terri.

Not all interns stayed to become full-time employees, of course.

Gary Hope was a handsome young New Zealander who arrived at Bailey through an international internship program. He worked through the summer, and went home with nursery experience and more—and a wife. He met and fell in love with Terri’s cousin Mary, daughter of Gordie and Jo Bailey. Gary went on to run his own nursery in New Zealand. He and Mary have four daughters. Regular trips to and from New Zealand have only added to the international flavor of the Bailey clan.

Swedish grower Nils Anderson is another international exchange student with lifelong ties with the Baileys. Nils worked for the company in the 1970s: the era of short-shorts, tube tops and the quest for the ultimate tan. Recalls Terri: “Nils was a gorgeous blonde soccer star who all of the women were drooling over. He taught the young Baileys a few things about playing soccer. Nils eventually started his own nursery in Sweden and today is a network partner in Europe for our Endless Summer and First Editions brands.”

Interns from abroad want more than just work experience, Terri says, “they want to experience everything. Not just working at a nursery, but seeing Minnesota’s north woods.” One such intern was a young woman from Finland named Sanna Kauppinen.

“She was one of those people you meet who is just a breath of fresh air. She taught us how to take a real sauna, not the way we thought we were doing it. She had us hitting ourselves with birch branches and then jumping in the frigid cold lake!” 

Nurseries are a bit of a melting pot of cultures. At Bailey, it was Hispanics for many years, and still is. But recently, with labor more difficult to find, they’ve been working with a refugee program in the Twin Cities that places workers from Myanmar (Burma). They are now a major part of the Bailey work force.

“[They are] just a wonderful, wonderful group of people,” Terri says. “They’re so appreciative of the work they have and are very hard workers. They’ve been able to really assimilate their culture into ours. Many of them are learning Spanish sometimes before they’re learning English!”

Terri laughs and says she now has to do her staff meetings in three languages, including (through a translator) Spanish and Karen (the Burmese language).

“And they don’t have letters in their alphabet, they have symbols,” she adds. “So it’s been really interesting to try to assimilate them into using the paperwork we have, like to pull an order. It’s foreign to them—completely!”

It sounds as though Bailey’s internship program—along with their regular international work force—has provided much more than just labor to the nursery and to the Bailey family. Says Terri of the many friends they’ve made over the years, “They may never work in a nursery, but someday they might be our customer, someday they might be a competitor, someday they might be your best advocate. You never know what that connection will be.

“In the end, being able to learn from each other is pretty rewarding.” GT