garden center manager

retail sales associate

garden center merchandiser

landscape designer

garden associate

Armstrong Garden Centers

This is a great place to work, if you like being outdoors and multi-tasking. There is always something to do.  If you are a proactive person and thrive on being busy, it is a great opportunity to learn and advance.  It is a very simple equation.  There is generally very little down time.  You especially need to have a positive attitude and truly enjoy working with people and being helpful.  The days are long and the weather can be tough sometimes.  Employees are all typically very nice and interesting people.  Employees are very supportive of each other and always willing to share their knowledge.  Management is very patient with employees and always willing to answer questions and explain procedures etc... It is very much a "hands-on" learning environment.  It is impossible to know everything.  You learn something new everyday. However, the Company does offer internal classes to learn more about plants multiple times a year.  You have to be able to take direction and focus on multiple tasks.  It is also really important to be on time for work.  Often times you will be given a project to start at the beginning of your day, however you will need to stop and start throughout your day to help customers locate items, answer their questions if you can, or help carry out plants and soil amendments to their car.  Then, you are expected to go back to your original task.  But there are never enough hours in the day, so you do the best you can.  It is a very big balancing act.  Starting out, it's a great job for someone who does not have big living expenses.  Starting wages are maybe $16-17/hour.  The company does try to give small bonuses when it can.  They are generous with providing lunches for certain occasions and offer decent benefits for full-time employees.  Employees wear a uniform and the Company covers that and reimburses you for shoes and pants.  You have a uniform budget for the year.  There is lots of opportunity for advancement if you are interested.  You just have to be reliable, proactive, and dedicated.  There are so many business aspects to the whole industry.  There is always something new to learn.  After working for all sorts of companies in all types of offices, I don't think I could ever go back to that!

Even though they have a manager in training program you can start with. My store had very different styles of managers. My store had 3 managers store manager, 2nd assistant and 3rd assistant manager. The first 12 months the 2nd assistant manager changed out a few times and they were all great. They seemed to legit care about work life balance, employees physical and mental wellbeing. My last 6 months there we got a new 2nd assistant manager along with a new general manager who wanted to implement alot of change. Employees started to become micro managed, manipulated, work life balance didn't seem to matter. My store needed alot of change aestically, but we were always complemented by customers on inventory and customer service, we also made the highest profits of any other store in the.  The store had gone through 3 GMs while I was there. From the time I started til the time the new GM took place I noticed change progressively happening in a positive way. Unfortunately it was too slow for the new GM and the new 2nd assistant manager. Then during the holidays, the busiest time of year (1 of the busiest) alot of changes started being implemented all at once which caused low morale against employees and managers that had been there, and alot of stress. Certain employees were being soloed out to do more, and the positive fun work environment we previously had was no longer there. I was forced to resign after a meeting with a GM about concerns I had that started to become an issue because of the way work load was being distributed. The fact that I had a care giver job went from respected to my problem. 

My professional career spans decades, with many years in retail nursery work. I was hired for Assistant Manager training without any plans of actually giving me a store to be Assistant Manager with. The training was for a POSSIBILITY of a new store opening at some time, somewhere, maybe... These business practices were misleading. 

Hired in February for full-time work/training, the "official" training didn't start until June or July, depending on when they could coordinate with other new-hires in southern CA. My scheduled hours ranged from 24 hrs/wk to 37- in limbo with pay and my future. Hired with entry-level wages, they dangled the management carrot in front of me until I couldn't handle being financial unstable any longer forcing me to find new job. No sick time, no vacation time and the medical benefits offered were too expensive; my co-workers were receiving Medical/ Covered CA.

Beautiful plant stock and quality soils mixed with hideous knick-knack housewares imported from China required by CORPORATE to be displayed in stale order. 
All plants not holding up to high visual standards were thrown in the dumpster- not composted, not donated- thrown away for landfill. 

Management used slush fund money for corporate getaways but did not include all employees. Although this is an employee owned business model, only administration and management reaped rewards of profit.

I thought this would be my dream job - only to find out that corporate is run by some really horrible people. 

The employees in the stores are wonderful, working outside and being around all the plants all day is a dream come true... but corporate is filled with people that are just plain mean. They have no understanding of what it is like to work in the stores and they don't care about the people that are making them money. They always make you feel like they are doing you a favor by letting you work there. 

The hardest part of the job is that you just don't feel appreciated, and you can't trust management. You are constantly looking over your shoulder hoping that someone from the mother-ship isn't entering your store. They are mean, condescending, dishonest and not loyal to their employees. In addition to that, they will betray your confidences - if you work here, never let them know your weaknesses, as they will take every opportunity they can to cut you down in that area. 

I would never recommend anyone working for this company. It has been an absolute nightmare, and honestly... everyone feels the same way. This was the most defeating and demoralizing experience of my life.  I am so glad to be gone. 

After working at Armstrong for a few years, it became apparent that most of my coworkers (and even my managers), were afraid of the corporate staff. The company tries to keep their employees in line with fear and often sets up new employees to fail with little-to-no training during incredibly busy weekends during the most trafficked seasons of the year in this industry. On top of that, the management teams and corporate staff have the audacity to act surprised when employees stay for an average of three months. 

Retail is a difficult industry to handle, both physically and emotionally, and Armstrong makes it even more difficult to tolerate with their long hours (expect 12 hour shifts or 7 day workweeks during the spring and Christmas season), and poor benefits. The company culture tries to speak to employee ownership, which is a nice perk if you manage to stay here for five years (to become "fully vested" in your stock), but there is little to no job advancement here anyway, unless you would like to be stuck as a manager trainee while 30 other people fight for an assistant manager position. 

Despite all of this I've met some of the greatest people here and have learned a ton about an industry / field I would have never even thought twice about before applying. I only wish that Armstrong was better to the people working for it.

Associates are overloaded with work at all levels and morale is low. This issue is apparent at the store level through corporate management. Customers perceive Armstrong as an old-fashioned brand, with conservative values. The company wants to progress without making real change. Since the pandemic major cuts have been made, despite record sales.

I experienced a serious lack of appropriate tools to complete expected work. I was provided an old computer, without the necessary programs, tools or work space.

Lack of support with no department manager for 3 years. Many members of the corporate team are based on the east coast and work for two bands-- I would often not hear from management for many days at a time.

Unrealistic workload due to poor communication, lack of visibility across the team. Constant micromanagement combined with lack of direction or expectations. My 1 year review was never completed, so I was not given feedback regarding job performance until 2 years in — I felt that this kept me from performing at expectation. I had expressed unhappiness on many occasions, asking for better tools & support without any improvement.

Working here sounds great and is at first but it isn't when you realize that you will be taken advantage of and be made responsible for too many tasks than you can handle. Management varies in many stores so you feel instability, in my experience management/corporate staff has been cliquey, everyone is friends so you don't get any real help when it is needed. Micromanaging was a big problem at my store and we often had little to no help even in the busiest times of the year. We did not have any full time cashiers so department heads were forced to drop everything they're doing to cashier, taking time away from assisting customers and getting our departments organized. Also don't bother with getting hurt on the job they will not take care of you and HR department isn't on your side. It was fun at first and I really liked it but as time progressed and the sand started to settle, the water became clear that this is nothing short of a dead end job masked with a beautiful quaint flower crown. The politics and constant fear of your store not being up to company standard is insanely draining when you realize it is just a garden center. 

First and foremost you must love plants.  Learning about them, being near them.  Always thinking about their beauty and their happiness.  I derive such joy in finding the “underdogs” the seemingly uninteresting shrubs, that any passerby would leave unnoticed, while in their dormancy.  Finding the pictures to show customers their full potential!  I’m not a landscape designer yet but I have dreams for my future.  Management is just management it’s the same in any retail job no matter what.  Corporate sends their planograms and rules.  It’s the same in any retail company you work for.  Corporate expectations are never realistic,  but that’s nothing new.  I’m here for them for the plants and for the happinesses they bring to people.  I’m not looking to be anybody’s boss, I feel privileged to be amongst them, these plants and in nature.  If I’ve got to spend 8 hours a day to earn my keep, I can’t think of a better job to have than this one!

Your experience there is entirely determined by management and if they like you or not. If they don't like you, you'll be nitpicked and micromanaged 'till you can't breathe. Going higher doesn't help because often store management and upper management are very buddy buddy and best case scenario, your complaints fall on deaf ears. Any good management gets shifted around like it's shuffleboard and bad ones stay in the same place for far too long.
Training? There is none, you better pray that one of your coworkers is nice and takes you under their wing because you're not getting anything more than a very general explanation of duties from management and a surprised look when you say you have questions about doing your job right.
The job itself is pretty nice and enjoyable, customers are customers like any other place and if you like plants you'll definitely love it here; management can just really make or break your experience to a ridiculous degree

I was so excited to work for this company- but within a few weeks I knew I had made a mistake. Beautiful stores and products. But the employees are mistreated by Corporate Management. Everyone is overworked, underpaid and NOT APPRECIATED. 

The company really plays up the ESOP program, which is they’re excuse for not paying a living wage or offering affordable insurance. People are required to work in the blistering heat and have to earn things like water bottles and popsicles.  Raises are pennies if you get anything at all. I can go work fast food and make more money and have better benefits. 

It’s a very defeating environment... and if you complain, they turn it around on you and try to make you feel like everything is your fault.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Garden center manager 39 salaries reported	$25.82 per hour
Retail sales associate 3 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Garden center merchandiser 7 salaries reported	$21.71 per hour
Landscape designer 6 salaries reported	$23.50 per hour
Garden associate 5 salaries reported	$19.90 per hour

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