Loma Vista Nursery News

Growing Green Careers

The choice to follow a green career path is born from passion and a desire to leave the Earth a better place. That value is shared by all of Loma Vista Nursery’s past and more recent interns. To cap off Green Career Week, we thought we’d catch up with a few of them to see what they’re doing now.

 

Madison Cully as Loma Vista Nursery intern (left) and today as enhancement coordinator for Lifescape Colorado.

Q&A with Madison Cully

When were you an intern at Loma Vista Nursery?

I was an intern during the summer of 2016.

What brought you to the green industry?

I have a few family members whose job involves being outside. They always seemed very content with their job and it made me consider that option while exploring careers. I took one class in high school that had a few weeks of botany courses and it was one of the first times I remember being fascinated with a subject that specific. When I found out you could do something similar for a living, I knew I had found what I wanted to explore in college. Kansas State University has a great horticulture department, which is where I graduated from in 2018.

What are you doing now?

I am the enhancement coordinator for Lifescape Colorado, located in Denver. We are a full-service landscape design, construction and maintenance company. My main duties involve material (specifically plant) procurement, scheduling and coordinating projects for our enhancement division.

How did your internship help you figure out what path you wanted to take?

In my current position, I spend a lot of time working with vendors – specifically nurseries! I love that my first internship was with such a notable nursery in this industry. It showed me the other side of where the plants we purchase come from, how they are organized, cared for, grown, shipped, etc. Although I didn’t end up on the growing/production side of the green industry, it gives me great perspective and is likely the reason why I enjoy working with vendors so much.

 

Mallory Unverfehrt’s journey led her as an intern at Loma Vista Nursery, left, to Curious Plot, a food, agriculture and animal care marketing firm.

Q&A with Mallory Unverfehrt

When were you an intern with Loma Vista Nursery?

I interned with Loma Vista Nursery as a marketing and communications intern during the summer of 2019.

What brought you to the green industry?

With a production agriculture background and a desire to challenge myself, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to intern with Loma Vista Nursery. The internship drew me into the green industry. I was challenged to learn about nursery production, plant diseases, marketing, social media strategies, sales and video production. To this day, I ask my local plant nurseries where their plants come from (and can identify diseases on plants to avoid purchasing). Yes, I truly source Loma Vista Nursery plants when shopping.

What are you doing now?

After interning with Loma Vista Nursery, I continued my horticulture career with GreenMark Media. After graduation, I accepted my first full-time job with GreenMark Media, working across multiple clients within the horticulture and sustainable industries. I found my way back to agriculture and currently work at Curious Plot. I’ve used my experiences from my internship in each of my internships and full-time jobs. The transparency and leadership at Loma Vista Nursery provided me with a base for what all companies should strive for. Interns are given the opportunity to fully understand the business from propagation to the final sale.

How did your internship help you figure out what path you wanted to take?

My internship provided me with a path into the horticulture industry. It developed my passion for plants and the benefits they provide. This passion drew me into my next two jobs at GreenMark Media. Staying true to my agriculture roots, I now work to support clients who have a national agriculture presence.

 

Brooke Stamm’s internship at Loma Vista Nursery led her to a full-time position as the nursery’s propagation and perennial manager.

Q&A with Brooke Stamm

When were you an intern at Loma Vista Nursery?

I was an intern at Loma Vista Nursery in 2015.

What brought you to the green industry?

It was a combination of my mom teaching me about plants from a young age to a high school FFA program, which led me to study horticulture at Kansas State University.

What are you doing now?

I am now propagation and perennial manager at Loma Vista Nursery.

How did your internship help you figure out what path you wanted to take?

I knew very little about the nursery business when I started here and now I have come to love it. I didn’t even know I was interested in this segment of the green industry, but I’m really grateful that I took a chance on a nursery internship and that Loma Vista decided to hire me full-time at the end of it.

 

For information about Loma Vista Nursery, our internship program and the work we do as a wholesale plant grower, visit our website at www.lomavistanursery.com.

Learn More About Landscape Plants from Loma Vista Nursery

Loma Vista Nursery’s staff members are experts in the field. We love helping people learn and understand more about healthy plants that perform well in Midwest landscapes. For more information, visit our plant catalog. Feel free to email us at sales@lomavistanursery.com or call us at (785) 229-7200 to get answers to your plant-related questions.

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