2022 Internship Program
We believe in the future of our industry. We believe in you!
Why Intern with Tagawa?
Our industry depends on future generations. This is why we have hosted dozens of domestic and international students over the past 25 years.
Our program gives students experience in all areas of the industry, and is perfect for those aspiring to become business leaders, owners, horticulturalists/growers, or entrepreneurs in our field.
During our 6 month internship (January through June), students get a complete, hands-on overview of our entire business. This also includes a horticultural-focused portion where students work with the greenhouse production team to grow a crop (propagation, plugs, and finished) under the supervision of our production staff.
From humble beginnings to the Nation’s Leading Purveyor of Plants
Tagawa Greenhouses had a very humble beginning. The Tagawa family began their odyssey in 1967. Frank and Hazel Tagawa taught their five boys and one girl, that hard work, honesty, dedication, leadership, and commitment to change are the key ingredients to a successful business.
Beginning by tilling the soil and producing vegetables, the family diversified by building their first carnation greenhouse and later produced bedding plants and roses. To be competitive, the family increased their product lines to include blooming plants, poinsettias and young plant production. The company has grown to become one of the top producers of plants in the United States.
Although we come from humble beginnings, we now grow more than two million square feet of plants at any given time. We are proud to produce annual and perennial seedlings and liners for greenhouses across North America. Nationally recognized big box garden centers and grocery chains trust our InColor Retail-Ready Plants to grow the finished annual and perennial products they sell all year to their customers.
While the products we grow are very different, what couldn’t be more alike is the expertise, care and passion that goes into the growth of each plant we touch. The greatest compliment our customers pay us is when they say there really is a difference with Tagawa.
The legacy of the Tagawa family’s vision carries on with the next generation of owners which includes family and non-family members.
For more than 50 years, our family has set the standard of excellence in our industry. The bedrock principle guiding our company has been working with integrity and transparency: building trust over time with our customers and the community.
It's About Plants
It's About People
It's About Relationships
A Day-In-The-Life of a Tagawa Intern
We believe in order to understand and become prepared to manage teams in a greenhouse, an intern or future manager needs to work along side greenhouse teams, experience the same challenges, and lead by example. We expect our interns to work the same schedules as each of the departments they work with during their time with Tagawa.
The typical workday starts at 7:00AM.
Each department ends at different times depending on workload.
Although not every department works on Saturday and Sundays, there will be some weeks where Saturdays and Sundays are expected.
All housing is provided to interns in Brighton, CO while they are in the internship program free of charge.
You may be placed with a roommate of the same gender.
Utilities and internet are provided free of charge to the intern during the internship program.
*Note: This is an agricultural position that meets the Agricultural Exemption under the FLSA, and is not compensated 1.5x earnings for hours worked over 40. We pay interns for all hours worked and reimburse for mileage and make traveling arrangements such as hotel room and costs if traveling to NM is required.
Six Month Rotations
1. Growing Plugs from Seeds & Vegetative Cuttings
Your journey at Tagawa begins where all of our plant products begin: Seeding or Sticking. At our North Facility in Brighton, we specialize in Seeding.
You will work with John and Lupe to run the seeding lines. Seeding Operators run the machines and you can see first hand the kind of support the team needs to move thousands of trays a day in and out of our Seeding area.
At our Foothills facility in Golden, we have both AutoStix and traditional hand sticking lines. Some of our top stickers can do over 1400 sticks per person per hour while still using a gentle touch to ensure each plant can become a rooted liner. This is only possible due to our standardized process and the hard work of our Sticking Team!
2. "No-Touch Production" Growing Specialists
We love interns because many of our Production Team were Horticulture Majors when they were in school too!
For the Internship Program this year, you will spend 2-3 weeks working side by side with our Production Team to see how these scientists give each plant in the greenhouse world-class care: even when it’s expected for them to produce millions of plants during our winter and spring season.
At both facilities, we challenge our production teams to take a “No-Touch” approach. This is how each facility watch over the entire greenhouse facility with less than a dozen people, and still maintain water and soil pH/EC, temperature, light, humidity, and chemical templates.
NOTE: Interns working in Production will not meet requirements to obtain Colorado certifications to apply chemicals (controlled growth regulators, pesticides, herbicides, etc.). You will however, work hands-on with moisture and quality management during this rotation, and see firsthand how teams react to different challenges.
3. Operations
Even though many Horticulturists feel right at home in our Production Team, by far the more heavily staffed side of the greenhouses are our Operations Teams.
While Production Specialists will control the greenhouse environments, different plants often have different needs: not to mention that some must be planted into larger containers, some need a little extra pruning and trimming, and all of them have to eventually be moved out of our greenhouse and to the waiting arms of a customer!
Behold the world of Greenhouse Operations!
For the other 4-5 week rotation you will work with Operations teams in Brighton and Golden who specialize in Movement, Transplanting, Planting, Patching/Combifix, Plant Maintenance, Quality Control, and Collation.
From there, you will go down for 2 weeks to our TSW facility in Estancia, NM to see operations work in a completely different way with similar products.
Finally you will spend 1 week working with our Warehouse Loading Crew.
Managers are not only responsible for managing product, but also managing the teams, getting the work done, and promoting a positive work environment.
During these weeks you will be able to observe the supervision styles of 2 managers and up to 9 different supervisors. What kind of manager do you want to become?
4. Retail-Ready (set, go!)
Even after we send our product out the door, our jobs aren’t done yet!
For interns who are looking for a home in a finished product setting, look no further than our InColor Retail-Ready Teams!
• 2 Week Rotation Costco (short term Road Show)
• 2 Week Rotation Home Depot (big-box garden center)
For our Retail Team, 80-90% of our business happens in May, and there is no bigger weekend for us in Colorado than Mother’s Day Weekend.
Unless you’re living in the tropics, there is a definite seasonality to greenhouse and horticulture work. This means, you have to make this time of the year count the most!
Travel with both of our InColor teams as they set stores, reset, and reset again! This team makes fast-paced marketing decisions and really showcases our products through their top notch merchandising skills.
5. Tagawa Gardens - 1 week rotation
For 5 days, you will also have the chance to visit our sister company in Centennial, Colorado.
While both of the companies specialized in cut flowers/carnations back in the day, as TGE moved into young plants and plug production, Tagawa Rose Farm (“Tagawa Gardens”) became a full-fledged local garden center.
Since 1982 when they opened to the public, Tagawa Gardens has made themselves a place for the community to gather. From outreach and education programs to miniature fairy and gnome gardens, the Tagawa Gardens team is always there to help up and coming enthusiasts with all of their gardening and horticulture needs.
Behind the Scenes - 1 hour, 1 day rotations
By this point in the internship, you should be familiar with all of the time and energy it takes to execute a plan. However, greenhouses require the coordination of all teams to make sure everything runs smoothly.
From 6/8 to 6/28, you will meet with the different administration groups. This includes the variety selection and retail-ready administration requirements, both finished and pre-finished marketing, distribution/logistics, account services, inventory, human resources, IT, Accounting, facilities management, and maintenance.
Intern Project: Starting 6/28 you will also be given the opportunity to complete a project with our Colorado General Manager that uses the skills and observations you’ve acquired with us during the internship program.
CONCLUSION
We’re excited to meet you and hopefully you can join us for our 2022 Internship Program!
Here at Tagawa Greenhouses, we believe the future of our industry will be dependent on passing down our experience and excitement for plants to our future generations. Our Internship Program gives students a full understanding of how our business runs, and hopefully will help to inspire students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Internship Candidates are selected after submitting the form below and an interview with our Internship Committee, taking into consideration past experiences, an interest in horticulture, and the excitement to start a future in our industry.
