Get to know Rebekah Davenport

Rebekah
Davenport

NM: How did you get started in horticulture?

RD: Growing up, my mom liked flowers, so I always watched her plant a beautiful summer garden. She would have lots of perennials, black eyed Susan, coneflowers, all sorts of beautiful plants. My grandfather was much more into gardening than my grandmother. Once he passed away, she took over all of his garden, so I got to see how she learned a lot more about gardening following his passing years ago. All that to say, I knew a little bit about gardening when I came to Riverbend 10 years ago. I was a young mom with young kids and needed a Saturday job to have more social interaction with adults. I didn’t know a whole lot about plants, but I came to work at Riverbend on Saturdays. I worked with some wonderful people that mentored me and taught me a lot about plants. I soaked it up like a sponge, and I’m still learning about plants today.

NM: What do you do as social media marketer at Riverbend Nurseries?

RD: I basically do all the social media aspects at the nursery, so I do Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, as well as our Google profile, our newsletters through our website and our blog posts.

NM: I read some of the blogs on the website, and I was wondering what inspired you to start doing that and how do you come up with what you discuss on it?

RD: Inspiration comes from a lot of different things. A lot of times it will be what’s currently looking beautiful at the nursery, or what season we’re heading into. I’m starting to write blogs about fall now. We’ll be talking about how to care for chrysanthemums, what kind of flowers look beautiful in the fall, what kind of shrubs look great in fall or how to plan a four-season garden.

NM: What’s a common mistake consumers make when gardening?

RD: So one common mistake that we find is regarding indoor plants. I joke and say people over-love them. They tend to overwater a whole lot. Unless it’s a specific one, most indoor plants, as a whole, do not need a ton of water, so you just want to water them sporadically. Also, a lot of indoor plants need bright light, and some people don’t give their plants enough light indoors, especially plants like succulents. For outdoor plants, often we find if a homeowner moves into a new house, they might not know the sunlight that their area gets, and they might just assume that it’s a full sun location when it actually gets a whole lot of shade after 10 in the morning. That’s something that’s very important with gardening, knowing what kind of sunlight your area gets and truly knowing, not just guessing when you come to the garden center.

NM: What’s your favorite part of your job?

RD: My favorite part of the job is definitely interacting with customers, so I love to be very personal online. If somebody sends a comment or asks a question, I always respond no matter what it is. I think it’s very important for social media marketers to be very friendly. You are the voice of the company online, so you want to portray a very friendly, customer service-oriented vibe and that just happens to be something that I love. Also just getting to interact with customers, never making them feel like they have a dumb question. I just want them to always know that they’re important and that we care about helping them thrive with their gardening efforts.

NM: So when you’re not working, what are some of your hobbies?

RD: I love beautiful things, beautiful gardens and do interior design on the side. I also go hiking with my family in East Tennessee. We’ve got three kids, and they’re the joys of our lives, so we love to spend time with them.

For more: riverbendnurseries.com