Dammann's Garden Company — Attraction in Indianapolis

Ever since we moved to Homecroft, we looked forward to getting our plants from Dammann's on Emerson. We spent many days and a lot of money shopping there over the last 4 years. This year my boyfriend decided to apply for a summer job there since we liked it there so much and everyone that worked there always recognized us and WAS always so friendly to us. They interviewed him and it went well, they seemed excited that he was going to work there bc they remembered how many times we had been there over the past summers. They told him he had a job and made him wait 3 weeks to start and fired him after the first day bc the new owner, Matt, didn't get a good look at him before he started. He didn't like that he had shoulder length hair and tattoos even though he did everything they asked and was completely polite. He has never felt more discriminated against in his life. He even wore his hair inside his hat all day and at the end of the day one of the managers asked if he could just maybe wear his hair in a bun the next day bc, Matt, is weird about those things and likes everyone to be tidy. He agreed. When he got home he received a call saying he wouldn't be a "good fit" and they wouldn't need him anymore. He asked if it had anything to do with Matt not liking the way he looked and they said they didn't want to get into that. It's sad that we can't shop there anymore, I refuse to support a business that discriminates. You may look "tidy", Matt, but your character is poor.

RESPONSE I understand there are many factors that go into when you are able to start newly hired employees. That was not my point. I would highly recommend that you do a more thorough job in interviewing your employees as to not waste their time or yours having them think they have a job for three weeks and then letting them go the first day. I still have to disagree that you did not discriminate. I know there were several times he received comments on his hair. If you're implying that he didn't reach your standards of appearance, I would have to disagree also because he has never been the type of person to not take pride in his appearance. I think I was misunderstood about the tidy comment, I totally understand a business would like to appear tidy and presentable. It was a word used by a manager to describe how you like your employees to look(which is obviously understandable as well) when commenting on his hair. The interview process is for finding out if someone is a "good fit", not the first day. This was only going to be a summer job while we work on opening our coffee shop here in Southport and you should be more considerate of your employees...

Is this place going out of business or something? All season this season I have struggled to find what I need. I get that there might be supply chain issues due to COVID-19, but if Habig can stay stocked, you should be able to, too.

If you just do outdoor landscaping or tend your lawn, or are looking to buy existing plants to take home, this place is great. But if you're doing container gardening, indoor food gardening, or gardening from seed, they really lack a lot of the essentials. It seems like all this season they have just gone out of stock of things and not gotten any more: they don't have ANY hoop or cage plant supports left, and their potting soil selection is not competitive and needlessly niche, as I can't get anything from Fox Farms or regular mix from Hoffman (no Espoma for me since a massive fungus gnat incident!) but there's ten kinds of specialty mixes if you have only orchids, or only succulents - and they only sell it in very small bags anyway. Their seeding supplies like trays, peat pots, and seed starting mix showed up super late in the season and were never restocked (indoor gardeners do succession planting year round!) and their selection of pots leaves a lot to be desired: I would love a better selection of indoor/outdoor planters in larger sizes that are not too heavy to move out to the patio and back. I tried to order a lot more of these fantastic planters I bought there months back and they've never gotten back to me - the employees who took my request seemed to think the owner or whoever was in charge of ordering wouldn't be happy to do it.

The south side is hurting for a comprehensive garden center. If you are doing food gardening, gardening from seed, or indoor or mobile container gardening, and prefer to support local business instead of shopping at Lowe's, save yourself the headache of finding what you need here and drive up to Habig. Their selection has never failed me and they are happy to order anything you might need.

I will say on the plus side, the staff at Dammann's is helpful, very friendly and kind, and I love the garden center cat, Ricky. They also have a good selection of cute and good quality heavy ceramic pots, a large array of ornamental plants and herbs and even some trees, and a good selection of...

edit :They made it right! SMH.The houseplants section is always nice, nice variety. Unfortunately, this last time, I bought a bag of happy frog soil, I was told to drive around back, and someone loaded it, I would not have chosen this bag otherwise. The corner of the bag is completely ripped, like it was dragged on the ground on that corner. You all just put a clear tap over it well there's rolly polly bugs around the tape. I'm not sure if I wanna use the soil on my houseplants now. The tape job isn't even good it busted open when I moved it, and it made a mess in my vehicle. I don't have a receipt, and I just now noticed it after I had had it for a week. This will be the last time I buy soil from you guys, considering it was taped and then left outside on the pallet for more bugs to crawl into it. The only reason it's getting a 3 star rating instead of a 1 is because of their nice selection of houseplants, and they are reasonably priced. It was over an hour drive to get...