Pleasant View Nursery Garden Center & Florist

My husband and I wanted to help our friends celebrate their 5^th wedding anniversary. As we live in North Carolina and had not thought about it far in advance, my husband googled florists in Richmond to see what he could find. He found Pleasant View Florist. The next day, I called and spoke to Karen. She did a great job listening to my requests, as we wanted to reflect on their wedding day with their theme incorporated in the custom basket she made. It was beautiful and brought joy to those who received it. Any time we need to order flowers or a custom gift basket for anyone in Richmond, we will call Pleasant View Florist!

I’m trying to prepare my house to be sold. The landscaping is very 1979, when the house was built. I’m not good at that sort of thing, so I wanted to talk to people who are good at it.
When my mum needed plants, this is where we headed, partly because it was close to the house, but also because she trusted them.
So, I went to the nursery and avoided all the crying babies (Yes, yes, Oh, Yew!). I found that they do work as a florist, along with the typical outdoor plants.
The person in charge of landscaping met with me and I tried to show him a few photos of the house in order to help him understand what I needed. He said that he’d better see it in person. As spring hasn’t arrived quite yet, he hasn’t been inundated with projects. He said he’d call in the next couple of days.
Within two hours, he called, and said that he could be there in 10 minutes. He arrived, we discussed, he drew, and said that he’d have something more formal with prices for me soon.
I got the quote and it seemed expensive, but he estimated 22 hours to do the work. Given that his crew will be working on it concurrently, that’s probably fair. The quote says that they require 50% upfront money and he re-​iterated that. I kind of passed that by, but later as we were talking, I said that I’d be glad to get it to him whenever it was necessary. He is working on a large project first, so he said to wait until they were ready to start.
I’m not sure whether to post before/​after shots or the drawing, but it might be helpful to others to see the preparation.
The cost of the work should be reflected in the traffic to show the house. Obviously, if the outside looks bad, most people aren’t going to venture inside the house at all.
Update 2014.03.26: They started and finished today. I believe there were five workers and the supervisor/​owner. They did quite a lot in a short time, from ripping out old plants, cleaning out trees that weren’t meant to be planted, to planting new shrubbery. It looks very different and fresh.
Update 2014.05.11: I’ve got to say that a lot of what I was told that they would do was apparently BS. The stuff that they were going to lay to attempt to prevent weeds apparently was never laid. The five scoops of mulch was apparently not five, either. They got my check, cashed it quickly, never sent me a receipt or invoice with the actual work done. I’ll have a photo or two to add.