UAC NEWS
UAC board member presented with leadership award Pam Dooley, owner of Plants Creative, recognized
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by Lawn & Landscape
"I'm creative and visual, and I love being able to help people see what they don't see helping them envision a space and getting to know what really matters the most to them." ~ Pam Dooley, Plants Creative
Perhaps Dooley’s competitive spirit is rooted in her growing up years as a competitive volleyball player where she grew up in Gas City, Ind. She worked summers at a local garden center — and eventually accepted a college scholarship from the University of Georgia that brought her south. Her nickname on the court: Plants. When the Olympics came to Atlanta in 1996, Dooley helped install and maintain the interiorscaping at the athlete’s welcome center. “I was always pulled back to horticulture,” says Dooley, sharing how working at the garden center felt “authentic.” Out of college, she accepted a position at a South Carolina nursery, Happy Plants, in Easley. “I love creating, I love life,” she says. “I love flowers and helping people design their spaces. I’m creative and visual, and I love being able to help people see what they don’t see — helping them envision a space and getting to know what really matters the most to them.” She also likes to push boundaries, whether it’s shifting maintenance to robotic-mowers-only or opening a new branch during the pandemic.
“Crazy Ideas” is embossed on the cover of several journals on Pam Dooley’s home office desk in the lakefront community of Blue Ridge, Ga. The pages are filled with notes-to-self, reflections, remarks related to books she’s read and — of course — crazy ideas. Also on the desk is a stuffed lion slightly larger than the size of a coffee cup. “I’m a Leo,” explains Dooley, owner of Plants Creative Landscapes, a residential design, build and maintenance firm based in Decatur, now with a branch in Blue Ridge since Dooley and her partner, Michelle Nelson, made a fulltime move to their weekend retreat. “Lions symbolize courage, determination, pride, strength, wisdom and loyalty — six significant traits in my life in leadership,” Dooley explains of the gift from Nelson. “When I’m at my best, I’m a fierce lioness.”
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Christy Geiger, executive leadership coach at Synergy Strategies, says Dooley is always “learning and upgrading,” and their first call together when Dooley reached out about coaching revealed a mission-driven personality. “Yet, she is very human-centric and compassionate, real and approachable,” Geiger says, remarking that the journals she keeps — and usually writes in well before the sun rises — are evidence of a thinking, introverted side that might surprise those who know her in the industry. “It might seem like she is gregarious as such a strong leader, but she needs her time to think, process and fuel,” Geiger says. Plants is her name, and creative is how Dooley makes a marked impact on her team, clients’ properties and the industry as a whole. Geiger says, “She develops community wherever she goes.”
Planting a seed
Dooley opened Plants Creative in 2005 after spending time working at a commercial landscape maintenance firm in Tucker, Ga. There, she was responsible for
