Al Marrero

Ever since Al Marrero was a young child, he has been curious about plants. He has always wanted to know more about how and why they grow. After graduating high school at 16, Al went on to study forestry engineering at the University of Pinar del Rio located in Cuba. This five-year program included studies in horticulture, agriculture, and forestry.
After graduating from the University in 1993, Al went to work in the Department of Propagation of Tropical Plants with a company called Arentur. He propagated plant material, as he puts it, old style. They rooted cuttings, and germinated seeds, to be planted along the coastline. Arentur takes care of national resources on the beaches East of Havana. They make sure that the hotels and tourist industry don’t adversely affect the natural environment. Al worked with Arentur until 1998.
Next Al went to work at a company called Playa del Este, where he worked in the architectural department. Al decided what plants needed to be planted along the beaches according to the budget and environment. He had to study the salinity of the water, the potential height of the plants, and the distance to the water from where they would be planted. Al worked at this job for two years before being sent to work in Brazil.
In Brazil Al accumulated data, and researched the environmental impact urban growth would have on the Amazon. If an area wanted to build a new municipality, the data would help to determine if was worth the investment, and how the environmental impact could be minimized.
After Al left Brazil and moved back to Cuba, he took additional training. This time he studied Food and Beverage Management. For two years he was the food and beverage manager in hotels in the tourist industry, before moving to Mexico. Al was the food and beverage manager at the hotel Fontan in Cozumel for one year.
In 2004, Al made the move to the United States. His first job here was with the Department of Agriculture as a technician in Miami. He inspected citrus plants, checking for citrus canker. Al worked there for two years until the state of Florida decided to stop funding the program.
Kerry’s Bromeliad Nursery in Apopka Florida was Al’s next opportunity. He was a head grower for one of their two production facilities. Kerry’s grew Phalaenopsis orchids for Home Depot locations across the country.
After leaving Kerry’s Al worked in a high-end residential landscape business in South Tampa as a foreman for landscape installations, he managed crews and drove the truck and trailers.
In 2008, Al came to Michigan to visit family and decided he liked it here. He liked that Michigan had changing seasons that made the weather so different here than Florida. Al started Al’s General Care, specializing in garden renewal and landscape maintenance, and continues to own Al’s General Care with his business partner Gustavo Romero-Ramos. He worked on building this company on nights and weekends while working a full-time job outside of horticulture.
While Al’s landscape business was growing, he happened to drive by The Plant Professionals and noticed the building sign out front. Two months later, he saw a job posting for this business and decided to apply. Soon Al was working at The Plant Professionals full time.
Al has great knowledge and interest in all plants, and one of the benefits of working with indoor tropical plants is that the work is year-round. Al started here at The Plant Professionals as an installer, quickly jumping into the holiday decorating season, and soon switched roles with an overwhelmed crew leader. Clients had been asking for help with their landscape for several years, and Al brought the skills and knowledge to make that possible. Al has been the driving force of the landscape development here and has grown the outdoor color maintenance program. Al is not only the installation supervisor but in 2014 he became Jr partner and is now part owner.
Al’s plans for the future are to keep growing a sustainable business. He enjoys researching various landscape and other business methods in his free time. Always trying to improve our systems on composting, recycling and reuse of materials where possible. Al highly values the relationships he builds with both customers and coworkers, and provides each with education and the goal of 100% satisfaction.