Off The Clock: In Full Bloom
Hot Dog on a Stick’s Fredrica Thode takes time to stop and smell the roses.
By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
 Fredrica Thode, president and CEO of Hot Dog on a Stick, spends 10 to 15 hours a week tending to her rose garden. |
When Fredrica Thode wants to get away from the pressures of running 112-unit Hot Dog on a Stick, she doesn’t have to go far. The president and CEO of the Carlsbad, Calif.-based QSR heads for her backyard to tend to the hundreds of roses in her garden.
“I’m indoors all day. So I want to come home. I want to be outdoors,” Thode says of rose gardening. “I want to enjoy the smell of the earth and enjoy the sun and the breeze.”
Hands-On Approach
For the last 10 years, Thode has cultivated a rose garden filled with rose bushes, baby roses and long-stem roses on a half acre of land behind her home in Vista, Calif. While the landscaped hillside also includes about 40 trees and a few plants, the 400 roses are the attraction of the garden.
Tending to the garden is a demanding and time-consuming activity. Thode spends about 10 to 15 hours a week, usually after work and on the weekends, pruning, pulling weeds, watering and spraying the roses to get rid of bugs. “Rose gardening is tough. It takes a lot of concentration,” she says. “It may not be more difficult than other gardening—it’s just different. …You have to be pruning all the time, whereas with most flowers you don’t do that.
“I do have some help in the garden with a gardener, but I don’t let him touch my roses,” she laughs.
In the Zone
Although rose gardening does take up a lot of Thode’s time, it’s something she looks forward to because it allows her to slow down and gather her thoughts. “When I have a lot of things on my mind, I can go up in my garden and walk around my roses and deadhead—do whatever needs to be done,” she explains. “And suddenly all these thoughts become clear. It helps me step away from that confusing work environment and think about what kind of decisions do I have to make for my company. What can I do for my family? What are the most important things in life?”
Thode also likes the physical benefits. While she works out three times a week with a trainer, she says gardening has helped her become stronger and more fit. “Pulling weeds, doing all that, you’re using every muscle in your body,” she says. “It’s amazing the king of strength that you get from tending roses.”
Planting the Seed
Thode credits her love of gardening to her father. When she was 14 years old, she began helping her father grow grapevines in his garden. An avid gardener himself, he taught her all about gardening.
But Thode didn’t take up rose gardening until she and her husband, Jim, moved into their current home about 10 years ago. The previous owner had a small rose garden in the yard, which prompted Thode to learn more about how to grow roses. “I became completely infatuated with roses,” she says.
Given all the work she has put into her roses so far, Thode is committed to continue “making my garden beautiful, where people love to look at it, where we can all enjoy it.”
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