I worked in a garden centre for ten years before retirement. It was enjoyable but hard work. If you can get a job in a small family run establishment that would be better because the bigger chains are very competitive, it is retail at the end of the day and they were fixated on profits rather that letting staff chat to the customers which were, of course, mainly elderly and liked to come in regularly for advice for which the students didn’t have knowledge.
The bigger chains are a bit like a supermarket, they want all the staff to be till trained so they can fill in for breaks or cover at weekends etc.
Having said all that, we did have a good discount and were able to take home plants which were written off as dead but could be brought back to life with a little TLC.
But if we discounted the orchids which had finished flowering for example, the supervisors wanted them to be written off and binned because they didn’t look good on the shelf.
But beware, not all customers are friendly though, and there was a lot of theft especially at Christmas, lights etc.
I remember a customer having a go at me once because one begonia tuber came up the ‘wrong’ colour for her display!
Good luck with your search.