WAINWRIGHT, Alta. – When Mary McClennon injured herself while horseback riding and could no longer show her prized equines, she was forced to find another job to brighten her life.
Today, the owner of Kountry Klassics Garden Centre fills her farmyard with a colorful array of plants for the five greenhouses that employs 20 people.
“If I die tomorrow I could say I’ve done everything I want to do,” said McClennon.
“I love even just talking about horticulture. When I was in the horse business I ate and slept horses and now it’s horticulture.”
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Peak season in the greenhouse business is only six weeks, but December is the only month McClennon really rests. After the bulk of customers have purchased their flowers and hedges, McClennon and her staff have to clean the greenhouses thoroughly. Then it’s time to think about ordering stock for next year and choosing conferences to attend.
And there are always animals to manage on the Wainwright-area farm. McClennon and husband Eldon keep miniature goats, donkeys and Dexter cattle. Attractions also include geese, pigeons, peacocks and horses.
“I don’t have a whole lot of off time.”
The donkeys are sold to farmers who use them to protect cattle herds from predators, but the miniatures are kept largely for enjoyment. Kids can wander around the farm as their parents browse through the greenhouses, said McClennon, adding she also keeps a fish pond.
Long days
During peak season, which includes May and June, McClennon is up by five a.m., updating her books and establishing weekly orders. She’s at the greenhouses by eight to start watering. Doors open for customers two hours later. She usually works until nine or 10 at night.
“You go like a bat out of hell,” she said, adding it’s sometimes hard to take lunch and bathroom breaks.
Although she and Eldon rent out their farmland, her greenhouse business gives her a rural connection because, like a farm, her business depends on timely rains.
“I always said I’d never marry a farmer but this falls in the same line,” said McClennon, who was born on a farm.
It gives her satisfaction to see her yard and greenhouses neatly kept and she loves to work with the different colors and textures of the foliage.
“I’m really into getting the odd, rare and extraordinary plants.”
She relishes the horticulture industry and makes a comfortable profit from it, but she didn’t know much about the greenhouse business before she jumped in seven years ago. Now she knows a plumbago from a heliopsis, expects orange to be the most popular millennium color for plants, is a member of the Landscape Alberta Nursery Trades Association and takes in stride the royalty fees she must pay for foliage varieties.
She began by reading and researching the business and still strives to learn more each day.
“You can get as wise as you want to. Whenever you say you know it all, I think you’re in trouble.”
She admits the transition from dealing with horses full time wasn’t easy. She had shown them on a world level and did business across Western Canada. She had devoted herself to horses since the early 1980s and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Eventually she found working with foliage could fill the gap.
“I still love it. Even when it gets extremely hectic. The thought of it gets me up every morning.”
Even so, memories of her equine days remain. She tells new visitors to the area to turn into her yard when they see the statue of a horse on her property, and keeps in touch with those on the show circuit.
“I still enjoy horses. The adrenaline can still get pumping thinking of competition.”
