EDMONTON – Sandra Ciurysek was brimming with ideas about all the possibilities for her northern Alberta greenhouse.
Ciurysek had listened to four panelists at a landscape and greenhouse trade show tell how they attract customers to their rural greenhouses and she couldn’t wait to tell her sibling partners what she’d learned.
“I liked the idea of marketing the greenhouse as a destination,” said Ciurysek, who owns Roadside Greenhouses in the tiny community of Berwyn about a half hour from a large centre.
“I like the idea of making a day trip out of coming to the greenhouse, not just buying a product, but buying an experience.”
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Creating an experience is what Tam Anderson of Prairie Gardens and Greenhouses and Gwen Simpson of Inspired Market Gardens, both about an hour outside Edmonton, have done to attract customers to their greenhouse.
Each year Anderson hosts school tours, kids’ birthday parties, a haunted pumpkin festival and U-pick strawberries and vegetables. Few people would travel an hour to buy bedding plants, but many are willing to travel with their children to experience the country.
Simpson also pulls customers from the city for the experience of watching Basset Hound races, participating in Christmas-in-the-country tours, petting animals, wandering the gardens and tasting edible flowers.
Ciurysek is intrigued by the idea of joining with other greenhouse operators in her area and creating day tours as attractions.
Nancy Heide said she, too, was intrigued by the idea of creating festivals and events at her southern Manitoba greenhouse.
“It’s hitting home, some of these points,” said Heide, who owns Perennial Bliss Garden Centre 10 kilometres north of Killarney.
Heide took note when Anita Kuhlmann of Kuhlmann’s Market Gardens and Greenhouses told the group that cleanliness is key in the greenhouse business. Before their greenhouse on the outskirts of Edmonton opens, the floors are swept, plants watered and the parking lot tidied.
“We want them to like what they see,” said Kuhlmann.
Heide jotted down advertising ideas from Bob Sproule of Salisbury Greenhouses of Edmonton. Sproule said the majority of advertising money is spent in the second quarter, to coincide with the largest sales volumes at the greenhouse.
Heide has little time to tour other greenhouses during the busy spring season to gather ideas, but she does try to attend one large trade show each year to learn new ideas for her greenhouse business.
