SHAUNAVON, Sask. – Shaunavon greenhouse growers are cashing in on hot trends in outdoor living.
Jacqueline and Ron White say people are working longer days and want to retreat to their yards when at home. Most have little time to do the work, so turn to greenhouses and garden centres to supply shrubs, urns, obelisks and bountiful pots of flowers, to create beautiful outdoor rooms.
“They want to have an instant garden,” Ron said.
The Whites are finding that increased numbers of gardeners are turning to more mature bedding plants and flower baskets to make better use of the Prairies’ short growing season.
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“They want bigger, so they don’t have to wait for it to grow,” he said.
At Shaunavon Greenhouses, the Whites offer hundreds of varieties and colours of annuals and perennials, selling 75 percent of their plants to garden centre markets across southern Saskatchewan.
In May and June, they also open a modest retail outlet behind their greenhouses at the edge of town to supply area gardeners with plants, gardening accessories and gifts.
Baskets retail for $25 to $80 while bedding plant packs sell for $1.99 to $4.50. Wholesale prices were not disclosed.
Jacqueline stocks a range of items and prices to cater to a broad range of customers’ pocketbooks.
Once the flowers are gone, pumpkins are grown in bags on the greenhouse tables for fall markets. The couple’s retail store opens again from September to December to sell pumpkins, fall bulbs, trees, perennials, Christmas poinsettias and giftware.
The Whites have doubled the number of pumpkins grown and now offer a greater variety of sizes.
Ron said demand is steady for all plants, and increasing for larger plants. Most are grown on the Prairies, with others brought in from the West Coast.
Responding to trends and customer needs is critical to the business’s success.
The Whites attend conferences to keep on top of industry changes and try new varieties for gardening customers in search of something new and unique.
While garden centres have increased in recent years, the number of greenhouse growers has declined, they said.
As relatively small growers, the Whites focus their efforts on growing high-value plants.
“We can’t compete with the prices of big box stores so we want quality,” Ron said. “If it don’t look good, we don’t send it.”
Tim Van Duvendyk of Dutch Growers Garden Centre in Regina is one customer.
He looks for top quality premium products that are attractive to his customers and can be shipped to his centre within a day.
“We don’t have the ability to stockpile product,” he said. “In the bedding plant business, you need someone to restock you very quickly.”
Shaunavon Greenhouses, a half day’s truck drive from Regina, is the only business of its kind in this southwestern Saskatchewan town of 2,000.
Jacqueline grew up here in the business, which was established by her parents, Irene and Roger Paul.
She said their mentorship, assistance and advice have been invaluable to her and Ron, who lived in a Newfoundland fishing village and previously worked as a truck driver.
He likes his new life as full-time gardener.
“Watching this stuff grow is amazing,” he said.
Jacqueline agreed, saying working in a greenhouse adjacent to her home is a wonderful atmosphere and a good fit with the activities of her two school-aged children.
Her experience as a florist has also helped with arranging floral baskets and setting up the retail shop.
“I do the pretty, Ron does the technical,” she said, citing his principal duties in maintaining the growing operations that are scattered over the 30,000 sq. feet of greenhouse space.
They begin planting in late January to ensure stock is ready for spring markets, combating most insects with soapy water and warming the greenhouses with natural gas heat.
With gas prices increasing by 15 percent in three years, they have considered converting to coal but do not have the space.
Another greenhouse planned for the near future will bring them to capacity for their land base.
