Garden centres in bloom

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This article was published 07/05/2022 (1370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

April showers — and snowstorms — finally brought May flowers, and their enthusiasts, in droves to garden centres Saturday morning.

The atmosphere at Lacoste Garden Centre was excitable as the sun and wind brought in the first balmy weekend of the year — a longtime coming for novice gardener Emily Brodeur, who left the centre with herbs in hand.

“It felt like the winter that never ends, right?” she said, laughing. “I’ve been waiting for weeks to re-pot this poor plant that I have, and it’s nice to feel like it’s maybe becoming spring — or, I don’t know, maybe we’ll jump right into summer after this.”

She’s hoping to push her garden set up to the next level this summer — more edible greens, she said, was her goal for the rest of the sunny season.

“Especially with the prices of food, it’s good to grow your own things, I love to grow herbs and lettuce and stuff,” she said. “Eventually, I want to get some garden boxes in my yard and do more of it.”

Shaking off a harsh, long winter felt amazing, Brodeur said, and she hopes it lasts.

“It feels so freeing, we’ve had such a long winter — it’s a great day to celebrate spring,” she said.

Nearby, Janet Pallick is a little less green at gardening — she’s been spending her summers among plants for around 20 years — but like Brodeur, the sunny day inspired her to come shopping at the St. Mary’s Road institution. She also picked up some herbs, but loves flower shopping, and picked up some dahlias this time.

“This is just a start,” she said. “I’ll be back many, many times.”

Her plan this year is simple: she wants to “get her planters full of flowers,” nothing more, nothing less. That’s enough for her after a long, cold season that felt exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19.

“It’s been terribly, terribly long — not only being locked down (before), but then all of the rain and the snow, day after day, it’s been terrible,” she said.

Her advice to newer gardeners who might feel similarly inspired was simple.

“Start small — go out and buy a planter, and start with that. And next year, buy another planter,” she said. “Take it slow.”

Lacoste Garden Centre co-owner Jordan Hiebert said this season has had one of the slowest starts of the last five years or so, something he attributed to the difficult weather that discouraged Winnipeggers from getting their gardens going. He’s hoping those tides have turned.

“Now that it’s kind of sunny, and it looks like there’s really no snow or crazy cold forecast coming up, people are coming out, it’s been busy, full parking lot all day,” he said.

Retail’s always slow when the weather’s bad, and that’s doubly so when you’re running a garden centre, Hiebert said, but he’s expecting sales to pick up considerably over the next couple of weeks as people are able to get outside and take a look at their yards.

“We just need to get things rolling, and right now this is the weekend where things are just starting to get rolling,” he said.

Right now, many sales are Mother’s Day gifts, along with big landscaping orders from spring planters — Hiebert said orders for trees and shrubs are rolling in, and some more advanced gardeners are buying plants that they know sell out quickly to take home and maintain until they’re ready to be planted outside.

“People are just mostly happy that spring’s finally here,” he said.

Flower fanatics weren’t the only people benefitting by the beautiful weather at the garden centre Saturday morning.

Filipino-Mexican fusion food truck Casama parked its wheels outside of Lacoste Saturday, and co-owner John Sauni said it felt good to spend the beginning of his first day of the summer season serving hungry gardeners.

“It’s very exciting, I’d say… especially because our winters are pretty long,” he said. “This is actually our first time making tacos in a while.”

Their weekends are fully booked for the rest of the summer, and while they hope the weather keeps people out the way it had Saturday, he said rain or shine, they’d be out.

“Even if it’s raining, we’ve got strong support from our fanbase,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca