For love of the landscape

RURAL MUNICIPALITY OF MACDONALD — It’s been 60 years since the seeds that became Jensen’s Nursery & Garden Centre were planted — and 10 years since its owners faced one of their biggest challenges.

At around 8 p.m. one day in July 2016, a thunderstorm hit the family-run garden centre and gift shop at 2550 McGillivray Blvd., beyond the southwest edge of Winnipeg. Susan Jensen Stubbe and Susan MacPherson, two members of the company’s ownership group, watched as it did major damage over the next 30 minutes.

The storm destroyed the main greenhouse, tore the tops off a few smaller greenhouses and damaged part of the gift shop’s roof.

“These windows were actually bowing in from the pressure of the rain,” Jensen Stubbe recalls as she sits at a table in the gift shop, recounting the storm.

“This roof had been folded like you fold a corner of a book up in one corner. It actually folded up and then folded back in place, so we didn’t realize it was damaged ‘til we were driving away and we could see a crease in it.”

Tears begin to stream down Jensen Stubbe’s face when she remembers the incident, not because of how distressing the situation was, but because of how staff members responded. The company employs 25 to 30 people during peak season, and the next day, everyone — whether they were scheduled to work or not — arrived to help clean up.

“One of the things I’ve prided myself on is (that) our staff is family,” Jensen Stubbe says. “We’re there for them when they have tough times, and they’re here for us when we have tough times.”

After dealing with insurance adjusters, construction on a new main greenhouse began some three months after the storm. The 7,800-square-foot structure was opened at the beginning of December.

“I think we worked a couple of weeks outside at Christmas, which was not fun,” Jensen Stubbe recalls. “But they got it done and we moved back in.”

A number of customers make their way around the three-acre property as Jensen Stubbe, who oversees day-to-day operations with her older sister, Tammy Ritchot, tells the tale to the Free Press.

Now that the current weather is growing warmer, business is picking up. The full-service garden centre focuses on plants and gardening decor in the warmer months, and holiday decor and Christmas trees during the winter.

It’s a business that has continually evolved since Jensen Stubbe and Ritchot’s parents, Kurt and Elsie Jensen, started it in 1966, under the name Jensen’s Nursery & Landscaping Ltd.

Kurt Jensen was raised on Funen — the third-largest island of Denmark and birthplace of literary fairy tale master Hans Christian Andersen — where he developed a love for landscaping and plants at his mother and father’s small hobby farm and orchard in the town of Jordlose. (In an ironic twist for a family that works the land, Jordlose translates to “landless.”)

Kurt immigrated to Canada in 1957, eventually settling in Winnipeg and marrying Elsie. The couple started a home-based lawn maintenance firm serving the River Heights and Tuxedo areas. It quickly grew into a residential and commercial landscaping company.

In 1971, the Jensens purchased a one-acre lot on McGillivray Boulevard to store the plants Kurt needed for his landscaping work. (That land is now part of Costco’s overflow parking lot.)

People kept stopping in to inquire about purchasing the plants, so the Jensens decided to expand the business to include a retail garden centre.

The area experienced a residential and commercial boom over the next two decades, and the venture expanded again when the Jensens welcomed Stubbe and Ritchot into the family business.

In spring 2006, the family purchased a lot on the corner of McGillivray Boulevard and Brady Road, which allowed Jensen’s to become a major garden centre, greenhouse and landscaping business.

The company stopped offering landscaping services in 2014 to focus on the expanding garden centre. With the expansion, long-time staff member Susan MacPherson joined as a partner.

In addition to carrying trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, giftware and gardening supplies, Jensen’s offers a range of services, including tree and shrub planting, seminars, workshops and home consultation services.

Jensen Stubbe recalls how quickly the business grew when Jensen’s opened its current location in May 2005.

“The month of May, in this new location, we did better than we did in our best year at the old place,” she says. “It was a 77 per cent increase in retail just like that, and we’ve been growing the retail ever since.”

That year, the company held its first-ever spring kick-off party.

Jensen Stubbe purchased 300 hotdogs to barbecue and give away during the Saturday event. Kurt didn’t think they would need nearly that many hotdogs, but by 11 a.m. — in spite of the cold, rainy weather — the parking lot was full.

Jensen Stubbe recalls driving to a nearby grocery store to get more supplies once the food ran out.

It’s since become an annual event. On the Saturday before Mother’s Day, the company welcomes customers to its spring kick-off, whether it’s warm and sunny, raining or snowing.

“Until you smell hotdogs in the greenhouse, it’s not spring,” Jensen Stubbe says. “We always set the barbecue up in the greenhouse, because you never know what the weather’s gonna be, right?”

This year’s spring kick-off was more celebratory than usual, as the company marked its diamond jubilee. Kurt (who, at 88 years old, continues to work at the garden centre a few days each week) wore a white fedora accented by a few flowers; Elsie wore a tiara.

Reaching the 60-year milestone was meaningful for the owners and staff, Jensen Stubbe says. “Family businesses can sometimes struggle in the second generation, (but) we’ve taken it and grown it … I’m proud to do good by my dad.”

Including customers in the celebration was important, she adds.

“Some of our customers have been coming to us for 20, 30 years, and it’s so neat in the springtime because you can reconnect,” Jensen Stubbe says. “That’s one of the things I love about this business, is the connections.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca