There was a definite surge in demand for greenhouse products and services in 2020, largely due to the pandemic.
Tammy Lauinger, owner of Hollyhock’s Greenhouse in Unity and board member of the Sask. Greenhouse Growers Association, says there was big motivation for people to shop at a greenhouse this year. People want food security, people want to uplift their emotions by enhancing their outdoors places and spaces, she says. Greenhouses provide opportunities for both.
Greenhouses were deemed an essential service right off the bat in Saskatchewan pandemic plans. Strict rules and protocols were laid out for both the greenhouse operator and the customer. An extra door at Hollyhock’s helped implement protocols and facilitate regular business hours with no appointments needed.
With reduced vacation and lake time for everyone, yard improvements and gardening have become the new “go to” activity for folks.
“We saw lots of first-time gardeners and lots that hadn’t gardened in 20 years,” Lauinger says.
Hollyhock’s sold 3,000 pounds of seed potatoes this year, double what was normally sold, and Lauinger adds that if she would have had more inventory, she would have easily sold it.
Hollyhock’s operators say there were positive lessons learned this year.
“Our business model was unchanged as we turned the furnaces on the last week of February, and first week of March, plants arrived weekly in March and had to be processed,” Lauinger says.
Lauinger continues to empower gardeners of any age and ability by passing on guidance and advice to them either as they shop, via phone, in person or though online instruction.
This year’s weather doubled the challenges and there tended to be a learning curve for everyone. Extreme winds in May and freezing temperatures were among the challenges. Not everyone had access to the advice of parents or grandparents to haul plants in and out of shelter until proper conditions existed, nor were there enough ways to cover product when a May evening dipped to -10 C.
Lauinger said her business emphasizes teaching gardeners, regardless of age and experience, to be successful. Her goal is to help people build a habit in gardening and go back to the basics. In a year of craziness, she says she felt it was more important than ever for people to stop and smell the flowers. She noted people were thankful for their homes and yards and wanted these spaces to be the focus down the road, even after pandemic restrictions abate.
For the first time ever, Lauinger said the greenhouse at her rural property, which normally supplies her in-town greenhouse, was out of product earlier than usual. Hollyhock’s Greenhouse is a grower and a seller and takes on accounts of locations that sell product only. She supplies Provost, Kindersley and Luseland greenhouses.
Lauinger says they planted three times the amount of vegetables this year and people soon learned the benefits of shopping early for product, even if it meant extra work with caring for the bedding plants until weather conditions improved for planting.
“There are definitely things that worked better than expected, she observes.
“We had to take down online sales as we no longer had the stock to support it, so it was almost too much of a success. Thankfully we will walk away from this with some great things. We are going to keep the additional door, the online ordering and the curb-side pickup.”
Hollyhock’s continues to serve as a year round business.
Lauinger says she cannot predict the future, so plans for next season are fluid.
“Greenhouse inventory is hard to analyze as each year is totally different regardless of the pandemic,” she says.
“Using instincts is important, as is using trend in helping planning.”
Lauinger says they know conditions, such as the pandemic and the weather, they cannot make anything bulletproof. That is why she will continue doing informative sessions to train gardeners and teach them to be successful. Classes will be either in person, when possible, or online and will offer common solutions for common issues. She wants to empower growers so then don’t get frustrated. Gardening is not about 100 per cent success rate and there is an element of risk, Launinger says.
Added into her busy season so far, Lauinger has continued community care programs. This year she did two fundraisers that benefitted the hospital memory garden and KC Rescue.
Additionally she said a Nutrien fertilizer fundraiser benefitting KidSport was highly successfu, selling more than 100 bags this year compared to last year’s 20. She also said soil was a big seller this year, tallying the semi loads received and sold.
One aspect of this year that could not happen was the season-end donation of plants. Usually Hollyhocks donates dozens of geraniums to Parkview Place, however this product has been sold out for a month.
