The growth
of the garden centre
By Tina Burback
with perennials, and a trend for growing the most “new and unusual” perennials. The buyers at garden centres sought out the most unusual hosta, peonies and other perennials from specialty growers. During this time, gardeners were will- ing to pay more for these unusual finds. Echinacea was no longer a simple purple coneflower, but instead fluffy ‘Pink Poodle’ or neon ‘Orange Marmalade’. And let’s not forget the hundreds of new coral bells with names like Peach Crisp, Lime Rickey and Plum Crazy. The housing booms of 2000, with larger homes and small-
Edible gardening remains a strong force. I
n an issue celebrating decades of growing and gardening in Alberta, what a great opportunity to see how garden centres have transformed over the years.
No matter where you are in history, a garden centre’s
main provision has always been plants. Decades ago garden- ers anxiously awaited seed and bulb catalogues that would arrive in the depths of winter, containing colourful pictures of bountiful veggies or decorative dahlia they could plant in spring. Most garden centres we frequent today did not exist then, as plants and seed were shared by family and neigh- bours. As populations increased and towns grew, up sprout- ed the local greenhouse and garden centre with their stock of vegetable transplants, popular perennials and bedding plants. Most centres maintained a fairly simple assortment of plants, that is until the 1990’s brought forth an obsession
er yards, created a need for compact plants and dwarf…every- thing. Customers needed plants that were thinner or shorter than usual, so tree and shrub departments stocked Swedish columnar aspen, little devil ninebark, weeping everything and dwarf mugo pine. Perennial greenhouses carried hundreds of everyday perennials tailored to be tiny, like Marcus Salvia, Petit Delight Beebalm and plenty of dwarf Asiatic lilies. What will your garden centre stock this year? The clientele
most establishments are catering to is a generation that will certainly want a garden, but just may not want to…garden. They are busy, busy, busy. And the time they do have to themselves won’t necessarily be spent digging. When it comes to containers, fussy combos of petunia that
need fertilizer, deadheading and someone to water on week- ends are not going to cut it. Instead you may find a tropical banana with some rapid growing potato vine and million bells that deadhead themselves. This container may have even been custom planted for you by your local greenhouse…and delivered right to your doorstep. When it comes to their yard they won’t be particular about
The evolution of the garden centres has closely followed the evolution of urban gardens. 72 • Fall 2016
localgardener.net
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