mail order operation was run in a 10,000-square-foot location. Te loca- tion is now a parking lot. In


1975, the operation moved


across the street to the second floor of 111 Lombard, upstairs from what was then Brick’s Fine Furniture. Here, over the next 20 years, T&T Seeds expanded to 35,000 square feet. Te largest growth occurred af- ter 1985, when T&T began handling and shipping its own tree and shrub stock. Over $200,000 was invested in large, walk-in coolers for storage of dormant plants. Tis enabled per- ishable product to be kept dormant until shipping time, thus providing a healthy product for the customer to transplant. No other seed company in Canada has the extensive refrigera- tion facilities of T&T. In the summer of 1997, T&T re-


located to a small acreage on Roblin Blvd. in Headingley, Man. A new 16,000-square-foot warehouse was built for distributing orders across Canada. At the same time, the refrig- eration accommodation was restruc- tured, thus improving storage facili- ties for the perishable stock. At this site, several greenhouses were con- structed for the production of a wide selection of bedding plants. With the change of location, T&T


now had a second dimension, with a year-round retail store which retains the down-home feel of the catalogue as well as the expanded seed and live- plant shipping capacity. It may not be widely known, but the company also prints its own seed packages. Tis new location has provided an effi- cient site for the quick processing of the mail-order business. T&T Seeds sells a wide selection of garden sundries and even a line of health products, both in-store and through the catalogue. T&T has ac- tually, in effect, offered five catalogues in one, supplying vegetable and flow- er seed and seed-starting accessories; a variety of flowering bulbs; many types of fruit and fruit trees, from apples to strawberries; a full range of shrubs and roses and the most exten- sive selection of hedging and wind- break stock, as well as the previously mentioned health products and vita- mins. Tey also offer a line of garden


thehubwinnipeg.com


T&T's retail store.


giftware, tools and planters in store. Tis wide selection of products has been maintained by a solid supplier relationship,


says Kevin Twomey,


proudly. “Many of our suppliers have been with us for over 30 years. Our seed supply has been the same eight to 10 companies from the United States and Europe for the past 30 years. Our nursery stock has been supplied by the same five or six nurs- eries from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the northern U.S. for the past 30 years. And our perennials have come from Walters Gardens, one of the largest perennial growers in the mid- west U.S. for the past 30 years.” Kevin says that T&T Seeds has cultivated this solid relationship with all its sup- pliers to guarantee consistent quality and reliability of supply. He feels it is important to maintain these relation- ships. Over the years, T&T developed a


sterling reputation for providing good products at a fair price, but more, they have been respected by the commu- nity for the generosity and personal


warmth they extend to everyone with whom they come in contact. Over the past number of years, Kevin has become the trusted and well-known expert in the local gardening indus- try as the alternate radio voice for Te Gardener radio show (formerly CJOB, now CJNU 92.7 FM) when- ever host Dorothy Dobbie is out of town. Kevin always has a ready and down-to-earth answer to gardeners’ questions based on his own extensive knowledge and his unending curios- ity about the world around him. In the very odd instance he doesn’t have an answer, he will go to the trouble to find out. T&T Seeds has been solidly built


by the Twomey family over the past three-quarters of a century, and the company will always strive for that old-fashioned,


country-store atti-


tude – which is that people matter, whether they are customers or not! T&T Seeds prides itself on providing good products at reasonable prices, and best of all, says Kevin, “we have the quickest service in Canada.”


Summer 2018 • 17


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