Gardeners should go into the spring planting season with a plan for their garden space, Weyburn Rotary Club members heard in their weekly meeting via Zoom on Thursday.
John Grigg, owner-operator of Prairie Greenhouses, spoke to the club and took questions about various plants that are available or are suitable for the area.
He noted that making a plan will help the gardener decide if they want a variety of different colours, or high or low-maintenance flowers and vegetables, and how much of each variety they want to plant.
“The basic thing is it should be something you enjoy, that makes you feel good,” said Grigg, recommending impatiens as a flower variety that won’t require a lot of maintenance, such as dead-heading, as is needed with other varieties.
“I usually plant impatiens with marigolds,” he noted.
Asked if the greenhouse has staff available who can answer questions, Grigg replied, “Yes, we work with talented ladies who have a huge background of experience. They can give you ideas about different types of plants you might use in your special setting.”
The greenhouse had tried taking online orders when they opened on May 1, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was so overwhelmed with orders they had to stop as they couldn’t keep up with the volume, said Grigg, noting they had over 300 orders in a day and a half.
“The only way is to shop in person,” he said, noting they try to keep a limit of 15 people at a time in the greenhouse. They do not offer curbside pickup any longer due to the number of orders they were getting.
The greenhouse grew fewer numbers of plants because they didn’t know how this coronavirus pandemic was going to affect plant sales, but they have still kept very busy. Grigg noted his wife, Bev, worked from about 9:15 in the morning until 7 p.m. the day before.
In a “normal” year, the greenhouse would be open until 9 or 9:30 p.m., he added.
The business used to have 11 greenhouses in operation, but now they have about seven or eight, in part because they went from being the only retailer of fresh greenhouse plants to competing with many large retail stores selling garden plants.
Petunias are continuing to be a big-selling annual, and there are new varieties available every year, he said.
Asked what flowers could do well in shady areas, Grigg said, “Very few bloomers do well in the shade. Sunlight is required for colour. In my yard, for 30 years I planted as many of those flats of impatiens as I could. They can take a lot more sun.”
He added that roses require six to eight hours of sun a day to bloom well, and some flowers will grow at an angle to get the most sunlight they can if they aren’t planted in a sunny area.
For people who want to plant in pots (such as those who live in a condo and don’t have a garden space), he recommended using a soilless mixture with no dirt, or no more than 10 per cent dirt, and this allows the plant to root better.
“You have to use a fertilizer with a full spectrum, such as a peat-like fertilizer, and use an acid-based fertilizer. The water in Weyburn has a pH of 8, which is very high,” he added. “That’s how we grow plants at the greenhouse. We don’t use dirt for anything.”
Asked about succulents, he said they are easy to grow and only require watering about once every three weeks. “They only need pinching once in a while,” he added.
When he was asked about yellow wave petunias, he said there were some things they weren’t able to get from suppliers, as some suppliers backed off growing all varieties this year.
“I’ve never been impressed with yellow petunias, but I sure like yellow lilies,” he added.
