Early in the pandemic, a wave of gardening enthusiasm swept across the country and thousands of keen new gardeners rushed out to buy plants.
Two years later, many of those new gardeners have learned that not all plants – and not all planting tips – are created equal.
“There’s been a tremendous growth in gardening excitement the past two years,” says Alex Scott, Owner of Scott’s Garden Centre. “And many new gardeners have learned that quality plants make a massive difference to gardening success.”
Scott’s Garden Centre was founded in 1978 by Alex’s father and grandfather, so the team has a tremendous amount of experience growing in Simcoe County and area. They also offer various types of landscaping services, as well as custom floral arrangements and seasonal planters for any occasion. In November, the greenhouse is transformed into a Christmas wonderland filled with festive décor, urns, garlands and more.
Whether you have an expansive lakefront estate or a compact yard, a fabulous garden starts with plants that are suited to local growing conditions.
“All the annuals and perennials we sell are grown at our property in Brechin,” Alex explains. “They’re not grown in southern Ontario and then trucked in.”
That means the plants are cultivars that are suited to this region. Many big box garden centre plants are grown in Niagara, which has very different growing conditions than we do. “Some plants that are sold as perennials just won’t survive our winters,” Alex says. “Others will live, but they won’t thrive. Gardening is all about right plant, right location.”
The same goes for trees and shrubs. Many gardeners have enthusiastically planted something that is marginal in our area at best and been disappointed with the results. “Japanese maple is a great example of that,” Alex says. “We sell them, because they’re very popular and they can do well here, but you need to be prepared to give them extra care and attention. You can’t just plant them and walk away.”
The team at Scott’s takes pride in giving that advice, helping their customers to become better gardeners no matter what stage of knowledge they start with. They also take pride in offering competitive pricing, an amazing selection (including an enormous giftware section), and service that extends to help loading your car if you need it.
“Our goal is to always make sure a customer leaves knowing they came to the right place.”
TEXT A. WAGNER-CHAZALON | PHOTOS ANDREW FEARMAN
