With the extraordinary temperatures yesterday, the Snowdrops in the sunny areas were blooming. It got me wondering how much the plant prices will have risen this year. I am prepared for big price hikes after talking to Dave at Cole's last autumn. He said it was going to be a shock for people.
I thought I'd find out more about Proven Winners. In their background section, I find out that Sobkowich Greenhouse is one of the two original licensees in Canada. Sobkowich Greenhouse is on Maple Street in Grimsby. I take pictures of the big display every year for the Trilliums competition.
The Proven Winners sales are over a "half-billion dollars" annually. They have plant combination systems, are colour oriented, and give great names to their new introductions. And they love introductions - every year something newly hybridized is introduced.
Something that has changed over the decades is that everything they produce is protected by patents so no propagating their material. The plant growing part has also transformed over the decades. When you walk into a propagating or growing greenhouse, it is like a science lab - cement floors, plants on trays rotating in a ferris wheel to get the sun, and drip systems little tubes are hanging from the ceiling. Even when you look at the "soil" the plants are growing in, that isn't soil and is often hydroponic too. And then there are little robots that place pot plants with exact spacing so as not to waste a centimetre.
There are lots of beautiful new and familiar plants to look forward to this year and it is just a few weeks away.
Here are the Sobkowich Greenhouses during the Trillium Competition.
