From Our Greenhouse to Your Garden. Our annual plants are started by seed or by cutting. And when large enough are transplanted into a larger container where they are grown to the appropriate size in our greenhouses. From car seat to booster seat, so to speak!
Planting the 2nd crop of pansies
Gertens grows 900 to 1,000 different types of annuals (that includes the various colors of the same type of plant) and they plant 2 to 3 crops of each per year. This is just for spring!
There are 2 full time employees to keep track of ordering seeds, when seeds are sown, when the plants are planted first in their “car seat” container then to their “booster seat” container. The ideal is to grow them to the size our customers want.
Flats of plants are started from seed and are less expensive. These are typically sold in 6 pacs and are used as bedding plants. Impatiens are a good example. Premium products are propagated from cuttings and are truer to their genetics, therefore they cost more. Those are generally the larger containers including geraniums and petunias.
Geranium hanging basket!
‘Night Sky’ petunia is a premium plant
Every summer the various departments forecast what they think they can sell based on the spring season and look at new product lines. The annuals department then figure out how much seed, cuttings and plastics (containers) they’ll need to support their growth.
Growin’ in da ‘house!
The goal is to have the retail shelves as full as possible all the time. Nearly every cart on the retail floor has a mirror cart up in the greenhouses. Well, until we don’t! ????
Fill ‘er up
The retail personnel keep a close eye out and when it reaches a certain point they alert the crew and a cart will be readied. This is done twice a day. At peak times there will be 300 to 400 carts moved daily. Check out all our videos on moving from the “DC” (Distribution Center), down the ramp to the retail store. Check out our 3-part video series From our Greenhouse to Your Garden.
The retail staff are then immediately there to replenish their shelves with product to keep it looking full. All of this while dodging customers!!!!
Keep on Growin’,
