Alberta greenhouse to supply Saskatoon’s parks, planters and civic centres

The tens of thousands of seasonal bedding plants in Saskatoon’s parks, planters and civic centres will be coming into the city from Alberta this spring.

For more than 60 years, bedding plants have been grown at the city’s greenhouse. That’s no longer an option because the aging greenhouse, located in the Vic Rempel Yards off Avenue P South, is falling apart and could soon be condemned.

According to Konrad Andre, operations manager for the city’s parks department, a tender was issued late last year for a new plant supplier.

“The winning bid was a supplier from Alberta,” he said.

“It was approximately $75,000 for 37,000 plants.”

Once the plants are received, Andre said greenhouse staff will begin putting together flowerpots and park designs.

Jill van Duyvendyk, owner of Dutch Growers, said she thought about bidding for the project, but chose not to.

“It’s quite a large job,” she said.

“It’s live product that needs to be delivered and grown from  certain points from April all the way through to June.”

The decision not to bid for the job came down to what’s known as “bench space” – the greenhouse area available for plants to grow – and whether she wanted to dedicate more time to the retail side of her business or set aside greenhouse space for the large city bedding plant project, van Duyvendyk explained.

Despite not bidding, van Duyvendyk said she’s been in contact with the city to see if there are other ways she could help out.

“Maybe if they get shorted some product, or if they have some crop failures or things like that,” she said. “Our industry is small, so we tend to work together.”

Many local growers not only have their own greenhouses, Van Duyvendyk noted, but also source plants from other provinces.