Thursday 7 April 2011

Fernlea Flowers Visit

April's Event planned for the Garden Club was a visit to Fernlea Flowers.. A local wholesale   plant  business that has been  going since 1939. We had a great attendance even tho is was a cold rainy and snowy April day.

 
I won't yet again bemoan the  cold spring and long winter we have endured. Tho I could!

This  tour was a real treat as Fernlea doesn't usually    give tours   but since we were locals    and  the co-owner 's Father  was  born in Port Rowan   KeriLynn   agreed when I asked if it was possible..


The  size of the facility and the scope of flowers, herbs , vegetable, and  planters grown was impressive. Fernlea supply Lowe's ,Home Depot, Zellers and many more  businesses..
Seeding machine  line and the 128  plug flat of fibrous  begonias.
Finished Tray with vermiculite and  fine  water spray.
 Seed bin
Trays  on line  passing under roller to dimple peat moss.
128 baby fibrous begonia plants.
The foggy passage from the warm greenhouses to the cool greenhouses. 40 acres of greenhouses.

One of the specialities Fernlea is known for are Icicle Pansies  . They have  a new  variety of pansy  developed in Italy for them only   called Flamenco which is a ruffled  pansy. I have fallen in love with it ..


A planter   with succulents only.


Gerberas and more gerberas ....




 love the orange so  vibrant......

Planter for  Easter



Window boxes and pansies.

More pansies


Everyone found something to purchase at bargain prices.....before we had to venture back outside into  .....Oh what could that white stuff in the air be?


Still  it  was a fun event ,  what could be  better then a  warm greenhouses filled with bright flowers......promising    of spring  coming soon.

11 comments:

Pat said...

Never seen how these flats of flowers are mass produced.
Love the tour... 40 acres wow !

Wondering why they have cold greenhouses...guess some plants like pansies need it cool.
The shopping for plants had to be fun also.
I know right now...I'd want everything !

Thanks for posting.

Muffy's Marks said...

Fantastic 'field' trip. Now if spring would only hurry up!!!

Karen said...

How fascinating to see the process of planting they go through, oh to be that mechanized! The flats of begonias are amazing, too. What a nice break from all of the cold and snow. Those pansies are so pretty.

Rosanne said...

Looks like it was a really interesting visit!

ZONE F DG TEAM said...

My mom and a friend worked there for a while.

Raph G. Neckmann said...

What a huge place! I've never seen so many plants - we're very much small local grown here in Giraffe World. Love those vibrant oranges too - can you get gerberas with giraffe markings on?

verobirdie said...

Oh dear, what a weather you had :-)
THis must have been very interesting. I would have loved it.
And the fluffy pansy, I'm in love too.

Rosemary said...

Patsi that is right we went from warm where ger, Muffy,beras were growing to the cold greenhouse for the pansies.
Raph I will check on the giraffe marking gerberas.
Vero the pansy is so unusual
Karen, Muffy and Rosanne it was a fun day.

Iowa Gardening Woman said...

Looks like a wonderful way to spend a cold snowy/rainy day.

Victoria Williams said...

Great looking tour. Too bad Mother Nature slapped you silly on your way out. :-)

Robin's Nesting Place said...

That looks like a great place to visit! I love mass of colorful gerbera daisies!