CLARENCE, NY (WKBW) — Flowers and plants you buy for the spring and summer seasons are now blooming at local greenhouses.
So what’s growing inside, while the snow is still falling outside? About 200,000 annuals and 10,000 thousand perennials are growing inside 15 greenhouses at Thompson Brothers Greenhouses in Clarence.
“Everything that you're buying in May has been started in the winter,” explained Dawn Thompson, co-owner, Thompson Brothers Greenhouses. “We have two acres of greenhouses under cover and by the time May comes. They will all be full and then we will sell them all in about six to eight weeks.”
If you're eager, start planning your spring and summer garden — the greenhouses are really where it all starts.
“Our busiest seasons are January, February, and March in the greenhouse and you wouldn't think that,” Thompson remarked.
Co-owner Thompson says some flowers are started as early as last August like these geraniums. Others start in November and December. Perennial seeds are started in the fall.
“You can literally watch them pop up overnight,” declared Thompson.
The greenhouses will officially open Palm Sunday weekend to the public, but Dawn tells me don't be too anxious to get those flowers in the ground.
“Don't come in here may first telling me you want to plant impatiens because I'm going to tell you — 'I'm not selling them to you until Memorial Day’ — everybody gets anxious — everybody is excited — I can almost guarantee every year we get a late season frost that nobody is expecting,” explained Thompson.
‘Bring your pictures and tell us which way your house is facing — north, south, east, or west and tell us what colors you like and we can help steer you toward successful gardening."
Dawn co-owns the greenhouses, along with her husband Kenneth Thompson. He tells me it was his grandfather who started the growing business in the 1800s.
“He had apples, eggs, chickens — he used to take all the stuff to the Broadway Market and he had a horse that would take him there because they didn't have cars then,” described Thompson.
Thompson says they also sell wholesale.
“We go as far as Utica with some of our products,” noted Thompson.
Now there is another generation working in the business — preparing all the flowers and plants. I asked 86-year-old Thompson if growing flowers keeps him young.
“No, she keeps me young. I have a young wife,” laughed Thompson.
