Success under glass

Alberta’s greenhouse industry is riding the wave of better diets, home landscaping, gardening mania and other signs of a blossoming future.

With more than 400 growers producing vegetables, bedding plants, cut flowers, potted ornamentals, foliage plants, trees and specialty grass seedlings, Alberta’s greenhouse industry posts sales of $95 million a year.

With a tally like that, there’s no question the greenhouse trade is a rising star on Alberta’s economic horizon, says Mohyuddin Mirza, one of two greenhouse crops specialists with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AAFRD).

The results of a recent industry-wide greenhouse survey surprised even the specialists, admits Mirza. Conducted from June to December, 2000, the study pegged Alberta’s total greenhouse industry investment at $212 million, with operations now spanning 12 million square feet of greenhouse space. That’s three million square feet more than pre-survey estimates. “We were surprised that Alberta’s greenhouse industry showed growth of five to 10 per cent a year over the last few years,” says Mirza. Industry leaders were also pleased to that see biological insect and disease controls are on the rise in Alberta.

“Many growers can grow crops with totally biological inputs,” says Mirza. And while greenhouse production of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce has increased in Alberta, bedding plant production has expanded even more rapidly. Operators now produce more than 300 species of bedding out plants, with geraniums, begonias, New Guinea Impatiens, marigolds, petunias and pansies among the top 10 species grown.

Greenhouses cleaned out by customers

“The expansion of the Alberta industry is phenomenal. It’s almost doubled in the last six years,” adds Lyle Conway, president of the Alberta Greenhouse Growers’ Association and a greenhouse operator at Eckville. Better yet, “most greenhouses in Alberta now sell out their product and get calls for more.” Conway’s own business exemplifies another industry trend: the move towards niche markets.

Conway’s company grows bedding plant plugs and small seedlings which are then wholesaled to garden centres in Alberta. As well, his company sells about 70 per cent of its finished poinsettia crop to local fundraisers.

Market specialization and a trend towards increased farm-gate sales, including wholesale-toretail and direct-to-consumer sales at farmers’ markets, are key thrusts of the industry, adds Denis Patry. He’s a greenhouse horticultural instructor at Olds College, where about 400 students study certificate, diploma and degree programs in horticultural studies ranging from turf and landscape management to arboriculture, field/nursery management, greenhouse management and commercial floristry. Like Mirza and Conway, Patry expects issues of quality and variety to drive Alberta’s greenhouse industry’s continued success.

Expect steady growth to 2003

Energy concerns not withstanding, a climate characterized by low humidity and high light levels actually helps grow a high-quality greenhouse product, explains Conway. Geographic isolation also gives the industry a local boost; as long as Alberta growers continue to deliver the quality and selection consumers want at competitive prices, imported plants will be less attractive.

“I believe that during the next two years there will be stable growth of anywhere from two to four per cent a year,” notes an optimistic Mirza. That confidence is based, at least in part, on participation in government-led programs like a bedding plant workshop held in mid-February. The event attracted 45 participants, most new to the industry. They’re also younger than many current greenhouse operators, a sign of future vigour, predicts Mirza.

Other encouraging signs include the industry’s steady move towards new, energy-efficient, low-waste greenhouse designs, the adoption of made-in-Alberta innovations (like using recycled sawdust as a growing medium), as well as the arrival of a third greenhouse supply company in Alberta, Mirza adds.

Taste good, look good, feel good

The $95 million total for greenhouse production in Alberta does not include North America’s fastestgrowing hobby – home gardening.

Darcie Holteen, a mother of four from the Central Alberta community of Lacombe, admits her foray into vegetable gardening began “because it was a practical thing to do with a growing family.” That passion for planting eventually translated into seasonal employment at one of her garden-friendly haunts: a greenhouse company headquartered at Gull Lake. Her love of all things green also means the family’s new home was built with a landscape plan that included raised vegetable beds and a pond.

Those decisions put Holteen on the cusp of some of the landscape industry’s more innovative trends, namely landscape design and water features, says Rita Olmsheid of Landscape Alberta Nursery Trades Association. The economic contributions of an industry that includes everyone from landscape designers to landscapers, nursery growers and lawn care applicators aren’t included in the greenhouse study. But Olmsheid challenges Albertans to find any new building plans that don’t include a landscape design.

Home gardening doesn’t begin and end with good-tasting food and great-looking yards, adds Alison Demeter of Calgary. She is a recreation therapist, an avid home gardener and she runs a business that capitalizes on the feel-good aspects of working with plants. Using music, arts and crafts and tabletop and container gardening as therapeutic tools, Demeter visits senior citizen lodges and nursing homes to nurture her clients’ physical and spiritual needs.

While relatively new to Canada, horticultural therapy is a growing concern (pun intended) in the U.S., ”where it’s been around for 20 or 30 years,” says Demeter.

It’s funny. But from an economic perspective, it’s kind of nice to know a homegrown industry that tastes good, looks good, feels good and sounds good.