MOUNT VERNON — As many sectors of the economy shrink, downsize, fold and run for cover, the gardening industry is breathing a sigh of relief.
At Glass Gardens Greenhouse on West Gambier Street, business is budding and getting ready to flower. Tens of thousands of flats hold tiny sprouts of seeds. Freshly planted seeds rest in more flats inside a chamber heated to 80 degrees to encourage sprouting.
Large hanging pots hold small plants that will soon grow and fill them with blooms and leaves. The smells of soil, moisture and growing things — the smells of spring — are in the air inside the greenhouses, if not yet outside.
Fred Forster, who owns Glass Gardens with his family, said the 22-year-old business is growing — in the form of 5,000 hanging baskets, 12,000 to 14,000 flats, 10,000 perennials and 17,000 packets of seeds that are for sale.
“The vegetables and fruits are really going right now,” Forster said. “It’s the economy. Even with the cost of gasoline going down.”
He believes more people will plant gardens this spring, to grow food for themselves. He’s stocked up on heirloom tomato seeds, has tomato and green pepper plants started, is growing parsley, chives and other herb seedlings, and is offering kiwi plants hardy enough to grow in Ohio. Because both a male and female kiwi are necessary for fruiting, Glass Gardens sells both in the same container.
Forster said the Big Boy tomato is his best seller among the many tomato varieties he carries, and Glass Gardens’ No. 1 overall seller is the California Wonder Pepper.
But he knows people won’t be buying only fruit, herb and vegetable plants to eat. They’ll also buy flowers, which are food for the soul. So the hanging pots are planted with fuschia and begonia, the pansies are nearly ready to sell and overwintered hardy phlox are just waiting for spring.
Forster anticipates brisk sales of knockout roses, which aren’t grafted as traditional roses are.
“Yellow is new this year,” he said. “Knockouts grow from their own root, so they’re hardier. That’s why the popularity of the knockouts is so high ... they are easy to grow, and they survive.”
Forster said Glass Gardens — with approximately one acre of growing space under roof — had a record January and February, including a better-than-usual Saturday Valentine’s Day. He speculates that women, especially, specifically requested flowers and growing things as their Valentine gifts.
Birdseed sales during the frigid January were also up, he said, noting that although people don’t have to feed wild birds, they do so because it brings them pleasure.
“People want to buy what makes them feel good,” Forster said. “They want to do what they like to do, to be able to do things they enjoy. People are cutting back, they won’t be buying a new car or going into debt, but they’ll spend 20 bucks on seeds and flowers because it makes them happy.”
Glass Gardens’ customer count is already 15 percent higher than last year, and Forster has noticed customers are buying multiple seeds as they prepare for planting time.
“They’re planning,” Forster said. “Everyone is planning. Plus, they want to come in and just see something growing. It appears that we’re going to have a good year.”
