06/04/2026
THROWBACK THURSDAY: To celebrate our 50 year history, we are looking back at our origins, decade by decade. This is the last installment, highlighting our most recent years.
So far this decade has been about perseverance and coming together as a family. At the end of 2019 the business was officially transferred to Vikki and Kyle's ownership and Ann and Jack were well settled into their lovely condo community in East City. Kyle, Robin and their boys started some renovations on the house here on property and committed to making it truly their own.
Therefore, the 2020 season was one of excitement and we moved forward with big plans for change. Change did occur when the whole world turned on it's head with Covid lockdowns. Then timing could not have been worse for the horticultural industry. We were told to send staff home and close our store. In March we were into heavy planting and to accomplish this without any losses we had to pull everyone in "our bubble" together to get the job done. Our kids did schoolwork on laptops and, in between classes, planted with Kyle or helped with online orders. We did not have an online e-commerce portal and we quickly devised one (and it had so many glitches) and Robin, Jake, Mitch, Olivia and Ben pulled orders of plants to leave on tables for people to pick up in the fresh air, socially distanced.
Once outdoor garden centre stores could re-open, employees who felt safe came back to work and we had to manage the number of people on property. Lines formed, most folks were kind and some were not. Days were stressful, stock was selling out and we all worked harder than ever before. Despite all of the upheaval, horticultural businesses like ours flourished as people stayed home to garden; for that we were truly fortunate and grateful.
May 2022 was the start of normalcy again and that May long weekend the Derecho storm hit our area. In a matter of minutes tables were tossed, plants destroyed and trees fell. Luckily our staff, family and customers were all safe. We closed for several days, without power and, luckily, had minimal damage, with family and staff rallying to help the days of clean up.
The ice storm of April 2025 closed us down for a few days too and, because we were in the growing season, Kyle slept in the day and stayed awake at night to rotate power generators to keep the furnaces running in all greenhouses.
Our display garden is still not the same as a result of the storm damages and lack of time we had in 2020 and 2021 to tend to it. It's a different garden now, and maybe it needed to be. It has more naturalized areas, fallen brush at one end of the pond (that the turtles love as a habitat) and spaces for native plants. Adding a full native plant perennial section to our sales area has become a focus for us, along with a commitment to not stocking invasive plant material. Subtle changes have occurred, for the better.
This decade has reminded us the value of family and friends to help our success. Staff members, like family, have been monumental in keeping us moving forward and seeing the positive, and even the humour, of these wild situations. In the past 5.5 years Griffin's Greenhouses has grown, flourished and is poised for more great days ahead.
