The Townships green thumb, a symptom of the pandemic

With animal shelters sitting bare, people are turning to potted pets and kitchen gardens to keep them company during the second lockdown.

Since March, greenhouses in Sherbrooke have experienced a shortage of indoor plants with twice the demands. According to Mélanie Grégoire, owner of Serres St-élie, the horticulture industry has seen an increase of 40 to 60 per cent for indoor plants sales since April of last year.

“For the past few years we could feel a trend building for indoor plants,” said Grégoire. “But it’s particularly crazy right now.”

Before the March lockdown of last year, Serres St-élie reported only requiring one truck load of plants per months to meet their customers’ needs but it has since increased to two trucks. The issue, however, is the existing shortage from suppliers in Florida.

Grégoire added any incoming set of rare plants typically sells within half an hour, leading many to shop secondhand to feed their botanical needs. The greenhouse owner said she has seen an increase in Facebook trade and sell groups for more rare plants, with some folks willing to pay almost double the original price of the plant.

“A lot of our clients are starting to grow their own plants,” said Grégoire. “We have been seeing a growing online market for collectable plants.”

Before the pandemic, most of Serres St-élie’s sales were predominantly inperson purchases but, since March, most people have turned to online shopping. Unfortunately for early online buyers, however, Serres St-élie did not always update their online stock.

“We went from being in-person to being stuck at home so we tried to accelerate our online stock,” said the greenhouse owner.

Still, Serres St-élie handles most of their sales via their Facebook page. According to Grégoire restrictive measures, such as only allowing 30 customers inside, and the uncertainty of closing has forced them to update their online presence.

But selling plants online just isn’t the same, according to her.

“It’s very difficult because we sell living things. People can’t see how beautiful they are,” admitted Grégoire. “And it’s very difficult to mail plants. That’s our biggest struggle.”

But for Jardin Eden, a greenhouse and plant boutique, switching to online was a must. Due to public health regulations the boutique can only allow up to two to three customers at a time, disrupting the flow of customers and sales.

Fréderick Lavoie, manager of Sherbrooke’s Jardin Eden, believes the pandemic was a wakeup call for the horticulture industry, forcing them to modernize.

“At the beginning, online orders were practically a department of its own,” said Lavoie. “The phone would ring from morning to night.”

For Jardin Eden the sudden surge of online purchases required a drastic change in their platform to render it more customer-friendly.

On top of affecting the flow of customers, the government-enforced regulations also affected personnel. Lavoie said the pandemic increased the workload of staff and handed them a bunch of new tasks, such as greeting customers with hand sanitizers and reminding them to wear a mask. This, along with the doubling of sales and a phone ringing all day, stretched the employees thin.

“We were working with a reduce team but a lot more orders,” said Lavoie, who is now starting up the new hiring period. “We were able to manage last year but we also don’t want the employees to burn out.”

At Serres St-élie, the new governmentimposed curfew also forced Grégoire to revisit schedules. Last year, employees had the choice between two schedules: the day shift, treating in person sales and incoming stock, and the night shift, responsible for packing and shipping online orders. Now, Serres Stélie works on an afternoon shift and asks their employees to stay a little longer after their shift ends at 5 p.m.

Despite being considered an essential service, both stores chose to close from Dec. 26 to Jan. 11 which allowed them to revamp their services to better fit the increasing demand for indoor plants. And to prepare their vegetable garden inventory for March, which they anticipate will be a whole other challenge.