Toronto’s flower brokers: Inside the city’s spring rush of plant production

Hundreds of thousands of plants are getting ready for shipment across the city, and for workers at the greenhouses in High Park and Etobicoke, it’s a multimillion-dollar effort years in the planning. Here’s how it’s done.

Theglobenandmail.com
May 18, 2018
Jennifer LaGrassa

For the past couple of weeks, Griffin Mangroves’s office has been in bloom. On most days, the supervisor of the City of Toronto’s greenhouse operations leaves his downtown apartment and heads to High Park, located in the city’s west end. Nestled in the centre of the park is 40,000 square feet of greenhouse space that is currently brimming with plants. Petunias, violas and marigolds in shades of yellow, red and purple are just a few of the different plants lining the greenhouse walls.

Mr. Mangroves, wearing a blue suit jacket with a cloth flower pinned to his lapel, stands alongside High Park greenhouse forepersons Antonio Garcia and Linda Malloy, who are giddy with pride and exhaustion as they near the end of production and prepare to ship out the almost 1.1 million plants across Toronto.

“When I look at a plant now, I’m like, ‘You know what, I know what you’ve been through,’ because it takes a long time and a lot of work,” said Mr. Mangroves, who supervises about 68,000 square feet - slightly larger than a football field - of plants between the High Park greenhouse and the Centennial one in Etobicoke. These two locations produce all of the annual plant material - plants that bloom and die in one season - needed for city parks, major boulevards and conservatories across Toronto .

“It’s very rewarding for me,” said Mr. Mangroves. “What I enjoy most is the satisfaction that I know my work is bringing to other people.”

At the same time, he stresses that the plant production and gardening processes are a team effort. From gardeners to lead hands and forepersons, to each district’s park supervisor, the collaborative approach relies on multiple hands, proper timing and good weather.
Ordering

The ordering of plant materials happens two years in advance and plant types depend on the season. “Your go-tos every year would be your begonias which are very shade-tolerant, the classic marigolds, petunias and violas,” said Mr. Mangroves. “We try to give a lot of variety in the city. We think that sets us apart from other cities.”

A portion of this year’s $5.6-million approved budget for plant production and greenhouses was spent on Canadian or American vendors.

As a precaution, extra supplies are ordered. “We’re dealing with living things, so obviously there’s going to be death because of disease and pests,” explained Mr. Mangroves.

Any leftover plants are later donated to community gardens, schools, hospitals and various other groups.
Greenhouse planting and maintenance

From January to June, High Park and Centennial greenhouses operate in overdrive with a total of 32 permanent and seasonal staff divided between the two greenhouses to plant between 800,000 and 1.1 million plants. The number varies each year depending on special events, such as the 2015 PanAm Games, as well as the addition or removal of green spaces or the implementation of different designs.

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A production schedule, which outlines each week’s activities, keeps staff on track of what needs to be planted, transported or maintained. The schedule largely depends on the type of plants being grown; some may take six months to fully develop, whereas others require only a few weeks.

Most plants are individually handled by staff, but seed planting is also done by machines that use a conveyor belt to push trays with more than a dozen soil-filled slots underneath seed-depositing nozzles. All plants are misted, watered and fed, and moved into bigger trays as they continue to grow. Throughout this process, the temperature, humidity level and light exposure inside the greenhouses are monitored and adjusted based on what will allow the plants to thrive.

In terms of preventing pests, Ms. Malloy said they use predators - bugs that kill other bugs - and an eco-friendly insecticide, which is dish soap mixed with water. Mr. Garcia said these measures are an improvement compared to the harsh chemicals used by greenhouses 30 years ago.

While the greenhouses mostly contain plant species that are native to Toronto, there are a number of tropical plants taking up residence, including banana trees and donkey tail succulents. “Do you like tequila?” asked Mr. Garcia while pointing to a group of large thorny blue agave plants. While these ones won’t be used to produce the key ingredient for tequila, they’ll instead act as decorative centrepieces in flower beds across the city.

On Tuesday, after the Victoria Day long weekend, trucks will line up outside the city’s greenhouses to pick up their orders and deliver them to their districts. “You can almost set your clocks by it,” said Mr. Mangroves, emphasizing the word “almost” because there have been times when poor weather delayed plant shipment.

Should all go as scheduled, plant materials will be shipped out every weekday until mid-June, leaving most of the greenhouses empty for a short period of time. Scarborough, which has the most amount of park space, usually takes between a week and 10 days to retrieve its order with the help of transport trucks and dozens of plant trolleys.

Other large orders tend to belong to high-profile areas, including the Toronto Islands and the waterfront area, which attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each summer.
City-wide planting

Scarborough park supervisor Christopher Martin, says that planting is carried out by staff gardeners who usually spend weeks in advance prepping the garden beds.

Mr. Martin has only six gardeners for 55 park locations, meaning planting takes about four weeks to complete. Ensuring appropriate amounts of water and fertilizer is crucial in these first few weeks as the plants settle into their new home.

As for Mr. Mangroves, Mr. Garcia, and Ms. Malloy, once the last of the annuals have left the greenhouses, they’ll lay low for a few weeks until it comes time to start growing plants for the fall and winter. Operating a season ahead of time means that while Toronto is enjoying summer, the greenhouse will be celebrating Christmas in July as poinsettia growth begins.