Grocery Time

The history of the word grocery begins this way:  these were dealers who sold by the gross - in large quantities at discounted retail prices.  This was in medieval England.  There was a Grocer's Hall in London in the early 15th century, and the French word grosser, meant a 'grocer's shop' by 1828.  But that seems so far away to what is now the supermarket.  I looked down the last aisle of the Sobey's yesterday and it was a wall of large glass doors of freezer goods. It seemed eerie. The shelving and food storage may have changed, but the large self-service store with food and household goods has been with us for 100 years.  Vincent Astor founded the Astor Market in 1915 in Manhattan, creating an open-air mini-mall that sold meat, fruit, produce and flowers.  While it was not successful, Piggly Wiggly stores opened in 1916.   The Great Atlantic and Pacific Team Company started just after. There was a debate in the U.S. over who opened the first 'true' supermarket.  The Smithsonian Institute along with Heinz researched the history and determined that the first supermarket was opened by Michael J. Cullen in 1930.  The stores were called King Kullen.  The slogan was: "Pile it high. Sell it low."  And that has been the dominant theme of supermarkets - reducing overhead costs to deliver competitive prices. The supermarket was a staple of the MBA program.  It has perfected all the techniques in controlling purchasing behaviour through layout, circulation, coordination and convenience.  There is also a principle about colour psychology.  Did you know that yellow is known to 'evoke energy and increase appetite?"  The grocery store layout principles are explained here at realsimple.com.  This is an example of a site whose goal is to bring shopping behaviour to the attention of consumers. I fall into the category of the consumer who is looking for a few specific things.  I spend time up and down the aisles looking for a single item - this week it was Kosher salt which I didn't find.  "Many stores have layouts that can seem unnecessarily confusing - this is another trick that grocery stores use.  When shoppers go into a store looking to buy a few specific items, they end up walking through the entire store looking for those items if the layout is confusing. They’ll be exposed to more products, spend more time in store, and likely spend more money." This interesting-looking plant was at the Denver Botanical Garden last year. There is one blooming in my greenhouse with long spikes of insignificant flowers. It is bukiniczia cabulica - a member of the plumago family that grows in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  I got it last year at a sale at the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society from one of the members.  Being a biennial, it will die after this flowering.  My job is to save the seed and return to the grower who will start some new plants.

The Bright Side of Spring

Wake Up on the Bright Side It is the bright side of Spring today.  With such an early Easter, the greenhouse nursery growers have retail operations open. We saw Sunshine Express last week, and today we see the growing greenhouses of Seaway Gardens.  They are located on Lakeshore Road, on the east side of the canal.  I mention this for those of you who want to check out the bargains at Seaway. Flats of pansies are 3 for $30.00 or $10.99 each. This first picture shows you just one of the many greenhouses of hanging pots.  In the second picture, I want you to notice the top photo of the lavender-coloured chair in the lavender field.  This is a picture by Marjorie Wallace, an artist I know from redbubble.  You can see the picture on her site here.  I've seen it in all the garden centres, so this is a great licensing sale for Marjorie. You may be asking the question:  When will the orchards bloom?  When should I drive to Niagara to see the blossoms?  Here is what they look like now, as you pull out of the Seaway parking lot and look towards the Lake.  The colour is showing on the branches.  My guess is we'll see our orchards in bloom for our normal Mother's Day celebration.

Hosta Season

It's not just Niagara gardens that have an abundant showing of hostas. In Niagara, though, I have found that the hostas in the garden have doubled in size over the last year and a half.  I now need to move some out of the large front hosta display bed. These leaves make beautiful garden images in every season.  Here are two examples.