loom: ess in B l Greenhouses appin H ur Loca o Visiting It’s nearly impossible to visit a greenhouse and leave in a bad mood. Being surrounded by beautiful blooms in every color, an abundance of greenery of every type and excited gardeners getting ready for the season, it’s hard not to catch some of the excitement. We are fortunate in our area to have many greenhouses to choose from in our plant selection. I had the opportunity to visit with Sheila’s Country Gardens & Gifts and Yankton Nurseries, just two of our local greenhouses. Sheila’s Country Gardens & Gift Shop Hartington, Nebraska Sheila Schmidt and her husband Kenny opened Sheila’s Country Gardens & Gift Shop, located just on the South side of Hartington, twenty six years ago. When they got married, she had it in her mind that she would like to start a greenhouse someday. She grew up around large gardens, her grandparents and her mom each had one and she always liked them. After adding five children to their family, they followed her dream and put up one greenhouse to start. Their children at the time spanned from one to eleven years old. Two years later they built a second greenhouse and a third one followed in 1998. Sheila reminisces over her career path, “I love it just as much today as I did 26 years ago.” Experimenting with different plants, Sheila finds unique foliage and likes to mix distinctive arrangements together in her baskets. “Everything doesn’t have to bloom to be pretty,” she explains. She tests out various plants in and around her home before selling them to see how they grow in this climate. Sheila’s Country Gardens & Gift Shop usually opens the last week of April, weather permitting. Her typical day starts off at 6:00 AM with about three hours of hand-watering all of her plants and sweeping up any mess left behind. After assisting customers for the day, she closes up her shop and prepares for the next day, sometimes getting planters ready for the next day or if a warm or windy day, re-watering the plants again for another three hours. Sheila starts growing her crop right after Valentine’s Day and grows her crop primarily from seeds, so she can control how many flowers of each color. Each Monday she starts off a new batch of seeds, staggering them out so she always has something growing. She does all of her work by hand and when I ask about any special tools she might use, she laughs as she pulls out a pair of blue-handled scissors. “I don’t have growth regulators, I use these instead.” Her watering hoses and scissors are used the most, and Choosing The Right Dealer SAVE NOW UP TO 2,300 $ With Manufacturer & Utility Rebates •Experienced Technicians •24 Hour Emergency Service •34 Years Experience •Mobile Dispatching •Plan Maintenance Agreement HEATING & COOLING www.larrysheatingandcooling.com 10vHERVOICE MAY/JUNE 2015 920 Broadway, Yankton 665-9461 1-800-491-9461