05 juni 2005
Retail Report: Garrett's Greenhouse
Garrett's Greenhouse, seen here through the gates of Highland Cemetery, is a small combined florist and garden center offering a vibrant array of floral arrangements and standard bedding plants and shrubs. As soon as I entered, I was greeted by a lady who along with her affable husband co-owns the place. She asked if I was looking for anything. When I said blackberry canes, she said she didn't have them on hand but that almost any plant could be ordered and available for pickup the next day. (!)
The greenhouse offers what looked like unusually healthy flats of geraniums, petunias, impatiens, and other garden plants. In back you can see stacked bags: this is manure, topsoil, potting soil, and mulch, for sale for a reasonable $2,99 a bag. This solves my mulch shortage problem.
Here's you'll also find a wide assortment of patio bricks in pleasing colors. The greenhouse walkways are a pretty patchwork of several different patterns and styles, so this is a good place to visit if you have a walkway project in mind but need some ideas.
Of note were Garrett's splendid hanging baskets, healthy and lush. Here you see a pink double geranium, an impatiens, and a lovely chenille plant resembling the one that died on Y. years ago which she's sought to replace ever since.
Y. was intrigued by the greenhouse mechanism. It looked like an old greenhouse that'd been rehabbed, with a neat covering of plastic replacing long-gone glass panes.
Outside, you'll find a small selection of garden shrubs and (foreground) daylilies. This is actually where the husband co-owner's landscape business stores and picks up its plants for his projects (but the items are also for sale for retail).
Garrett's offers free delivery to St. Joe's Hospital, Highland Cemetery, and all Ypsilanti funeral homes. It is the ideal spot to stop if you are headed to Highland Cemetery to visit a grave. They also wire flowers anywhere in the country.
Y. sprang for the charming, funny chenille plant, which the husband co-owner called "Muppet Fingers." This plant is so distinctive that Y. was stopped by a gardening lady at the "beagle house" at Forest and River and asked about it.
"Isn't that called the Lipstick Plant?" she asked.
"It has lots of names," I replied. "I've heard it called the Caterpillar Plant and chenille plant, and even 'Muppet Fingers'.I got it at Garrett's."
"Oh, yes, I've been there. Nice to have them here."
Indeed it is. Hours: Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Call 480-0022 or visit their website.
The chenille plant, getting sprinkled, in its new home. It's sitting on the ground for the moment because every conceivable hook, hanger, and protubrance already has a hanging basket hanging from it...I'll figure out something.
Posted by ypsidixit at 05 juni 2005 14:00
Comments
Always wondered about that cute little joint and its charming, out-of-the-way location.
Posted by: Charlie at 06 juni 2005 11:11
Charlie: as for me, it's not out-of-the way; it's the alternative to biking to (pant, pant) Meijer's for a darn bag of mulch, if I can't cadge a friend into hauling mulch for me. Garrett's spells mulch liberation for yours truly.
Posted by: Laura at 06 juni 2005 23:54
It's actually not out of the way for me, either, it's right by my house. It's just tucked into a street that's not heavily trafficked, I think.
Posted by: Charlie at 07 juni 2005 09:48
You are right, it's not heavily trafficked and the unassuming building is easy to overlook, as I did on Memorial Day.
Posted by: Laura at 07 juni 2005 09:56