FOUR SEASONS GARDEN CENTRE
Location:
Hours of Business:
Phone:
Web Address:
1652 McRae Avenue (corner of Shelbourne and one long block north from Hillside Shopping Centre
Tuesday - Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm, Sunday 10:30am - 5:00pm
595-0108
N/A
Chosen for:
Large selection of plants & flowers
Expertise of landscape designer owner
Relaxing environment with coffee/treats available
Twenty-four people braved a blustery day for the June 7th Grapevine. With 6 first-timers, including three-month old Chelsea, we strolled from Hillside Shopping Centre to the corner of Shelbourne and McRae and entered FOUR SEASONS GARDEN CENTRE.Spotting the purple balloons, employee Gail Horne assumed it was someone’s birthday. We asked to speak to the shop owner without correcting her assumption. Proprietor Sylvia Schneider was momentarily stunned when we announced that Four Seasons Garden Centre had won our Best-of-the-Bunch award for June. Having just emerged from the windblown nursery, she quipped, “If I knew about this I’d have combed my hair!”
Owner Sylvia Schneider is an expert
landscape designer.
Photos by Barbara McDonell and
Sandra Tennent
A small corner coffee/tea/snack bar beckoned, complete with window stools, a couple of tables and a comfy couch beside the fireplace. Nearby, we heard the trickle of a water garden as we explored the spacious gift shop with windmills, weather-vanes, wooden fairy doors, a variety of outdoor statuary as well as a special short-handled umbrella that allows a gardener to create a mini-greenhouse effect over a single plant. Several large frogs in various yoga positions made us smile.
Prices are very reasonable, ranging from as little as $3.99 for a pretty wind-chime to a couple of unique wooden vases at $45 and $140, to a large water garden for $199.
A glass cooler held a selection of fresh-cut flowers, including red roses for $2 a stem or sweet bouquets for high school graduates. Although the store awning states “Four Seasons Fresh-Cut Flowers”, the gem of this enterprise is the huge hidden nursery at the rear of the building.
Sylvia grew up on Prince Edward Island but moved to Vancouver Island while in her teens. As a former nurse and now a landscape designer, she has shifted from caring for people to caring for plants. One of her favourite things is creating miniature landscapes in a pot, but she loves doing big landscapes too!
Large frogs in various yoga positions are
guaranteed to make you smile!
For more than ten years Sylvia has been dispensing gardening advice – six of them while operating Four Seasons Nursery in East Saanich. That location proved to be too much of a journey for Victoria customers and the landlord imposed restrictions that prevented her from developing the business as she had hoped.
So last January Sylvia leased this former grocery. She and her son spent three months gutting and painting the space before opening for business in late April. It remains a work in progress as she works around the clock to make her ideas come to reality. In fact, the night before our “graping”, Grapevine Founder Sandra saw Sylvia’s lights on at 2 a.m.!
Petroglyph artist Simon lives just
down the road.
Sylvia has ambitious plans, among them a dedicated once-a-month day for seniors who could gather to play cards while sharing a pot of tea. She will shortly create the front exterior area that currently resides only in her mind and she hopes to teach gardening classes and develop an outside tea garden. In the future she’d love to enlarge the inside coffee area and maybe add an entertainment feature – like a Blues Night.
As soon as I stepped into the outside nursery I was drawn in by an attractive shelving display of ceramic pots and shrubbery. Following the meandering paths I discovered a latticed wall of pottery faces, birdbaths, and then a tiny bonsai section featuring potted plants from $10 to $20.
Deeper into the nursery I met up with Sarala who’d fallen in love with a gorgeous pink dogwood tree. She pointed out some large “petroglyphs” made of heavy stone by “Simon who lives just down the road” and has promised some small works shortly.
As soon as I stepped into the outside nursery I was drawn in by an attractive shelving display of ceramic
pots and shrubbery. Following the meandering paths I discovered a latticed wall of pottery faces.
People felt so welcome and relaxed that they stayed longer than usual to chat over coffee/tea - the snacks were gone in no time! A surprising number of people said they lived close by and were very impressed by the store.
With growing season finally upon us and Sylvia offering Grapevine members a 10% discount at least until the end of the year, hustle yourself down to Four Seasons Garden Centre now!
When Sandra first visited Four Seasons she told Sylvia about her garden and its challenges. In exchange for a glass of red wine, Sylvia volunteered to come by Sandra's house with some sage gardening advice. How's that for service beyond the expected!