Greenhouses for greenhorn gardeners

By Christopher Borro
Posted 4/28/21

According to greenhouse owner Marianne Reha-Van Roekel, some 20 million new gardeners took up the hobby last year. She estimated a quarter of them would continue gardening this year.

As it’s …

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Greenhouses for greenhorn gardeners

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According to greenhouse owner Marianne Reha-Van Roekel, some 20 million new gardeners took up the hobby last year. She estimated a quarter of them would continue gardening this year.

As it’s turned out, the actual amount is closer to 75%, which just bodes all the better for greenhouses.

Reha-Van Roekel is the manager of Reha’s Greenhouses in Wellman, a business founded by her parents in 1974.

“My dad was a landscaper, and they just had a little plastic lean-to they started the business in,” Reha-Van Roekel said.

She took me into the show house, or “big house,” where customers can browse for plants.

“Where we’re standing right here,” she said, “there was an old barn, and my dad took half the roof off and put a fiberglass roof on it. That was the first greenhouse and he kept expanding from there.”

That business now comprises six different greenhouses, each with their own variety of temperatures and plants. Reha-Van Roekel and her husband manage it now, with the help of a small number of full-time and part-time employees.

Part of their management includes planning for the future. Reha-Van Roekel analyzes industry trends to determine which plants to order nine months before planting season begins.

“We decide what we’re going to grow, how we’re going to grow it, what size pot,” she said.

The plants come from all across the country, in trays, or “plugs,” of between a few dozen to 500 apiece. The team then plants for seven weeks straight.

“Every day looks different,” Reha-Van Roekel said. “It just depends on what plants have come in.”

And that’s where the glut of greenhorn gardeners comes in, too. Reha-Van Roekel said gardening as a hobby was on the downswing before 2020. The pandemic lockdowns led to more than just a new consumer base for self-sufficient gardens. Outdoor potted plants and houseplants are on the rise as well.

Reha’s even opened for Saturdays in the winter just so they could sell houseplants.

Then there’s the furniture, the fire pits, and sprucing those up with leafy décor.

“Having an outdoor living space is a big [trend],” Reha-Van Roekel said. “Making it more like an outdoor room.”

Why have so many people picked up a gardening lifestyle? She suspects it’s more for “the satisfaction, the healthy lifestyle it has,” that people have turned to it. She said customers like to know where their own food is coming from, and that it can be beneficial to peoples’ mental health.

As the weather grows nicer, and gardening grows more popular, so too will the crowds at Reha’s and other area greenhouses.

“It seems like we’re always growing,” Reha-Van Roekel said.

And of course they are. Isn’t that the point of a greenhouse, after all?