Features
Through the lens of the green industry

A few months ago, Greenhouse Canada launched a photo contest and appealed to our readership to share a glimpse of the Canadian greenhouse industry from where they operate.

We received an astonishing 40 entries from across the country. Readers not only shared their photographic talents but also their insights on the business from their perspective.

Deciding on a winner was far more challenging than we at Greenhouse Canada anticipated. The skill with which many of these moments were captured is masterful. The image we settled on was sent to us by Colin Van Geest of Pump House Gardens in Beamsville, Ont. Pump House is a small flower farm and greenhouse, growing cut flowers primarily for direct-to-market sales on their farm and at local farm markets.Our judges were drawn to this dynamic image as it illustrates the beauty, hard work, physicality and humble tradition of greenhouse growing. Congratulations to Colin and the Pump House team for producing such a captivating image of the industry.

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The following is a round-up of the top entries. Enjoy!

1. Our winner! Here’s what Van Geest had to say about about Pump House Garden: “My family has a rich history in the cut flower industry in Canada dating back to when my father immigrated from the Netherlands and opened his own cut flower greenhouse in 1959. All those years working alongside my family taught me the values of hard work and a quality product.”
2. This photo was submitted by Sarah Pardy of Gold Leaf Technologies. It features Curcuma growing at Hendriks Greenhouses in Beamsville, Ont., under Heliospectra lights.
3. This aerial shot, submitted by Dimitri Karakostas of Saint George, N.B., is of the mother-daughter owners of Canada Green Nursery sorting through some of their perennial stock.
4. This fun photo was submitted to us from Heidi Van Doorn of Plant Products of Biobest Group. It shows “a helpful Biobest bee (Bombus impatiens) hard at work on strawberry blooms.”
5. This photo was submitted by Oliver Crane of Qualitree Nursery in Chilliwack B.C. He writes of the image: “The nursery I work at (Qualitree) is always looking for the next big thing in technology. We’ve been able to find more efficient ways of doing what we’ve been doing for years, thanks to a few new bits of tech. I believe in a very tech-forward future for the nursery world. Here is a photo of our drone above a crop of gaultheria plugs.”
6. Submitted to us by Daina Budde of Waterville, N.S., this photo is of Glad Gardens, a “retail greenhouse built out of Hemlock logs with living ‘curtains’ along the top on the sides.”