MONTREAL — Florists like Elly Pellow say that you can judge how much gardening is going to occur in the city of Montreal based on how good sales are at the flower stand where she works during Victoria Day weekend.
And sales so far are strong, said the florist for Pure Horticulture, in the Atwater Market.
With winter shrouding Montreal in cold and darkness for a disproportionate time of the year, city residents make the most of sunshine that is all too brief. Pointe-Claire resident Natalie Kelly has a word for them: “desperate gardeners.”
“The time is so short here that as soon as it heats up everybody’s buying, and planting and praying,” she said.
Gardening is no easy science either — requiring patience, knowledge and instinct.
“There are flowers that come every year, you have to plant them in the fall — bulbs and roots and all that,” said Susan Davidson, the president of the NDG Communal Garden. “Some you have to plant in the springtime, it depends on what you want.”
As an indicator of how popular gardening in Montreal is — there are 46 plots in the communal garden Davidson presides over. The waiting list to get a plot takes at least two years to exit.
Others, like Little Burgundy resident Allen Mendelsohn, choose to grow plants on their balconies, and use every moment of sun they can find.
“I think it makes the gardening that much more important to us,” he said. “I mean we want to enjoy the four or five months of nice weather we get per year.”
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