NORTHEAST WIS. – As the winter season comes to an end, petals begin to take the place of snowflakes at local greenhouses.
The warm weather invites shoppers to explore fresh flowers for purchase, but their growth requires more than just a green thumb. Local greenhouses are also home to unique stories that grow each season.
Run by Kathleen Gilligan and her daughter Erin Gilligan Przybylski, Petal ‘n’ Roots Greenhouse began its journey in 2007 in Crivitz as the Green Thumb Garden Shoppe before finding its current home in Kathleen’s backyard at W6693 Beech Rd in 2014.
Opening this year on April 23, Petal ‘n’ Roots is open seasonally through May and June from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
“We don’t have a bunch of employees running around — just family and friends — and we are women owned and operated,” Kathleen Gilligan said.
“Our greenhouse is packed to the hilt with annual flowers, but the top of the lists would be our super selection of beautiful, mature perennials grown by McKay Nursery right in Waterloo, Wis., or our wide selection of vegetable and tomato starts that we grow on site,” Kathleen Gilligan added.
Petal ‘n’ Roots will be offering new perennials, including itoh peonies, mandevillas and mardy magnolias.
“We always have new offerings mixed among the tried and true,” she said.
With years of growing experience and Master Gardener training, Kathleen offers more than just flowers at her and her daughter’s greenhouse, noting, “We are plant people!”
Purchased at a sheriff’s auction in 2007, Sharkey’s Greenhouses is owned by Scott and Amy Sharkey. The shop was originally started in 1975 by Scott’s parents and known as Crivitz Floral before being renamed Sharkey’s Greenhouses.
The floral and greenhouse was run for 16 years until the Sharkeys closed the floral business portion in 2023 after developing a fertilizer that was sold locally in their greenhouse. The new primary business became selling their Beat Your Neighbor Fertilizer to customers across 48 states.
Sharkey’s greenhouse is currently in its 19th growing season, known for their hanging baskets. They sell annuals and vegetables, but they do not sell perennials.
“We narrowed down what we do best and focused on that to give our customers a quality product,” Amy Sharkey said.
“Our greenhouse is known across not only this country, but the world,” Amy Sharkey said.
The couple started doing educational videos on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually earning a YouTube Play Button.
“Educating viewers on varieties, care and how-to projects is what took our small-town greenhouse and put us on the map. Last year we [were] able to reach over a million views daily from the midwest to across the world… We believe that regardless of your experience in gardening, there is always something to learn or [to be] reminded of,” Amy Sharkey explained.
Sharkey’s Greenhouses will open on April 23 this year, with business hours being from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
Originally known as Gentz’s Flowers in Gillett, The Flower Shoppe was purchased and renamed in 1978 by Jim and Sandy Hanson.
Throughout their time with the shop, the Hansons grew the business from a flower shop and greenhouse in Gillett to also include flower shops in Oconto Falls and Suring.
Jim and Sandy’s daughter Melanie and her husband Matt Rice moved to Oconto Falls in 1998 to help manage the business, purchasing it five years later. Currently, Melanie and Matt only own the greenhouse portion of the company.
“The most popular items sold are our mixed hanging baskets and our outstanding fuschia baskets. We sell lots of vegetable plants and we carry about 30 varieties of tomatoes and 30 varieties of peppers. If you like to make salsa, we can help you create a new recipe,” Melanie Rice said.
The Flower Shoppe also sells many perennials, planters, shrubs and garden gifts.
Customers are welcome to bring in containers or pots from home that The Flower Shoppe can custom design to their liking.
A variety of new colors in petunias will be offered, including inferno metallic orange and inferno orange. A new variety of calibrachoa, or million bells, called double grapefruit will be offered, as well as new begonias like florencia yellow, florencia red and florencia pink.
“We like to think that we are the greenhouse that is mini, but mighty,” Melanie Rice said. “We are considered a small greenhouse, but we carry a huge variety. We are known to have quality plants, excellent service, and great prices,” she added.
While the spring season is where the sales are, months of preparation and goes into the greenhouse business during the off season.
“Each year reopening is a major project,” Kathleen Gilligan said.
Preparation at Petal ‘n’ Roots includes spring cleaning in the yard, gathering mulch from Wiedemeier’s Sawmill, maintenance when needed and other improvement each year, along with growing most of their own plants and hanging baskets.
“Opening the greenhouse starts during the winter months,” Amy Sharkey said.
Sharkey’s Greenhouses begins with getting the heaters running, the water pumps working, the pots filled with soil and the staff ready for the season.
“We have a great group of workers that have become part of our family,” she added.
“The work never ends in the greenhouse business,” Melanie Rice said.
The Flower Shoppe’s off-season sees the greenhouses being cleaned; updates and repairs being made as needed; and seeds, plants, pots, soil and more being ordered for the next season.
“Around Thanksgiving time we start to make our fresh wreaths, which we make by hand, and sell for homes and cemeteries. We are famous for our hand-made birth wreaths, [in which] the bow is made from actual birch bark,” Melanie Rice shared.
While the greenhouses all provide a different adventure for customers, the hard work stays the same across the industry. Each business prepares for their unique greenhouse experience; one that customers will be sure to never forget.
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