This weekend is a perfect time to go check out a local greenhouse and pick up some bedding plants. Dr. Mohyuddin Mirza, greenhouse specialist with Alberta Greenhouse Growers Association (AGGA) says in Alberta we grow more than 300 different types up plants, and Victoria Day weekend is traditionally when they are all ready to be picked up.  

"Because our season is short, it's an opportunity to buy plants that are fully grown and mature," he explains. "So this is the time a greenhouse will be full of different coloured flowers and also vegetables like tomatoes and peppers and other crops that you could take and start picking right away."

Dr. Mirza says different types of flowering plants are available. "For example we have had so many different colours of petunias and pansies over the last 4 or 5 years," he says.  He adds that depending on your needs you can also buy flowers in a basket or flowers that you can put in the soil.  Mirza says if you are living in an apartment, buying plants in a basket is a great option so you can hang them on your balcony.  

"I am a big fan of buying locally, so going to a greenhouse will promote more economic benefit for locally grown material in the greenhouses," Mirza says. "Those plants are more suitable to our needs, they have been fully acclimatized to our climate, they will perform much better outside. So buy locally as much as you can."

Mirza advises everyone to talk to the grower and ask what they think will best suit your needs.