Ontario-based Sheridan Nurseries has opened a new concept Garden Centre in Aurora, Ontario as it celebrates 110 years of growing with landscape professionals and home gardeners.
The company says it is proud to continue to innovate and inspire with products and services to create dream landscapes and backyard havens.
The new garden centre, which is the company’s eighth location, features:
- A nursery featuring premium trees, flowering shrubs, evergreens and other hardy, ornamental nursery stock;
- A wide selection of perennials and annuals to grow a garden of timeless beauty and colour;
- A greenhouse featuring an exotic collection of tropical, foliage and flowering houseplants;
- All the supplies and tools to set you up for success in your garden;
- A collection of patio furniture, outdoor accessories, home décor and fashion.
“We’re thrilled to be opening our newest location in Aurora,” said Colin Cruji, President and CEO of Sheridan Nurseries. “Sheridan Nurseries has been part of the Ontario landscape industry since 1913, and we’re excited to bring our expertise and passion for gardening to this vibrant community.”
Sheridan Nurseries is a local grower, wholesaler and retailer of plants, garden supplies, patio furniture and home decor products. It offers one of the largest assortments of annuals, perennials, and nursery stock in Southern Ontario. Sheridan grows over 1,200 cultivars of perennials in Norval, Ontario and hardy nursery stock on 900 acres in Halton Hills, Ontario, and ships 1.8 million plants annually to markets across North America.
Victoria Mulvale, Director of Marketing for Sheridan, said the company was started in 1913 by two landscape architects (Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb ) who came from England with a vision of bringing the idea of an ornamental garden to the ‘wilds’ of Canada.
“It didn’t exist. There were no real formal gardens in Canada back then,” she said. “They quickly discovered that not only did we not have gardens already but we did not have the plant material that was hardy to the climate to be able to put together these gardens.
“So they purchased some land in Sheridan, Ontario which is now part of Oakville . . . and they started growing the plants and products that they would need to bring the vision of the ornamental gardens to life, or the English gardens.
“In 1913, they purchased 100 acres of land and they started cultivating ornamental plants and that was the beginning of Sheridan Nurseries.”
She said the new nursery hired accomplished Scandinavian horticulturist Herman Stensson as its foreman. The Stensson family continues to be owners of the Sheridan Nurseries today.
By 1926, the company had 250 acres and it continued to grow by adding farms in Georgetown, where it currently operates its farm production.
The newest Garden Centre in Aurora is located at 15630 Bayview Ave.
Design for the new Garden Centre was led by Burdifelik and Drew Mandel Architects, with construction managed by Structure Group.
The Aurora Garden Centre is supported by Sheridan Nurseries’ 900 acres of farm production in Halton Hills, Ontario.
The current nurseries are all in Southern Ontario.
Mulvale said the Garden Centre in Aurora is a test.
“It’s a new direction for how we’re bringing the Garden Centre to life in communities. It’s not on sprawling acres of land like you would traditionally see a garden centre. It’s a standalone building within a shopping centre. It’s a new approach. We’re going to see how that goes and that will sort of lead us into further development based on the success of that location and seeing how that one goes and how we need to modify or shift,” she said.
