Thanks a Bunch: A Thanksgiving Note from Our Family to Yours

A Quiet Day Under the Glass

If you swing by King Street or James Street today and find the lights low, don’t worry. Both Watering Can locations are closed for Thanksgiving Monday so our team can spend the day around their own tables. We’ll be back to our regular hours tomorrow, coffee on and doors open.

It’s a rare thing for the greenhouse to sit still. All week it has been a happy blur of sunflowers and mums heading out the door, pies leaving the Pastry Market by the armful, and porch planters being loaded into trunks. Today the only thing moving in there is the light through the glass. We think the plants have earned a rest, and so has our crew.

What We’re Thankful For This Year

We’re thankful for you, first and always. For the regulars who know our café order by heart, the first-timers who wander the greenhouse wide-eyed, and everyone who chose a Watering Can bouquet or pie to carry to someone they love this weekend. Being a small part of your celebrations is the best job we know.

We’re thankful for our team, too. The designers who built hand-tied bouquets and custom planters all week. The bakers who started before sunrise so your pies would be ready. The greenhouse crew who kept every mum watered and every aisle looking its best. And we’re thankful for Niagara itself, a place where autumn shows off in vineyards, orchards and maple-lined roads. It’s the reason we’ve happily called this region home for more than 25 years.

Keep Your Thanksgiving Blooms Looking Grand

The dishes are done, but your centrepiece doesn’t have to be. A few small habits will keep your autumn arrangements going well into the week.

• Refresh the water — Top up vase water every day and swap it out completely every two or three days. Cloudy water is the fastest way to shorten a bouquet’s life.
• Give stems a fresh cut — Snip about 2 cm off each stem at an angle with clean, sharp scissors. Pull off any leaves that sit below the waterline.
• Keep it cool, keep it away from fruit — Move arrangements away from heat vents, sunny windows and the fruit bowl. Ripening fruit gives off ethylene gas, which makes flowers fade faster.
• Let sunflowers drink — Sunflowers are thirsty. Check their water level morning and evening for the first few days.
• Enjoy potted mums as seasonal colour — Here in Niagara’s zone 6b, mid-October is late for planting mums in the ground. Roots rarely settle in before the soil freezes. Enjoy them on the porch for the season, and plant garden mums in spring or by early September next year if you want them to come back.
• Watch the frost forecast — Our average first fall frost in zone 6b lands around October 15th, just days away. Bring tender tropicals and houseplants that summered outside indoors now. Uncarved pumpkins and gourds will keep for weeks in the cool, but cover or move them in before a hard frost.

Looking Ahead: The Cosy Season Is Coming

Once the turkey is gone, our thoughts turn to evergreens and twinkle lights. Our Winter Workshops are now open for booking in the Workshop Village. They’re seasonal, hands-on and welcoming for every skill level, whether you’ve designed a hundred arrangements or never held floral snips. Spots tend to fill quickly, so it’s worth having a peek soon.

Urn Club members can look forward to their next seasonal planter inserts as the porch shifts from harvest to holiday. Membership starts at $200 a year for Basic and $275 for Premium. Our Tropical Garden Tea carries on in the greenhouse too, Tuesday to Saturday, at $47 per person. There’s nothing quite like warm scones and lush green leaves when November turns grey outside.

See You Tomorrow

From all of us at The Watering Can, thank you for 25+ years of letting us be part of your seasons. We hope today brings good food, good company and plenty of reasons to be thankful. When you’re ready for a little more autumn, our doors at 3725 King Street in Vineland and 18 James Street in St. Catharines open again tomorrow.