BRAMPTON, ON – Searching for brilliant flowering baskets, gorgeous blooms, edible plants, and stunning designer planters? Then look no further than the outdoor Garden Centres at your local grocery stores like Real Canadian Superstore®, Your Independent Grocer®, nofrills®, Extra Foods®, and Wholesale Club™.
"I can't wait to see our customers' reaction when they see what we have come up with for them this year. We have many exclusives they won't find elsewhere, plus exciting products and new plants in colours we are sure will take their breath away," says Peter Cantley, garden guru and vice-president Floral & Garden, Loblaw Companies Limited.
All non-tropical outdoor Garden Centre plants sold in Loblaw banner stores are sourced from Canadian growers who advise us on what will grow well in Canadian gardens from coast to coast.
Cultivate your wish list and help grow your best garden ever by picking up a copy of our 2013 President's Choice® Insider's Report® Garden Edition, which will be available in-store and online at pc.ca on May 10.
In the meantime, here are some highlights.
Big, Bold, Brilliant Baskets
This season, we've redesigned our Jumbo Hanging Basket to give it an extra oomph. It is available in 2 great colours – apple green and plum. The best part for your flowers is that it's big and roomy, which is important because a larger soil capacity helps keep plants from drying out. Chic but understated, the new design allows annuals to steal the show. If you love the colour combo pink, blue and white like our Garden Guru Peter, we suggest you try our new and exclusive PC® Gigantico® Jumbo Premium Hanging Basket Sun Combo featuring geranium and verbena twister pink.
In our annual search for hot exclusives at the California Spring Trials, we saw three versions of a new striped verbena, but the colour intensity of the Voodoo Star Red struck us as extraordinary. Big and super-bushy, it may be the best verbena we've ever offered in our Garden Centres. And since this trailer blooms like mad all summer, you really should try our new PC® Gigantico® Deluxe Premium Hanging Basket Voodoo Star Red Verbena.
Chic and rich in colour the new and exclusive PC® Gigantico® Jumbo Premium Hanging Basket- Illumination Begonia is sure to stop you in your tracks, because of the sheer number of blooms!
Beautiful Blooms
We've been in the garden business for more than three decades, so when we say our new and exclusive PC® Super Gigantico™ Dahlia – Dahlinova Hypnotica Tequila Sunrise may be the most beautiful flower we've ever offered, that's really saying something. Almost profound in their magnificence, the orange and coral blooms look like intricate origami. Cut them and bring them inside so you won't miss a moment!
With blooms like succulent red shrimp ripe for the plucking, our new and exclusive President's Choice® Shrimp Braid is quite the conversation piece.
We're not exaggerating when we say our new PC® Super GiganticoTM Sunpatiens Hot Coral gets big. Just how big? So much so that it can resemble a shrub or hedge that's loaded with a mass of ravishing blooms. And it's bred for the sun and heat, so it has serious stamina! You can find this exclusive beauty in either hot coral or red.
Edible treasures
These days, you can grow virtually all the ingredients for your summer salads right in your own backyard. Our new President's Choice® Mighty 'Mato plants grow up to a towering six feet tall! We graft wonderful tomato varieties, including the delicious heirloom variety Brandywine, onto a super rootstock that absorbs nutrients out of the soil, acting like a power generator for the plant. We even developed the PC® Mighty 'Mato Tomato Cage to support these enormous tomato plants.
Canadian summers provide the perfect climate for growing fresh fruit for your family and it's easier than you think. Canada's own Vineland Research & Innovation Centre is the home of some fantastic garden developments. A great example is our new and exclusive President's Choice® Pixie™ Grapevine that you can actually grow in a pot! Providing adorable mini clusters of juicy grapes you can eat or make wine with, this amazing new dwarf grapevine means new opportunities for home growers. Keep it on the deck or patio as a great conversation starter!
Last year, we had huge success with plump, juicy Haskap berries – an exciting new fruit that tastes like a cross between blueberries, raspberries and Saskatoon berries. So for this year, our breeder suggested planting two compatible varieties in one pot for proper cross-pollination, the process that ensures fruit and lots of it. The new and exclusive President's Choice® 2 in 1 Haskap plant is one of the earliest fruits of the season and they're perfect for jam, baking or enjoying by the handful.
Canadian Exclusives
We've had so much success working directly with breeders to get exclusives on the hottest new annuals that now we're trying it with perennials. Recently, we visited plant trials at Walters Gardens in Michigan, US where they specialize in perennial plant breeding. One of our best discoveries is our exclusive new President's Choice® Heuchera Amber Lady. Compact, it grows into a nice large mound. It's super-hardy and will do well in sun or part shade!
Kelowna, BC-based Bylands Nurseries Ltd, is responsible for growing the new President's Choice® Heuchera Amber Lady and has been working with the President's Choice® brand team for 13 years. "When we saw how the vibrant reddish orange maple-leaf-type foliage transforms throughout the season to provide a splashy display of colour, we knew it would become a new favourite among Canadian gardeners," says Andrew Hanson, Bylands Nurseries Ltd.
It's already loaded with purple bell-shaped flowers when it arrives in our outdoor Garden Centres, so don't be surprised if our new and exclusive President's Choice® Purple Get MeeTM Campanula draws you in. A perennial that acts like an annual, the rich blooms come back throughout summer to fall.
We love how the petals of this flower form an inner ring of purple. We don't know how our PC® Gigantico® Lanai® Twister Purple Verbena figured out how to design itself, but we do know we can't get enough of this stunning purple flower. Look for this and our new Red Twister – both exclusive to us!
Grasses are Back!
Lately, ornamental grasses have been really in demand in our outdoor Garden Centres. One of our most popular is the tall and stately PC® Feather Reed Grass – Karl Foerster. develops pretty plumes in mid-summer and come fall, they turn golden and sway and rustle with the wind. Try it grouped with Festuca Boulder Blue grass, Echinacea and Geranium Rozanne.
Add a bright blue accent to your garden with our PC® Boulder Blue Festuca, a cascading mound that works well with almost any perennial.
Our favorite new grass is PC® Miniature Fountain Grass – Burgundy Bunny which is ideal in a planter or mass planting. In July, the white tips of our Miniature Fountain Grass turn bright red to glorious effect, signaling a transformation of the entire plant to burgundy.
Canadian gardeners can find expert assistance and learn more about these and other wonderful products featured in the Insider's Report® found at Loblaw Garden Centres and online at pc.ca. The President's Choice® brand can also be found on Facebook and Twitter (@preschoice #PCGarden)..
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
In 2008, Loblaw introduced Canada's first and only national recycling program for gardeners. Exclusive to Loblaw banner stores, gardeners across the country can drop off their used plastic pots and flats where they are not accepted by municipal recycling programs. The plastic products are then recycled to create new pots and flats for the next season. Gardeners can also return used pots and flats purchased at any garden centre to Loblaw stores and receive a $5 coupon* for a minimum of 25 pots or flats returned, to be redeemed when they spend a minimum of $50 on gardening products from the outdoor Garden Centres.
Through this unique program more than five million pounds of plastic flower pots and flats have been diverted from landfill since 2008. To learn more about Loblaw's commitment to corporate social responsibility visit www.loblaw-reports.ca.
President's Choice® products are available at Real Canadian Superstore®, Your Independent Grocer®, nofrills®, Extra Foods®, and Wholesale Club™.
*Coupon valid from May 10 – July 4, 2013. Coupons can be found at cash registers of participating Garden Centres.
About Loblaw Companies Limited TSX:L
Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited, is Canada's largest food retailer and a leading provider of drugstore, general merchandise and financial products and services. Loblaw is one of the largest private sector employers in Canada. With more than 1,000 corporate and franchised stores from coast to coast, Loblaw and its franchisees employ more than 134,000 full-time and part-time employees. Through its portfolio of store formats, Loblaw is committed to providing Canadians with a wide, growing and successful range of products and services to meet the everyday household demands of Canadian consumers. Loblaw is known for the quality, innovation and value of its food offering. It offers Canada's strongest control (private) label program, including the unique President's Choice®, no name® and Joe Fresh® brands. In addition, the Company makes available to consumers President's Choice Financial® services and offers the PC® points and PC Plus™ loyalty program.
Product samples, regional versions of the President's Choice® Lawn & Garden Insider's Report® and high-resolution images are available.
*$5.00 will be deducted from your total purchase amount of $50 or more before sales taxes are applied. Coupon valid May 10 to July 4, 2013. One coupon per purchase. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Coupon must be presented at time of purchase. No monetary value. No copies accepted. Coupon is redeemable at participating Garden Centre locations only.
Source: Loblaw Companies Limited