March 31st, 2020 — During this challenging time for our communities and for the world we would like to keep you updated on our operations at Phoenix Perennials and the actions we are taking related to Covid-19. We will continue to evaluate our policies and procedures on a daily basis and adapt these based on the best advice from our various levels of government and our health care officials. Our first priority is the health and safety of our staff and our customers. We will update this page on our website whenever there are changes in order to keep you informed.

Nurseries and garden centres have been designated as an essential service in British Columbia as of March 26th. Gardening is a safe and fulfilling activity that everyone can do while spending much more time at home. Gardening supports good physical and mental health through exercise, fresh air, beauty, inspiration, creativity, and the harvesting of edible plants from your garden and patio. Growing edibles can also fulfill some of your fresh produce requirements which will save you money and reduce the number of times and the amount of time you’ll have to spend on shopping.

#GardeningIsNotCancelled
#StayHomeAndGarden
#StayCalmAndGardenOn

In-Nursery Shopping — We are open for regular hours seven days a week from 10am-5pm.

Phoenix Perennials is a relatively safe place as it is easy to maintain good social distancing as you browse for plants throughout the nursery. We have put in place various protocols amongst our staff to keep the nursery as safe as possible. This includes following minimum distance guidelines and disinfecting public spaces such as our office, the washroom, the cash registers, the POS terminals, and our nursery carts every day.

As we approach peak gardening season from April 15th-June 15th, try to plan your visits to come on weekdays or Sunday mornings when the nursery is less busy so that we can spread out customer visits. Please also take advantage of our pre-orders so that you can do a portion of your shopping from the comfort and safety of your home thus increasing the efficiency of your visit and decreasing the time you’ll need to spend in the nursery to meet your plant needs. As we reach peak season, we may have to limit entry to a certain number of people at a time. Entrance will be first come, first enter and there may be a line. Please be patient. During peak season we will have separate areas for payments, pre-order pick-ups, and information. Please pay attention to our signage so you know where to go for which service.

If you would like to visit the nursery we ask you to follow a few guidelines to help keep everyone safe and healthy:

1. It may go without saying but we ask that anyone with any cold- or flu-like symptoms stay home and shop another day.
2. All customers MUST maintain a minimum of 2 metres (6 feet) of distance between yourself and our staff and yourself and other customers. By-law officers will be inspecting retail businesses and if anyone is found to not be maintaining this rule, Phoenix Perennials could be fined or shut down not to mention that you could be putting other people in danger.
3. If you are shopping with a spouse or a friend, we ask that you try to stay together to make physical distancing easier between groups of shoppers. If you are shopping with children they MUST remain with at least one adult at all times. This is for their safety and for the safety of everyone else at the nursery.
4. Please bring and wear your garden (or other) gloves when at the nursery. This helps to protect against the contamination of shared surfaces and reminds you not to touch your face.
5. Please DO NOT pick up or touch any products unless you are certain that you would like to purchase them.
6. We love dogs at Phoenix Perennials but during this crisis we ask that you do not bring them to the nursery. The behaviour of dogs with their movements and leashes could challenge our efforts to maintain appropriate physical distancing.
7. We will not be inviting customers into the office/cash register room at this time to avoid close proximity of people in small spaces.
8. When paying for your plants we will be using outdoor cash registers and cordoning off certain spaces during busy season. When paying, please use tap on your debit or credit card or, if you need to use the PIN pad, we will be sanitizing the pin pad after each use. If you can, please pay by debit or credit instead of cash at this time. We will accept cash if you have no other option.

Pre-Orders for Local Customers — If you are interested in products that are in our pre-orders, please take advantage of ordering from the safety of your home for pick-up or courier delivery. (See our webpage for courier pricing.) Anything you can research and order in advance will minimize your time spent in the nursery helping to increase safety for you and others. We know that you probably have extra time on your hands at home! As we reach the busy season, we will have a pick-up table in the parking lot for pre-orders.

Mail Order and Pre-Order Shipping — The Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization state that there is very low risk regarding incoming mail items. This is because coronavirus has poor survivability on surfaces and the time in transit is usually longer than the virus could survive. We look forward to shipping our plants across Canada and providing Canadians with the safest way to get plants for their gardens this year. Please be patient as we move into peak shipping season from May 1st to June 20th. We are receiving more orders than ever before and will be doing our very best to ship out orders in a timely fashion as soon as your plants are ready and strong enough to ship. We may be sending regional shipments via courier this year if it is cheaper and/or better for the plants.

Workshops and Special Events — All workshops and special events are cancelled for the spring season. We are sad about this but our workshops will be back and the Easter plant bunny will live to hide eggs and plant prizes another day.

Despite the sacrifices we will have to make to keep ourselves and our communities safe, remember this: we have gardening. Gardening is the perfect activity for this challenging time for our country and for the world. It is a healthy and inspiring hobby that you can do while living a more simplified life to “flatten the curve” and keep everyone healthy. During this challenging time, we will be doing our very best to get you the plants you need in the safest ways possible to keep you happy, healthy, and inspired by the fantastic world of plants. Finally, this will be a difficult time both operationally and financially for small businesses including Phoenix Perennials. Thank you for your continuing support and patronage of us and other small businesses.

Stay Safe and Happy Gardening from All of Us at Phoenix Perennials!