By Jennifer McDaniel, for the Lincoln Sentinel
Three days before she starts moving in, Brandy Krueger is busy getting employees ready in preparation for opening her greenhouse.
After a two-year absence, Krueger is ready for the growing season, but admits there’s still so much to do: moving in plants, pricing items and on and on.
With a new name and location, Krueger opens Mrs. B’s Greenhouse & Nursery today, offering flowering annual and perennial varieties, vegetables, trees and shrubs.
A pregnancy and the need for a new site kept Krueger, who co-owns the greenhouse with her husband, Kenny, busy the past two seasons. But in February, the couple found the right location and purchased the site at 811 N. Sixth St., just off Kansas Highway 14 on the north edge of town. The greenhouse was previously located at 504 E. Lincoln.
“I decided to change the name when we moved because, when I bought it in 2007, it was already Nature’s Call,” she said. “Since we moved, I thought it was a great time to change the name to what I wanted.”
Located on three acres, the new site offers room to expand the greenhouses, which are brimming with flats, hanging baskets and containers filled with vibrant petunias, impatiens, vinca, rose moss and other flowering annual varieties.
Perennial varieties are started in the summer or fall and spend the winter in cold conditions so home gardeners can plant early in the spring without the fear of losing their young plants to freeze or frost. Perennials are all hardy to at least 10 below zero.
“What sets us apart from other greenhouses is all of our plants are all-organic,” she said. “There are no chemicals, and they’re all grown cold-hardy. And we’re often the same price, if not cheaper, than what you can find in Salina.”
While the season is just beginning, Krueger said just about any flower variety can be planted now since the final frost date has passed, and the added benefit of growing plants cold-hardy should give gardeners the confidence to get started.
Although the season ends in June, Krueger said she will offer mums, pumpkins and other fall items at the greenhouse this autumn much like the ones she sold the last two years at the Vesper Vintage event.
“I really love doing this, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” she said. “I love flowers, and enjoy all the great people I get to meet and talk to on a daily basis.”
A chamber of commerce ribbon-cutting is planned in the coming weeks, celebrating the greenhouse’s reopening. For more information on the ribbon-cutting, specials and other happenings at the greenhouse, check out Mrs. B’s Facebook page.
Mrs. B’s Greenhouse & Nursery is open from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Saturday and 1 – 3 p.m., Sunday. The business number is (785) 531-0748.
