Welcome to A Thing of Beauty!
My name is Del Clarkson. I joined my husband’s specialty fruit market in Pickering in 1999 with a vision to add a garden centre to his already successful business. As our two boys grew, my availability and ambition to expand the business grew as well.
We started with a few plants, some planters and a desire to service our wonderful customers. With each passing garden centre season our inventory expanded to include planters, urns, hanging baskets and window boxes. Customers asked for more unique and specialized plantings. Everything was growing! During the off season, I spent time preparing for the upcoming season, talking to our growers, discussing trends in plant varieties and colours, doing research, and taking courses.
Greenhouses went up on the property and our spring garden centre expanded to encompass early spring bulbs and plantings for Easter/Passover, bright summer baskets and planters, fall arrangements of mums, cabbage and kale, winter/Christmas arrangements and custom designs of all shapes and sizes. Custom orders for special occasions and fund raising were all part of the services we offered. Our customers were thrilled with the quality and service they were provided with. No customer order was too small and no request too large, everything was handled as if it was for our own home.
Del Clarkson,
Creative Director
