First the trees bud and then bloom. Then shrubs start to wake up. But, when perennials emerge from the ground, it says SPRING!!

Hellebore are some of the first flowers to bloom. They can even be seen blooming out of the snow! Bloom time often coincides with Tulips and Daffodils, and can add more color to the garden. Hellebore tend to produce single, cup shaped flowers in a large variety of colors ranging from white, pink, red, purple and yellow. The foliage is evergreen - dark green and glossy.

Phlox subulata is another great spring bloomer beginning in early April-May. They come in lots of cultivars: pink, blue, white, purple, and even candy striped.

Featuring a dense, mat-forming habit, these guys make a great groundcover! Creeping Phlox flower best in full sun, but do prefer some dappled shade once the heat really sets in. Known for being drought and deer tolerant, this would be an excellent choice if water or deer are a problem in your landscape.

Phlox divericata 'Blue Moon' is a stunning spring bloomer. They bloom along with the late-blooming tulips in late spring. This impressive native is perfect for a woodland garden, rock garden, border fronts or native plant gardens. With overlapping fragrant flowerheads, this violet-blue perennial really stands out. Phlox 'Blue Moon' is also a pollinator plant, so if you are looking to attract bees and butterflies, this would be a great choice. 

Looking for a fragrant, early bloomer? Check out Anemone sylvestris. Dainty, yellow-centered, white flowers flow up to 18” above soft textured foliage. This plant prefers shade and is ideal for woodland borders under large trees. Anemone sylvestris are known to spread in loose soils, and can be considered a groundcover in the right spot.

“Sooner or later, everything old is new again.” (Stephen King, The Colorado Kid)

Isn’t that true?!! Much of what’s new at Christensen’s this year is new varieties of existing plants or improved versions of plants that have been available for years.

Christensen’s will also have some Illuminati Sparks® (Philadelphus coronarius ‘SMNPVB’),

with its smaller 3 x 3 size. All in the series are well maintained, and all

have deliciously sweet flowers in late spring.

Is it weird to be excited about a new Cornus sericea? “Redtwig” Dogwoods do have a place, looking fashionable in the winter, all dressed up in red. For years the nicest and most colorful was ‘Baileyi’ (6-10 x 6-10'). A true nativar, ‘Baileyi’ was found in a wooded area

and is considered a naturally occurring cultivar. 

The new one, Arctic Fire® (Cornus sericea ‘Farrow’), is bred to only grow about 3-4’ tall and lacks the colonizing habit of the species, therefore it doesn’t spread.

If you haven’t guessed from prior articles, I am a Viburnum FAN. There are a couple of new ones Christensen’s will carry this year. My new favorite is the Sugar n' Spice™ (Viburnum carlesii ‘Select S’). It is a small sized Viburnum (4-6’ x 4-6’) with pink buds, opening to an excess of white flowers. It is a Korean spice bush, so it has a sweet-spicy scent when it blooms in mid-May.

And just because Viburnum are such an awesome plant, this one morphs

to a brilliant red in the fall to add to the show.

Check back next week for the last in the series... Molly will introduce us to the Perennials.

Every year, there’s a moment when the season turns—not on the calendar, but in the yard. The gates open a little wider, the trucks start rolling in a little faster, and the familiar rhythm of spring returns. At Christensen’s Plant Center, that moment carries a little more weight this year as we welcome you back for our 95th season. Since 1931, this yard has been more than a place to source plants and materials—it has been a place where relationships are built, projects begin, and seasons take shape.

If you’ve been with us for years, you know the feeling. That first walk through the yard after a long winter. The smell of fresh soil, the sight of new arrivals lined up and ready, and the quiet confidence that everything you need to get your season started is right here. And if you’re new to Christensen’s, welcome—you’re about to discover what so many in the industry already know: when you can source everything in one place, with people who know the business, the work just goes smoother.

Ninety-five seasons doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because of you—our customers, partners, and friends—who continue to trust us year after year. Like we’ve said before, it’s not easy to put that appreciation into words, but it’s something we feel every day. The yard may change, inventory will evolve, and new opportunities will come along, but the goal remains the same: provide the quality, consistency, and service you rely on to do your best work.

As we open the gates on another season, we’re excited for what’s ahead. New material will arrive daily, trucks will come and go, and projects across the region will take shape—many of them starting right here. Whether you’re picking up a single load or planning out an entire season, we’re ready when you are. 

Welcome back—we’re glad you’re here.

Next year is a milestone year for Christensen's Plant and Hardscape Centers. But aren’t they all?

A couple of years ago, Christensen’s changed the way we celebrate staff anniversaries, going a bit more formal. Certificates presented at a staff lunch. Extra time off. Bonuses for larger anniversaries. We presented Tim with his 50^th anniversary certificate in 2023. And 2025 marked my 30^th.

While looking at mine and my father’s certificates, I paused and had a thought.

Aren’t all years milestone years? Aren’t all days important?

In 2026, Christensen’s Plant Center will celebrate its 95^th year of operation. Two families have owned Christensen’s - each for two generations. Those facts are milestones. But more importantly, because of those 95 years, we have had an amazing team. And our team has celebrated their important milestones with us.

Just this year, the Christensen’s team celebrated: getting married, a child’s first birthday, a child’s marriage, wedding anniversaries, a new grandchild, children starting college, children graduating college. The list is endless, all of them more important than a business anniversary. Because without the team that drives Christensen’s every day, there is no 95^th year.

Creating a Value, Mission or Vision Statement can have the connotation of corporate nonsense, especially to small businesses. As a sole owner of a landscaping business, you know who you are. You know what your goals are. And you only have a few employees.

But the creation of a value statement is especially important for small businesses. A successful small business grows by customer referrals. “In most businesses, you don’t just want employees and customers: you want evangelists. You want to overhear your employees bragging about how much they love their work, and your customers referring their friends and family to you.” Customer confidence in your company will grow if they know, understand, and see you standing behind your values, even if they are as simple as Red Bull’s: “Ideas, people, culture”.

Value Statements are also beneficial in employee hiring and management. Once a company has defined its values it allows for the hiring of people willing to align with those values. This in turn increases employee loyalty and engagement. According to an article on Medium.com, “The McKinsey Global Institute has established that productivity improves by 20 to 25 percent in organizations with connected employees.” The same article goes on to cite a Gallup pole that indicates when employees can say “The mission and purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important”, absenteeism and safety incidents drop and the quality of work increases.

Value Statements provide employees with a roadmap and empower them to act. Company growth necessitates sending employees to a project without the benefit of constant oversight by ownership/management. If employees were hired under, and expected to adhere to, the standards of a Value Statement, they are more likely to complete work as expected.

While Value Statements are at the heart of a company’s identity, they should go through regular review. Christensen’s is in the middle of such a review. Even with the tweaks, our commitment to customer service will not change. But you may notice employees with a renewed sense of investment in their jobs, the company and you.

Christensen’s Values

Integrity

                Honesty, transparency and ethical behavior in all actions and decisions

Teamwork

                Respect for others, personal accountability and effective communication

Ownership

                Takes initiative, responsible, passionate and is committed to customer service

Every year, Christensen's plant buyers make an effort to visit our vendor nurseries. We do this to see their material, hear how they are doing, and build relationships. In September and October, we add one more thing to the agenda: tagging trees for the fall and spring dig seasons!

Christensen's goal is to supply our customers with the best material possible. This means trees that are full, have good branching, and that are true to form for the species. The long hours we put into hand picking these trees is well worth it in the end. Because when the trees get to the plant center, we get to see our tags become your tags!

Snow ruins everything

OK, maybe not everything. I had fun playing in the snow as a child, building snowmen, having snowball fights with neighborhood friends, and sledding on the hill in our yard.  There was one year when we had so much snow, it was over my head as I traversed our front sidewalk!! Growing up in Minnesota, snow was part of life just like it is here in Michigan.

However, as I aged, snow became less fun. My family was not into winter sports (skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing). It just became the white stuff that caused problems.

There was the year that my 17^th birthday weekend was marred by two separate car crashes caused by snow-hidden ice patches. My mother gave me my first curfew after the revving engine of my boyfriend’s truck woke her while we tried to get it unstuck after an unexpected snowfall. Getting married in February, I stressed over the possibility of my in-laws trapped in Fargo, ND and missing our wedding since the interstate would shut down during snowstorms. Trapped in Fargo by blizzards has become an annual problem when we visit for the holidays. As a mother of teenage and adult children, I worry about them driving in it.

But when plans to attend GLTE in January 2025 fell through because of lake effect snow, I decided to try and reframe. I don’t think I will ever be excited to see snow. But with no intention of moving south, it was time to find the positives.

Snow forces us to slow down, literally, and figuratively. Lower road speeds are necessary. But snow also reminds us of the importance of arriving safely at our destination or making the difficult decision not to travel.

Winter is a time of respite for many of us in the Green Industry. Spring, summer and fall can bring long hours of hard work and time lost with family and friends. But winter is quieter, allowing us to catch up. Winter hobbies can be rediscovered.

Smarter Deliveries, Smoother Jobs

In landscaping, timing and coordination are everything. One late pallet can throw off your crew and cost you money. That’s why Christensen’s Plant and Hardscape Centers stocks plants, hardscape, drainage, and lighting—and can deliver them together!

Mixed loads save headaches:

• One ETA, one invoice, one vendor
• Less downtime waiting on material
• Allows more time for plant placement, leading to “upsell” opportunities.

Tips to help deliveries, and your jobsites, run smoothly

• Store plants in a water-accessible area, with shade if possible.
• Store adhesives and polymeric sand in a dry area, such as inside a truck or trailer.
• Stage materials in the order your crew will install them, moving items as few times as possible.

Your partner in sourcing premium materials

When a contractor designs projects mindful of the materials stocked at Christensen’s, it prevents delays and simplifies reorders. This, in turn, improves consistency and keeps projects moving. It also adds the potential of a single delivery.

At the end of the day, single-source purchasing isn’t just convenient, it’s strategic. Let Christensen’s Plant and Hardscape Centers manage the logistics, so your crew can focus on creating landscapes that impress.

For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

                - Song of Solomon as quoted by Ernie Harwell

The older I get, the more I love this quote.  Not only for the sentiment about spring, but also the memory it sparks about my youth.

I spent every spring in my youth listening to Ernie Harwell and Al Kaline covering the Detroit Tigers baseball games on WJR.  I often fell asleep with a pair of headphones on because the game was on the west coast and went farther into the night than I could.  Those happy memories always started every spring with Ernie reciting these words.

For me it marked so many starts.  The start of the baseball season, and being able to listen to Ernie and Al call the games.  The “start” to the end of the school year, and the beginning of summer vacation.  And the start of the nursery season.  Which meant my father would be leaving early, getting home late, working weekends, all the things that we all know and live.

2025 marks my 30^th official year at Christensen’s.  And while numerous things have changed over the last 30 years, it always is so striking at how many things remain the same. (Like my quoting of Song of Solomon… bonus points if you noticed that I’ve quoted it before!)  Winter ends. The snow melts. And semi load after semi load of freshly dug shade and ornamental trees start arriving for the next landscaping season in Michigan.  Shortly after that, my friends, all of you start coming back to visit us at Christensen’s.

Welcome back my friends.  Welcome back.

For the last several years, I have written the end-of-the-year article for our newsletter.  And every year I have the usual struggle of writing about something different, trying not to say the same things that I said last year. 

But this year it feels a bit different.  This year I write this as I close out my first full year as President of our company.  For the past thirty-nine years, my father, Tim Joy, has been at the helm of Christensen’s Plant Center.  Taking over ownership with Frank Huber in 1984…  Surviving the economy of the 1980’s…  Which to hear my father and others of his generation of ownership, was really something. (Don’t complain about your 7% mortgage.  Rates peaked around 15% in the 80’s.  And did not go below 10% for the decade.)  Moving our business from Livonia to its current location in Salem Township in 1989...  Then the boom of the 90’s, when housing soared in metro Detroit.  And the new facility they built and expected not to outgrow in their careers was outgrown in five years.  So, they expanded it again, and again.  The market then completed its cycle with the housing crash in 2006-2008.  Our business constricted, as did the entire landscape market... And I watched my father drink Maalox every night, straight from the bottle that lived on the top shelf of our refrigerator.  To the post-crash boom…  As landscape projects soared, and inventories bottomed out.  Thirty-nine years to come full circle.

I am forever grateful for the lessons of the last 4 decades. Now. 39 years later, I have the lead.  I am grateful that my dad is still around for me to access that wealth of knowledge.  I am grateful for the relationships that I have made over my first years and for the counsel from a great many of them.  But it definitely feels a bit different. 

To the staff of Christensen’s Plant Center, my most profound thanks. This team is the reason that Christensen’s is what it is today.

To our wonderful customers. Thank you for your continued business. I look forward to seeing each of you next year. We have some cool things coming in the future. We all hope you'll be with us for the next 39 years!

May you all have a safe and blessed holiday season.