Growing More Than Sprouts
at Grossman's Country Nursery

By Debra Ross, Publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com
June, 2004

"Now scoop some soil in that beautiful little hand and pat it right in this pot so the marigold is nice and comfy," Amy Rist, Director of Special Events at Grossman's Country Nursery in Penfield, urges my 3-year-old. Ella gleefully complies. She is participating in Grossman's Growing Sprouts program for kids, just one in a series of many classes designed to introduce kids to the joy of gardening.

Today, the class is creating a Butterfly Garden, and the conversation centers on the types of flowers that attract butterflies, how butterflies live and why they like flowers so much, and five things that plants need to grow (fresh air, soil, appropriate nutrition, sunlight, and water). Today it's a small class of younger kids (my girls, age 3 and 4, and Sam, age 4), but classes, which have a maximum of 18 participants, fill up with kids up to about age 8 or so. (Older children are welcome in the adult classes.) Amy gears the level of the class to the kids who are there that day.

"Now who knows what a butterfly is before it's a butterfly?" Amy asks the class. Madison's hand flies up. She has just learned this in school, and she is excited to demonstrate her new knowledge. "Can I tell you the whole life cycle of the butterfly?"

Some adults are derailed when kids try to take the conversation in a new direction: They have that unfocused "Yeah, yeah, kid. That's nice" demeanor, which implicitly devalues the child's ideas. Not Amy! You can tell she's a mom herself: Her attention rivets on my daughter, and she is almost as manifestly pleased and impressed as I am as Madison carefully recites, "Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly." Amy then seamlessly brings the conversation back to the kinds of leaves that different caterpillars eat.

The class works at transplanting marigolds, nicotiana, and spider flower into their own pots to bring home. Amy uses a theatric, energetic style that combines excitement, information, flattery, and exaggerated politeness to keep the children interested and working on their projects. It's an approach that would be inappropriate with older kids or adults, but which works great with the younger set. It reminds me that there are people uniquely suited to working with children, and others who simply aren't; Amy obviously falls into the former category. (As it happens, imitating Amy's special cheerleading approach seems to work for me, too. I tried it to persuade the girls to get dressed one day, and they did so in record time.)

Classes at Grossman's are by no means confined to young kids, of course. Classes for adults (kids 9 and up are welcome too, especially with parent!) include The Garden Makeover, The Cutting Garden, Practical Pruning Workshop, and a fall class called Putting Your Garden to Bed. Grownups can make a more elaborate Butterfly Garden, too: The adult class "Containers for Fluttery Friends" will have you potting crocosmia, echinacea, coreopsis, verbena, petunias and more; it is from 9-10:30am on July 10, 2004. Click here to be taken directly to Grossman's schedule of upcoming classes; Growing Sprouts classes are at the bottom.

Having my children participate in this class reminds me of how eagerly young children accumulate knowledge and assimilate new experiences. Madison is at a stage where she is equally interested in knowing as in doing. Talking about the class on the way home, I use the term "spider flower," the common name for the flower pictured immediately to the left. "It's a cleome (CLEE-ohm) Mom," Madison reminds me. "You should use the proper word."

I stay on top of what's "growing on" for kids by signing them up for Grossman's "Growing Sprouts newsletter" that is sent to "kids only" four times per year (and, of course, they list their events on KidsOutAndAbout.com...click here to get to their master calendar page). In addition to listing upcoming events, the newsletters provide cool recipes and projects.

My girls love to go to Grossman's even when they're not having a class. (This is fortunate, because this year is the first year in five that I've been able to get back into gardening safely, without worrying about a child consuming fertilizer or spearing someone with the pitchfork, so I've done so with a vengeance.) There are five huge Backyard Adventure play sets for them to swing and climb on. Grossmans also has an "Enchanted Kid Space," which changes on a seasonal basis: They have garden-related coloring sheets, and kid-friendly books for little ones to browse through while Mom and Dad shop nearby. They also offer a seasonal scavenger hunt handout for kids to work with while in the nursery (for example, locate 3 "real" frogs and 1 frog statue. Find Bear’s Pond, (2) Snapdragons and (1) cactus next to a rhino). They often have a small planter full of sand to keep little hands busy, or a fountain with small boats floating through a waterfall.

Grossman's Country Nursery is located at 1501 Route 250 in Penfield, about 1.25 miles north of Route 441. Pre-registration is required for all classes at Grossman's; although I have had some success registering the day before the class, it is best to register as far in advance as possible to secure your spot. The cost of each Growing Sprouts class ranges from $1 to about $10 (the Butterfly Garden class was $6), and includes all of the plants to take home. Adult classes are usually about $10, but can be up to $40 depending on the project (and often, the price includes a $10 gift certificate to use at Grossman's). All of this information is on the Grossman's web site. You can call them for more information or to pre-register for a class at (585) 377-1982.

Grossman's encourages families to garden together! Click here for an article on gardening with kids in the Rochester area by local travel author Jackie Perrin.

© Debra Ross, 2004
All rights reserved.