You may have heard us say "don't forget to take photos"! Or have seen photos on our social media of schools, and teams.

But why?

Here at Growing Smiles we are all about: you guessed it! Smiles!

With that being said we often don't get to see that moment when the plant owner and plant unite.

To see how the plants are incorporated into daily life, and the excitement it brings.

To see children involved in helping and passing out the plants to their friends, neighbours and family.

That is why we created The Photo Contest.

It's simple really, snap pictures during deliver day, handing them out, once the plants are home and settled in, and send them to us for a chance for your group to win a cash prize!

Who doesn't love taking pictures? This is a way to show of your groups hard work and give you a chance to win $250 towards your profit. Why wouldn't you do it?

You can send your photos to our email: info@growingsmilesfundraising.com

There's never been a better time to fundraise, we have online team websites, and also accepting credit card payments.

This helps each group still be able to fundraise amid the pandemic in a safe and easier way then ever before.

The credit card payment come directly to us, keeping you the coordinator safe and stress free.

We pay for the credit card fees at no additional cost to our groups making it simple for everybody.

If you choose to only accept credit card payments throughout your fundraiser, you will not need to send us a cheque.

Instead we will send you a profit cheque after we have deducted the plant wholesale totals.

The remaining balance is what you profitted.

So simple and easy you will be wondering why you didn't use it sooner!

Have you been wondering how we grow our plants? Did you know that not all plants are grown from seeds? That’s right, we can also grow plants from cuttings too!

CUTTINGS

What is a cutting? When certain plants are fully grown, we cut small pieces off that can be used to start a new plant. These small pieces of plants are referred to as “cuttings” and need to be nurtured to grow new plants.

Starting in January each year, we receive boxes of cuttings from all over North and South America. These boxes need to be opened, counted, and sorted right away to prepare them for planting. This is very important as every single plant has a specific pot and mix that it belongs to. Each individual cutting will be stuck into a soil pod that is part of a tray.

The trays of freshly-planted cuttings are put onto special racks in the greenhouse where they get watered by an overhead misting machine every 10 minutes. This ensures that the cuttings don’t dry out before they have the chance to be properly rooted. Once they have roots, the baby plants can get planted up into larger pots.

SEEDS

Almost all our herbs and vegetables are grown from seeds that we plant ourselves.

We use hand-fed seeding machines to drop the seeds into place on a tray of soil. These trays move on a conveyer belt that adds the appropriate amount of soil, fertilizer, and water for each pot. Some trays can hold up to 250 seeds at a time! The trays are then transferred onto carts that are rolled into the germination chambers.

Depending on the plant, they may remain in the germination chamber for two to five days. The germination chamber controls the temperature and humidity to ensure that the seeds have optimal conditions to sprout.  

After germination they can then go into their temperature specific zones in the greenhouse. Many plants will be seeded right into the pot they will be shipped to you in, but others may need to be planted up into larger pots. 

TO YOU

After the plants have taken root, and been planted up into their correct pot size, they go to a greenhouse for the remainder of their growth period. Our planning team is responsible for planning out the timeline for every single seed and cutting we receive. Before we receive the supplies, they already know when/where the plants will be stored and grown - it’s a lot of work!

After arriving in the greenhouse, the plants are cared for by our growing teams until they are ready to be shipped. Greenhouse staff pick-up plants based on the orders we print, and load them onto carts that get delivered to our shipping warehouse. From the warehouse they get loaded onto trucks and transported to its destination. That’s you!