Exotic tropical houseplants don’t need to remain indoors all year—in fact, they’ll likely appreciate the extra fresh air and sunshine in the summer! Incorporating tropical plants into your outdoor designs will completely transform the energy and style of your space. Outdoor living and entertaining are all the more enjoyable when you’re surrounded by stunning scenery!
After a long winter cooped up indoors, we’re eager to spend time outside and create functional living spaces for sharing meals, entertaining, and relaxing. Here are some ways you can make your yard even more beautiful with tropical plants, so your time spent outdoors is all the more enjoyable.
Nothing beats lounging in the sun on a comfy beach chair, but it’s important not to overdo it with the sun tanning! If you need some shade, skip the beach umbrella and opt for a much more stylish alternative: a gorgeous, green leaf canopy. Tall tropical palms with big, breezy leaves, like Alexander Palms and Queen Palms, are perfect for creating shady canopies to rest underneath. A summer of sipping lemonade and flipping through magazines in your backyard mini-jungle will melt your troubles away!
Outdoor entertaining is one of our favourite parts of summer. Clinking glasses, listening to some good tunes and laughing with friends and family never fails to lift our spirits! But if you want to level up your outdoor-entertaining game, you’ll want to create a fun atmosphere—chill yet invigorating—with plenty of style and personality.
Stylish tropicals like the trendsetting Monstera Delciosa or the avant-garde Bird of Paradise will score you some major cool points. Their large size and distinctive shapes create an artful, statuesque decor accent that helps set the tone for your space.
It’s natural to crave a change of scenery once in a while, so if you can’t make it out for a summer vacation, bring the vacation to you! Try a resort-inspired backyard makeover, complete with breezy palms like the Pygmy Date Palm or the Coconut Tree Palm.
Grab some comfy lawn chairs, set up an outdoor bar station, and give your space some extra flourishes and tiny luxuries to savour all summer. You’ll love being able to soak in the stunning tropical scenery of swaying palms—a very satisfying end to a long workday.
Why rack up a hefty tab at a fancy outdoor patio when you can get the experience right at home? It’s easy to create a lavish atmosphere with just a few well-chosen decor accents to embellish your outdoor dining area. Twinkle lights, some statement dishware with a modern design, and stylish fan palms will instantly make your yard feel like a chic downtown hotspot. We love the Bismarck Palm for its striking shape balanced by a muted gray-green colour. The Washingtonia Robusta Palm has that classic fan palm shape with a textured, distinctive trunk—it nails the 5-Star Resort Bar aesthetic.
Having a pool is the ultimate summer luxury, but with new above-ground designs, pools are much more accessible for folks working with a limited budget. Even the most budget-friendly pool will feel relaxing and fun with the addition of some tropical palms to set the scene. Pick out a giant pool floaty, put on your snazziest sunglasses and float your cares away under a canopy of Spindle Palms and Christmas Palms.
If you’re craving a getaway and sunny, carefree days in the tropics, our exotic plants will help make home the destination of your dreams. Browse Eising’s exotic tropical plant collection to see all the stunning varieties available now.
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Sustainable clothing is a hot topic in the fashion industry right now. Making the switch from fast fashion to a more eco-friendly alternative is excellent for the environment, and you’ll notice a considerable difference in quality, comfort, and durability! At the Sassyfras Boutique, we’re masters of how to shop sustainably on a budget. Here are some tips on how to incorporate eco-friendly fashion choices into your wardrobe.
We love fashion, but there are some unfortunate consequences to fast fashion and unsustainable manufacturing practices. Cheap-quality fashion and international shipping aren’t great for the environment. You can drastically reduce your carbon footprint by choosing more sustainable alternatives. That’s right—you can help protect the earth and look fabulous while doing it!
Here are five ways to make your fashion wardrobe more sustainable and eco-friendly:
Do high-quality clothes last longer? The answer is a resounding yes! Hastily manufactured clothing made from poor quality materials won’t last as long. Holes and split seams will develop much more quickly. High-quality fashion is often more budget-friendly than cheap, fast fashion if you consider cost-per-wear because you can wear those pieces for years and years! We recommend looking for versatile, classic pieces that you can dress up or down, or combine with layering pieces throughout different seasons. The more you can wear them, the better the value!
Naturally-sourced fashion materials like cotton, linen, and bamboo are super sustainable and great for the environment. After all, they come straight from the plant—and you know we’re all about plants over here! Plus, natural materials are more comfortable, breathable, and easy to clean than synthetic materials.
We have plenty of plant-based fabrics at Sassyfras—ask one of our in-store style experts to help you curate a collection of eco-friendly clothing to kick off the new year!
Manufacturing synthetic materials can produce harmful chemical byproducts, and when you wash them, they release tiny amounts of microplastics into our water supply. It might seem like a small problem, but those microplastic levels build up quickly when everyone is washing loads of synthetic fabrics every week! These microplastics harm aquatic wildlife, so by avoiding synthetic fabrics, you’re helping protect the wellbeing of our earth and the animals who live in it. You’ll never have to worry about microplastics coming from natural fabrics!
When you shop locally instead of ordering online from stores on the other side of the globe, you’re reducing your carbon footprint significantly. This is because international shipping contributes to carbon emissions and pollution. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting independent and often family-owned businesses in your area instead of giant corporations that often have unethical or unsustainable manufacturing practices.
Purchasing fashion designed and constructed in Canada will reduce your carbon footprint even more! When you know exactly where your products come from—and that they're ethically-made and sourced—you can feel good about your purchase. Sassyfras has several lines of Canadian-made products and designs made with ethical business practices.
Have you seen the 2022 fashion collection at Sassyfras Boutique located in Eising Garden Centre? We have one of the best selections of sustainable and eco-friendly clothing in Simcoe, Ontario. Visit us soon to see the hottest picks of the season! Our spring collection will start trickling in soon, so follow us on Instagram to see the latest items as soon as they hit the floor.
With sustainability and conservation becoming a hot topic, many gardeners are asking how to make their landscaping more eco-friendly. While it might not feel like small changes can make a big difference, if each landowner makes an eco-friendly adjustment in their yard and garden, it can have a significant impact!
Here are five small eco-friendly things you can do to make a large impact:
Lighting up your garden is a great way to enjoy the foliage at night or make sure you don’t trip on the garden path! However, our poor pollinator insects get exhausted from chasing the lights through the night. The bugs end up overworking themselves, which makes them more susceptible to predators such as birds and bats. Because bugs are so crucial to our ecosystem, reducing the lights in your yard is the most effective way to have eco-friendly landscaping.
By removing garden lights from your landscaping altogether, you can save six bugs a night. That might not seem like much, but if you consider how quickly this could add up if we all turned off outdoor lights at night, that number is astronomical. If you still want lights but want to increase your eco-friendliness, try using lights that only turn on with a motion sensor, or replace the bulbs with yellow LED, which are less attractive to our buzzing friends.
There are many ways to conserve water in your yard, but the biggest impact you can make is by reducing your lawn size! Lawns require a lot of water and need mowers to maintain them, which use electricity or gas. By reducing your lawn and letting native vegetation grow or making beds with mulch, you can take your landscaping to a new level of eco-friendliness.
Of course, rain barrels are a great way to use what the sky gives us. It’s free of city chemical treatment and will save on your bills, too!
By supporting the local wildlife that comes through your yard, you can promote a healthy ecosystem that reaches beyond your property line! Here are some things you can do to create an eco-friendly yard that supports your local wildlife:
With these tips, you’ll create an eco-friendly haven for the local wildlife that roams through your yard! Keep in mind that even one of these steps can make a big impact, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself!
There are a lot of invasive species that get planted and take over the local landscape! By planting perennial native species, you can support your local wildlife and help combat invasive species. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to rip up every non-native plant in your landscaping to achieve ultimate eco-friendly-ness, but as you consider what you want to plant this spring, do some research and see what grows regionally!
Pesticides and chemical fertilizers deliver results but at a very high cost. Pesticides can harm the good bugs and pollinators that contribute to a thriving landscape. Chemical fertilizers can leave your soil toxic and harm the beneficial bacteria and bugs in the ground. Every critter matters, so take a step towards eco-friendly pest control and fertilization to foster a healthy garden and healthy ecosystem. Managing certain bugs requires just a bit of organic soapy water! A little research will go a long way when it comes to pest control.
Of course, the next step is to spread the word and encourage your friends and neighbours to make small changes towards eco-friendly landscaping as well! If we all do our part, we can make a massive impact on the health and wellness of our environment.
If you need help with your eco-friendly landscaping in the spring of 2022, visit us today! We’d love to help you take steps towards environmental awareness and action.
Every time you have stumbled upon a beautifully laid-out garden or impressive landscape, you can bet that a landscape designer was involved! Hiring a landscape designer is an investment worth making if you’re hoping to wow your neighbours and friends. There are elements of both art and science when it comes to planning and creating the perfect design.
So what exactly does landscape design entail? You can consider landscape design anything involving garden layout, general softscaping, hardscaping, trees and shrubs, or fixing drainage issues. Landscape design looks to create a cohesive, functional, and beautiful space for you to enjoy.

Whether you have big dreams or feel totally clueless as to where to begin, a landscape designer can collaborate with you to achieve your garden dreams, troubleshoot and resolve your current issues, or plan ahead for future projects. Most of us have experienced a situation where we thought we could DIY something on our own, but it left us with a few headaches instead! Professional landscape services for your Simcoe garden means you won’t be needing to fix your mistakes season after season. Hiring a trusted landscape designer allows you to do all the dreaming while letting someone else get their hands dirty!
Before you hire a landscape designer, take some time familiarizing yourself with your current yard. What do you like about it? What irks you? What is functioning well, and what needs to be repaired or altered? There are also some very helpful things to keep note of. Tracking these qualities in your yard will help give you and your designer a clear vision of what is possible in your space.
These questions are a great blueprint to get you started on envisioning and designing your landscape. Be sure to write your answers down to share with your landscape designer, and for your own information!

Once you’ve gotten the lay of your land, you can get more in-depth with your vision.
Purpose: Ask yourself how you will be using the space you are looking to have re-designed. Is it for entertaining, enjoyment, to boost your workable garden space, for the kids, or to increase privacy?
Plants: What plants would thrive in that space? Are you looking to create a show-stopping blooming garden, or a kid-friendly veggie patch? What times of the year will the plants bloom? How big will they get?
Colour and Style: When it comes to landscape design, most elements are completely customizable to get the look and feel you want. Think of colour schemes, what materials your hardscaping should be, and what overall aesthetic you would like for your space.
How Do I Choose a Landscape Designer?
There are a few things to check for before you sign a contract with any designer or company.

After you’ve assessed your yard and started dreaming big, you can contact us here at Eising Garden Centre for the next steps.
We know that landscape design can be a bit overwhelming, but if you put it in the hands of professionals, you’ll be thankful you did! Especially when you get to put your feet up and enjoy your new views. If you’re looking for landscape designers near you, come visit us here in Simcoe. We’d love to help you create the landscape and garden of your dreams!
Whether it’s too cold outside to play or you’re just looking to bond, family plant night has many benefits. Including the whole family in gardening activities provides opportunities for learning, growth, and fun!
Taking time for family plant night has huge benefits for you, the kids, and the environment.
Starting your children off with a love and appreciation for nature builds a lifelong connection to the environment. Even something as simple as this idea for a night of potting succulents can go a long way. Create happy memories with your family and watch as your kids learn to love gardening activities as much as you do.
Besides bonding with Mother Nature, one of the benefits of gardening together as a family is bonding with each other. Even if the craft doesn’t go perfectly, everyone can have fun learning about plants and making a bit of a mess.
We Canadians know how long winter can drag on. Some days, it’s too cold to play outside in the snow, and everyone has had enough screen time. Plan gardening-themed family activities to benefit everyone involved.
Learning about gardening isn’t just about plants; the benefits of family nature activities go beyond the pot. Gardening activities can help kids with fine motor skills, communication, listening, and even math and spatial awareness. You can incorporate any lesson into a family gardening activity—the benefits are truly endless.
Choosing which succulents your family will use for your gardening crafts is half the fun! When it comes to selecting succulents for potting, show your family the different types: Burro’s tail, String of Dolphins or Turtles, are fun choices. Haworthia comes in some more geometric and interesting shapes, or opt for bunny-ear cacti for the cute factor.
As you shop, point out how each plant has nursery tags and what the different symbols mean. Ahead of time, you can walk around the house with your family and notice which areas get what type of light. This will help with the decision-making process later.
Now that we’ve convinced you of why you should plan a family gardening night let’s dig into an activity involving potting succulents. Potting succulents is a great kid-friendly and beginner-level gardening activity. Succulents are some of the easiest, low-maintenance plants that can handle a bit of stress. Succulents can also stand various light situations, so your kids can proudly display their hard work in most locations in your home.
Learning About Soil
Another one of the benefits of a family gardening activity is being able to teach your kids about soil. Children may often think any ol’ mud they find on the ground is the same as potting mix. Showing them the differences between potting mix, mud, cactus mix, etc., can be demonstrated with different types of human snacks. We may eat things like chips and chocolate, but too much means we won’t be healthy people! Similarly, we can give succulents a potting mix, but they would be happier and healthier if we let them grow in the best soil possible.
Get out the paint supplies and get creative! Family gardening night doesn’t just have scientific benefits; it has artistic ones, too! Acrylic paint is perfectly fine for painting terracotta pots; just be sure you seal in that creativity with a few coats of shellac. You’ll want the pots painted, dried, and sealed before potting the succulents, so it may end up being a 1-2 day activity.
There are endless benefits to taking time for family plant night. If you’re looking for succulents for sale in Simcoe, come visit us! We’d love to help your family find their super succulent match.
‘Tis the season for fireplaces, warm drinks, family pictures, and comfy clothes! With time off and lots of eating on the agenda, it’s important to be both comfortable and stylish this winter. Whatever your style, incorporate cozy to make this holiday season merry and bright.
Typically, “cozy” clothes include leggings, warm fuzzy boots, and an oversized sweater or cardigan. Cozy is similar to fall attire but with a stronger priority on comfort and warmth.
Of course, you can adapt this to your own style and what you prefer to wear. At the end of the day, cozy means comfortable—and whatever that looks like is entirely up to you. Everyone celebrates the holidays differently; naturally, everyone will be dressing differently too!
If you want some inspiration for new ways to dress up your comfy clothes, keep reading! The key is layering and using oversized pieces that are soft to the touch.
Consider our puffy brown vest over our charcoal grey sweater with jeans and sheepskin boots, for a casual look. Add a toque or a scarf for extra warmth!
If you want to feel like you are walking around in a warm blanket all day, opt for leggings with an oversized knit cardigan! Add some jewelry or a vibrant scarf to elevate the style and keep it from being slouchy.
For the guys, try one of our flannel tops with jeans and a white T-shirt underneath. Add a hoodie or a puffy vest over it to add that final ‘comfort meets style’ polished appearance.
Pants or a fitted skirt paired with a knit cowl neck sweater is the epitome of elegance and coziness! If a sweater is too warm, try a long cardigan open over a white shirt. Add jewelry and a touch of glitter to your makeup for extra elegance and Christmas sparkle.
Let’s face it, we need a stretchy waistband for holiday meal enjoyment, so consider these vegan leather leggings that are classy and comfortable, a satisfying compromise between restricting jeans and overly casual leggings.
For the men, consider nice jeans and a well-fitting sweater or a button-down shirt, untucked with the sleeves rolled up for comfort. If you want something a little warmer, try a knit sweater over jeans and one of our Henley long sleeve shirts.
Formalwear is a little tricky to bring the cozy component into! The little things help when you’re trying to be comfortable all night long at a business holiday party.
For the gents, consider a light sweater underneath your suit jacket instead of just a button-down and a tie. You can also layer the sweater over the button-down and under the jacket—whichever combination works for you!
Of course, there is no event quite as special as opening gifts with family and loved ones on Christmas morning. The coffee is warm, the kids are excited, and there is no pressure to dress up quite yet.
If jeans seem too structured (or constricting) for your holiday vibes, go with structured sweatpants or stylish joggers, a white T-shirt, and a nice cardigan.
Whatever your style or event, it’s easy to bring comfort and coziness to your holiday attire. For more ideas and options, visit Sassyfras at Eising Garden Centre, and we’ll make sure you are your most comfortable for Christmas!
Everyone loves covering their home in greenery and garland for Christmas! Fake greenery might be reusable every year but there is something special and extra beautiful about using fresh greenery to decorate with. Greenery can take a little bit of work to make sure it stays fresh all December long, but it looks fantastic with Christmas decor!
Buying fresh is the most important step! Be a little picky and make sure you’re getting greenery that has been kept cool and moist.
Start by soaking your fresh greens in water overnight before displaying so that it can absorb all the moisture it needs. After it’s dried off the next day, use an anti-transpirant spray to keep water from evaporating from the needles (do this step outdoors).
Spritz the garlands to maintain their freshness (spray garlands from the back) and keep them away from sunlight or heat vents so that they don’t dry out. With these tips, your greenery should last 3-4 weeks!
Christmas garland is a favourite use for greenery. Try draping fresh boughs across your mantel, tie them to the banister, drape them across the top of your cabinets, or wrap around any decorative pillars you have in your space. You can also use them to frame windows and doorways.
Gathering around the table for a home-cooked meal and sitting in the living room opening gifts both deserve a lovely centrepiece for the dining table or coffee table. Use fresh greenery to accent a floral centrepiece, complement a bowl of oranges decorated with cloves, or encircle candle arrangements.
For something larger, a garland on top of a table runner will bring the Christmas spirit to every end of the table! If you want something smaller in nature, use small sprigs of fresh greenery in the place settings, tucked into intricately folded napkins or as an accent beside charger plates. Adding fresh sprigs to wrapped presents is also a festive idea!
Whether they are placed on your door or as a decorative piece on your wall, wreaths make a beautiful display that can be customized to whatever your tastes are! Incorporate flowers, pinecones, lights, ribbon, ornaments, gingerbread men, dried oranges, or whatever brings the Christmas spirit into your home. Fresh greenery adds elegance and scent to your space.
However you celebrate the holidays, fresh garland and boughs are the perfect way to bring the beauty of the outdoors into the home. For high-quality fresh greenery for your Christmas decorating, head to Eising Garden Centre. Happy holidays!
Houseplants do a lot of the work themselves when it comes to aesthetics. If they have enough sunlight, proper care, and are safe from pets, they’ll grow happily and contribute to your decor. While it’s easy to rely on the instant vitalization that adding a plant can offer a space, learning how to display air plants, succulents, and other houseplants will make your space feel intentional and increase tranquillity.
Let’s learn how to display and organize our plant collection to align with your home's aesthetic!
Displaying Air PlantsAir plants are easy-peasy. They have no need for a container or soil! This makes them super easy to display. Use them to fill in nooks on a shelf that need a little extra oomph, or you can place them amongst other decorations and natural display pieces.
If you want something more intentional, there are glass orbs that you can hang and place multiple plants inside of them. They look stunning in front of a window or alongside a light fixture! Don’t forget that air plants may not need soil to survive, but they need adequate amounts of water, light and nutrients.

Succulents can be displayed in so many ways because the roots are not very deep, so they don’t require a large container to grow well! Think outside the pot when it comes to growing succulents. They can be grown in birdcages, terrariums, vertically on wreaths or wall fixtures, and, of course, they can be grown in a traditional pot if that is what suits your space best!
Consider a large, shallow container full of succulents for a coffee table centrepiece. Plant a few in a birdcage display on a hutch. Succulents can add green to a space where other houseplants might just be too big!

For larger houseplants, sometimes you have to get creative with the placement. If your plant is quite large, consider a well-lit corner where it can brighten up the space! A nice pot goes a long way indoors, contributing to your overall ambiance.
If you have vining plants, consider placing them on top of bookshelves so that they can cascade down the sides and add a vertical element of green to the space. On the other hand, climbing plants will benefit from wall clips to let the plant be your feature wall design!
Try not to have too many large plants all together in one place. Spread them out around your home! If you have a few that look quite good together, consider getting plant stands of various heights to add some depth and dimension to the space. You can also condense what you have by potting compatible plants together or buying vertically tiered shelves to place them on so that they take up less square footage.
Flowers are great on tables and mantels, but you can also get creative to meet the needs of your space! If you want something shorter on your kitchen table, make an oval floral arrangement with short stems so that the flowers are shown off, but they won’t be blocking the view of your dinner guests.
Don’t underestimate the power of a single, stunning bloom! A gerbera or a rose in a slender vase is beautiful on a vanity or on a windowsill. Not all displays have to be extravagant to be impactful when it comes to decorating your space.

Once your flowers start to wilt, consider drying them for that antique appeal. A single dried rose in a fancy rum bottle with a sprig of baby’s breath can be a lovely addition to any bookshelf or bathroom counter. You can also fill decorative vases with dried rose and flower petals for something unique and colourful.
Whether you want to learn how to display air plants, succulents, flowers, or crawling vines, Eising Garden Centre can provide you with everything you need to make your houseplant displays perfect.
Will today be hot or cold? Honestly, who knows? Knowing how to layer your clothes for November weather can be tricky, but here are some great tips to keep you cool (or cozy).
Dressing during the fall and early winter months can be some of the trickiest. The weather can change in an instant and you’ll need to be ready to add or take off layers at any given moment. Thank goodness for layers! Layering is perfect because you can always take one off to cool down, but you’ll never be too cold. Besides, it gives you a chance to show off your favourite cold-weather pieces!
The Basics of Layering ClothesIn some ways, layering the perfect cold-weather outfit comes down to a formula. While you can always use a variation of this, it’s a good place to start!
Layer 1: A basic tank top, camisole, or thin shirt with short or long sleeves.
Layer 2: A shirt with a collar. You could try a solid-coloured shirt, plaid, or denim.
Layer 3: Add a warm and stylish sweater like a cardigan, pullover, or vest. Let the collar from layer 2 pop out!
Layer 4: Your last layer will be the heaviest and warmest layer. Check the forecast and decide between a puffer coat, vest, wool coat, or a denim jacket.
Autumn hues are one of the best parts of the chilly season. Rich reds, maroons, mustard, greens, camel, and earthy tones shine during fall, but try to think outside the box and choose an unexpected colour palette, too.

Monochromatic Mood: Monochromatic doesn’t just mean black or white, you can create an entire outfit based on a colour you adore. For example, if you’re obsessed with green, mix and match your fall outfit layers in hues of green like emerald, sage, and olive.
Vibrant Vibes: Even if the days are dreary, you can still be bright by adding a bit bold with the layers of your outfit. Choose a bright collared shirt for a small pop of colour under a sweater, or go big with a bomber jacket.
Earthy Essentials: Layer your favourite fall-toned clothes to embody the spirit of autumn! There’s no shortage of fall and winter clothing in earthy shades that remind us of falling leaves and beautiful forests. Don’t forget your accessories! Look for jewelry and footwear in fall shades like burgundy, sage, mustard, and camel.
Party in a CardiLayering with a fun cardigan is one way to add excitement to your cold-weather clothes. Cardigans also come in so many fun patterns and textures, and you can find them in almost every type of knit and fabric. You’ll never be bored with your fall and winter wardrobe if it’s filled with these versatile pieces!
Whether you’re attending a fall wedding or just love wearing dresses year-round, you’ll want to know how to layer all of your clothes to stay warm and trendy.
We hope these tips can help you stay warm, cozy, and trendy this fall. If you’re looking for fall and winter clothes in Simcoe, visit our Sassyfras boutique. We’re bursting with seasonal looks that we’d love to see you walk out with!