Inspired by this great post by Leah Sandals over on the Toronto Spacing blog, I’ve been thinking about those wonderful gems of depanneurs that keep a bounty of potted plants and cut flowers through the summer season.
My favourite in Montreal is Fruiterie YM at Bernard and de l’Esplanande in Mile End. I first noticed this little shop one morning in May, as I sat with a friend eating brunch in the window of Senzala Restaurant across the street. For at least an hour a man from YM Fruiterie worked outside, watering and rearranging and pruning his flowers. It was really impressive — although I’m sure selling flowers is a profitable endeavour for a depanneur, when you consider the amount of labour that goes into keeping racks of plants full of life and attractive to customers, the margin narrows.
My theory is that for people like the owners of Fruiterie YM, it’s a labour of love. While I confess that I’ve not the world’s greenest thumb, it gives me a little bit of joy to see a bucket bursting with gerbera daisies or catch the scent of aromatic herbs. And I appreciate places like Fruiterie YM for putting in all that work and making our streets so much more vibrant.
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Don’t forget about the lady down the street who has an even larger and more impressive collection of flowers! What’s even more impressive is that she’s at her shop 24/7 — I’ve seen her sleeping on the floor — and she never takes her flowers in during the summer. It’s probably the only place in Montreal where you can buy a pot of flowers at 3am.
S’true — I love that place. I didn’t mention it specifically because I think it’s an actual flower store. (It’s hard to see beyond all the plants!)
J’aime beaucoup ce genre de magasin qui offre des fleurs sur le trottoir. C’est très accueillant. J’allais souvent à celui sur Mont-Royal et sur St-Denis. J’en avais un aussi sur la rue Fleury.
:)
Yeah, that lady, I love her. She complains endlessly about her errant kids (how many does she have, 4, 5?), always gives me an extra plant for free “for your daughter”, and is indeed there morning noon and night. Anyone know her story?
Urbania magazine had a short profile of her awhile back. She was a model in Hong Kong before moving to Montreal in the 1970s. She has 14 kids (!). Her husband is a businessman who works in China and, according to the article, he’s cheating on her.
A couple of years ago my girlfriend had a few conversations with her in Cantonese and she seemed very bitter. She complained about her kids, Montreal, all of the new mainland Chinese immigrants…
Pourquoi ton article est en anglais?
She and her 14 kids are something of a local legend. As you locals know, her old shop is now being converted into a cafe and a rotisserie and she’s across the street, in a smaller location.
I always thought she was wonderful. While it’s not cool to critique a private citizen on a blog , I’m friends with a former landlord of hers, who is very critical, saying she works her kids too hard. Where the truth is, I know not.
I can say this: I had gone out for drinks a few years ago in the middle of winter and walking back on Bernard, a friend has drunkenly (and stupidly) lifted one of the vases and the bottom tray dropped off harmlessly, but making a loud sound.
The sliding door of a parked van instantly slid open. Someone (the mom herself, or her eldest daughter, I cannot recall) was sleeping out in the uninsulated van, in the dead of winter.
We apologized and I offered some money for her trouble. She refused. We walked away and she slid shut the door and returned to sleep, I guess. Weird.
There was a documentary about mile end on CBC or one of its offshoot channels; it aired….February? March? A while ago. That woman (it is driving me crazy that I can’t remember her name!) had her share of troubles, 14 children notwithstanding.
The doc did a much more respectful treatment of her personal life than that article mentioned above – in the doc, she only said that she’s a single mother and her husband lives elsewhere in the city and she doesn’t have contact with him.
She did come across as quite sad/bitter in the doc as well, but, well…. fourteen children. Single mother. Running her own business (and getting shit on by city bylaw officers last year – it’s against “the rules” to keep all those plants on the sidewalk…..). I can’t say I blame her for being bitter. Excellent example of life not always going the way you’d like. But she’s a damn good plant hustler. I’ve killed off more than a few of her wares.
I’m not so sure I agree with Julie’s theory that for dep owners who sell flowers, it’s a labour of love. I suspect it’s often just plain old labour….. and a lot of worrying about making rent/mortgage/hydro payments, feeding children, feeding themselves…..
Nicklas: Malgré mon nom, je suis née au N-B, et ma famille est tous anglophone. Grace à vie à Montréal je parle français un peu mais pas parfaitment. Je pourrai essayer d’écrire en français un autre fois, mais je suis pas sûr que ma français est assez bien pour ça… j’aime apprendre!
Shwan is correct, not polite to discuss a person on a blog. Christopher is disrespectful to pass information he is unsure of about a woman he does not know. Im from Hong Kong and my husbands sister was married to this womans brother in the 70s. Its a big family but no one cheated and people like Christoper make the Chinese look bad. How dare he simplify her life? She is a private person and a loving person, she does not have 14 children. To someone like Christoper it would look that way. Fking idiot. She works hard and she loves meeting people at 3am. It cant be more simple then that. This makes Montreal a good place but what we dont need, what she doesnt need, is to have Mile End hipsters and the wanna-be’s useing her actual life as scenery for the lame little city fantasies of self-hating suburbanites like Christopher and Leila. Bernard has a lot of plant shops but some of you might find what your looking for at Rona on Bernard and Park.
How beautiful, I wish we had one of those in my neighborhood…