The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

A10 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 21, 1999 "Leading The Way" Affordable Elegancf WINDOWS & DOORS RJDLFY RIDLEY SHOWROOM 35 Crawford Cr„ Campbellville • S A LE S • S E R V IC E For All Your Window, Door, Column & Moulding Needs 905-854-2228 ^ jd e lm d in g . a t r a d it io n o f. e fa g a n m * By Nienke T. Jonkman and Stephanie Mac Lei Ian ADVERTORIAL "We buy based on uniqueness, originality and the latest in looks and design, while keeping our clients' requirements top of mind," explains Gregory. "With this market, people want to own one-of-a- kind pieces." To celebrate his decade of success, Gregory has planned a 10th anniversary sales event, offering all his current and new customers an above-average savings on his full assortment of in-store merchandise, as well as on customer special orders. Gregory also chose this 10 year anniversary to announce his plans to expand yet again. He is currently searching for the perfect Oakville location that will offer a minimum of 60,000 sq. ft. of retail showroom space plus 40,000 sq. ft. in storage and warehouse space. With the expanded showroom, Gregory plans to provide his clients with a much larger assortment of fine furniture and acces­ sories, selected from the world's finest manufacturers. In order to celebrate with the public, Ennisclare Interiors invites everyone to come in for their anniversary special, "Celebrating a Tradition of Elegance." Visit the showroom at 1075 North Service Road, just west of Fourth Line, or call 825-2450 for more information. Photos by Ron Kuzyk TOP LEFT-- John and Dorothy Gregory, owners of Ennisclare Interiors, celebrate the store's 10th Anniversary. TOP RIGHT-- Sales and design consultant Patricia Lorimer sits at a Hickory Chair Dining Room ensemble from the James River Collection. BOTTOM-- Ann and Rudy DaCorte dropped in for the celebrations with their son Matthew. They're seated on Brunetti Fine Furniture. which allows the customers to imagine the entire look of a room and not just the furniture. The accessories are brought in from suppliers around the world by John's wife, Dorothy. Ennisclare Interiors also employs a full-time floor designer who constantly redesigns the floor displays in order to keep the showroom unique and interesting. "With the accessories and displays, customers can get an incred­ ible number of decorating ideas all under one roof," Gregory says. "A lot of people like to walk through our showroom just to get ideas." Gregory calls the staff of Ennisclare Interiors "a great resource". All staff members are qualified interior designers who spend a lot of time with their customers to help them make their decorating deci­ sions. They will work with their clients both in the store and in the clients' homes to supply not just a product, but the complete look and feel desired by the customer. They know their clients so well, that they will call them up to let them know if something has come in that suits their decor perfectly. Ennisclare Interiors is 'Fashion Forward' and on the leading edge of the industry, offering their customers the very latest in looks and design. Because they deal with some of the largest sup­ pliers in North America, they are well aware of what designs are up and coming so they can stay ahead of the competition. ^ ay back in 1959 a young developer with ' /M B high standards and big dreams, aspiring U / m m to build a new development, purchased W / ^ l W 100 acres in east Oakville. He searched high and low for a name for his new development, but nothing represented the image of quality and professionalism of his company. In the end, John Gregory liked the sound of a neighbouring street, Ennisclare Drive, so he used this name to embody his busi­ ness. His first development of fine homes was named Ennisclare Park, as well as subsequent buildings and devel­ opments, such as the 10-storey building on Kerr Street, the four major condominium buildings on Marine Drive east of Bronte Road, and the three office complexes on North Service Road west of Fourth Line. Ennisclare has become a name tied to the Oakville com­ munity. Today, 40 years later, it has come to represent much more than building developments. As a matter of fact, most people today link the popular name to the fine furniture and accessory store called Ennisclare Interiors on North Service Road. They may not realize however, that the two are owned and operated by one and the same--John Gregory. This year, Ennisclare Interiors celebrates 10 successful years in the furniture industry, but this is just the beginning of many exciting new plans for the company. When Gregory constructed the building that is now home to Ennisclare Interiors, he had a 12,000 sq. ft. store available for rent. Gregory ended up becoming partners with a young man who want­ ed to rent the space to start a new fine furniture store. "It was a risk renting the space to a new business," laughs Gregory now, "so in an effort to help we ended up as partners!" After some time, they decided to part ways and Gregory, as sole owner, now runs the store with his wife Dorothy. In the meantime, the store has become so successful that they've undergone three major expansions and grown into a 36,000 sq. ft. showroom, triple the original size. Ennisclare Interiors is in a class unmatched by any other furniture store. They have clients worldwide that depend upon Gregory and his staff for traditional, high-quality furniture and accessories. They have remained true to their niche-- Gregory believes that the store's success is due to the fact that they have never strayed from their approach. "Even when we expanded our assortment of furniture lines and accessories, we maintained our focus on our customers' require­ ments," he explains. Presentation is another key aspect of Ennisclare Interior's success. The store is more accessorized than most furniture stores, The priceless satisfaction of growing your own flowers by Lois Hole SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER "Growing your own plants from seed can be an incredibly rewarding experience, but a t other times it can be ju st plain, downright frustrating... " Quick, which would you rather have--an ounce of gold or an ounce of begonia seed? Gold at its current mar­ ket price an ounce is mere pocket change compared to a series of tuber­ ous begonia seed called "Charisma" that rings in at an astounding $200,000 an ounce. Mind you, an ounce of begonia seed does contain anywhere from 1.5 to 2 million seeds, and in all fairness, only the world's largest plant propagators would ever buy an ounce. Thankfully for home gardeners, growing your own plants from seed is substantially less expensive. It can also be an incredibly rewarding experience, but at other times it can be just plain, downright frustrating. I remember when my husband and I first got started in market gardening back in the early 1960s. We needed a large number of tomato transplants, and obviously that required a green­ house, so we built one--a small, plas­ tic- covered, wood-framed structure. Having very little seed experience, I rationalized that if I sowed double the recommended number of tomato seeds I should, at the very least, get half to grow and therefore be pretty dam close to my target. After about a month, not one seedling had emerged. Of course, I blamed everything and everyone, including my husband, on this abysmal failure, but it wasn't until he decided to check the soil temperature that he was finally exonerated. The soil tempera­ ture was a rather frigid 50°F (that was in the pre-metric days), and tomatoes, being warm-season plants, prefer a nice warm 72°F (21°C) to germinate properly. Installation of some heating cable solved that problem for us, but for many gardeners, poor control of soil temperature is still the primary reason for poor results. Each year more and more gardeners are starting their own seeds, which I'm sure has been fueled in part by the tremendous satisfaction derived from successfully nurturing a plant from seed to maturity. Undoubtably, the adventure of try­ ing the new, the improved and the unusual is a strong motivator as well, and never before has there been such an extensive selection of seeds. Yet, for many gardeners, there still exists an unwarranted fear of growing seedlings. So to minimize the trauma of starting seeds, here is the seed starter's primer in one highly con­ densed, nontechnical paragraph. The first thing to do is purchase only high-quality seed (which is typically a little more expensive). Place the seed in a tray on top of premoistened soilless seedling mixture. Cover the seed light­ ly with horticultural-grade vermiculite (that's the small stuff). Mist the seed tray several times with a pump bottle. Cover the tray with a clear or opaque plastic cover and place the whole appa­ ratus on a heat register or heated cable as close as possible to a south-facing window. Inspect the seed daily and mist as required. That's all there is to it. Most seed fits rather neatly within these parameters, although, of course, there are those seeds that deviate somewhat. Some like a little warmer or a little cooler soil, some like a little more moisture or a lit­ tle less moisture, but the same basic principles still apply. Still, there are some plant species, particularly a few perennials, that can be rather obstinate. Some perennial seeds require a treatment called stratifi­ cation--a one- to four-month cold treatment in moist soil to break the seeds' self-imposed dormancy. Other perennial seeds must be scarified, which is essentially delicate cutting or etching of the seed coat to allow germi­ nation, allowing water to be drawn in. I remember a few particularly stub­ born perennial seeds that I've tried to germinate in the greenhouse. One in particular was the Himalayan Blue Poppy. After my disappointing experience with tomato seed, I must admit that I leaned on the warm side for starting all other seedlings, including poppies. After about six weeks of tender care, the poppies, like the tomatoes, had failed to emerge, so in frustration I just pulled the trays off of the heated tables, left them on the cold floor and forgot about them. Inadvertently, I had provid­ ed exactly what the poppies wanted--a nice, cool spot, and within days the tiny seedlings were popping up. If you have seed left over when all of the spring seeding is done and you're wondering just what is the best way to store it, just remember the rule of 100. Any combination of relative humidity percentage and air temperature that exceeds 100 will reduce seed storage life. For example, if the air temperature is 60°F (sorry, this rule only works with Fahrenheit, not Celsius) and the relative humidity is 40 percent, you're in the correct range. However, if the relative humidity climbs to 60 percent, then the air temperature shouldn't exceed 40°F to maintain the 100 rule. The lower the number drops below 100, the better. If you have a bright window, some heat and a little patience, give starting your own seed a try. Remember--all that glistens is not gold. (Lois Hole's latest book Spring Gardening is available at leading gar­ den centres and book stores across Canada.) Beat the hot weather and save! ' Offer applies to all air conditioners and furnaces available from Union Energy. Purchase must be made between April 12 and April 30, 1999. To take advantage of the combo offer on the air conditioner and furnace purchase, products must be purchased and installed at the same time. Cannot be combined with any other promotional offer. Call for a free in-home estimate, (905) 469-05 70 or 1 -8 8 8 -6 8 7 -6 8 7 1 Providing home comfort with: • furnaces • a ir cond itioners • fireplaces • w ater heaters • natura l gas* • assurance plans • service take comfortO inion 'Not available in all areas.