Solar Gardens

Solar Gardens, The Living Art Company is a unique Saskatchewan garden centre and experience created and operated by Roger Valliere and his partner, Chris. Specializing in succulents (and a few cacti), Solar Gardens incorporates their love of art and creativity while showcasing the natural beauty of succulent plants alone and in artistic arrangement... s and containers. Chris prefers not to say how many years ago he first began collecting succulents, but he assures us that it was decadeS ago ("with a capital 'S'", he adds). While visiting Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California many years ago, he was intrigued by the bizarre and unique plants he eventually came to know as "succulents". He often jokes that if these plants would have even been mentioned in his university botany classes, Solar Gardens might have been born decadeS ago (again, emphasis on the 'S') rather than just a few years ago. Like collectors of all things know, it all started with a single item, in this case a single succulent. And of course, like all collectors know, he found it hard to stop, enchanted by the beauty and variety of each species. Finding and collecting new and rare succulent varieties became an addictive hobby. Fascination with these beauties took him to many far away countries (including, but not limited to, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Brazil, and Australia) and he eventually began to import new varieties that were not commonly found in Canada. The collection slowly developed into one of the largest private collections in Canada, if not North America. The collection became so large that when Roger got involved in the greenhouse industry, it seemed a natural next step for him to learn how to propagate and build a hobby greenhouse to care for these beautiful treasures. This "hobby" greenhouse (although commercial size) was one of the first buildings they constructed on the current Solar Gardens acreage, a 50 acre property purchased in 1998. A wood fired pizza and bread oven, a summer kitchen and ceramic studio were ...Read More