September 11, 2025
Guelph's Royal City Nursery leads with learning
By Julia Harmsworth
When stepping foot in Royal City Nursery in Guelph, Ont., you can expect to leave with not only a beautiful, locally grown plant, but solid horticultural advice.
The third-generation full-service garden centre sells trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, water plants, tropical plants, house plants and all the solutions they require — from fertilizer to soil to pest control. A member of Landscape Ontario since the association was formed in 1973, Royal City boasts a landscape design/build division and a women’s clothing boutique.
“I love being able to connect an indoor space to an outdoor space in an incredibly personal and meaningful way for someone,” said Royal City co-owner Tanya Olsen.
“And to me, that outdoor space desperately needs to be an extension of the indoor space. It needs to be an extension of your personality, and it needs to be somewhere where you can go and just be. To me, it’s a great honour to help somebody create a space that will do that for them.”
Olsen’s grandfather, a master horticulturist, opened the business in the 1960s after emigrating from Denmark. His son and daughter-in-law (Olsen’s parents) came on board in 1986. Olsen grew up in the garden centre. She doesn’t think of it as a career, but as what she does. She joined full time in the 1990s and took over ownership in 2015.
First store.
Picking cucumbers, July 1965.
She drew up a business plan, met with banks and opened the new Royal City Nursery under her ownership in 2015. The company leased a nearby building for a year before it was up and running in its new, permanent home (still in Guelph) in 2016. Three quarters of the staff carried over into the new ownership.
Olsen had 54 years of legacy behind her, but was effectively opening a brand new business. She took the opportunity to reinvent Royal City, changing its offerings and expanding the boutique. A few years ago, she added a growing division — born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was difficult to get stock. Many of the garden centre’s plants are now grown within 200 feet of the store.
It was important to Olsen to maintain her parents’ and grandparents’ horticultural focus, continuing to get the right plants in the right place for the right people. She believes it’s about marrying the indoor space with the outdoor space to create a cohesive experience.
This is also where the company’s design/build division comes in. Olsen and her husband, David White, who came on as co-owner in 2015, make projects as “personal as possible,” matching each project to the client’s personality and lifestyle.
“We try to encourage our customers we’re designing for to be an active participant in the design. [It’s not about] us telling them what they want or should have; we would rather coach them. So we spend a lot of time on the mentoring, teaching side of things,” White explained.
You can usually find White on site at a client property, using his 20 years of experience installing landscapes at another high-end design/build firm in Mississauga, Ont. He and Olsen met in post-secondary, while working toward their Bachelors of Landscape Architecture.
“I did the BLA because I wanted to understand spaces, how we influence people to move through a space and how we influence space to elicit a reaction from a visitor, whether that visitor has wings, four legs or is a human,” Olsen said.
“I still have people coming in saying, ‘Oh my god, you made such a difference in our lives,’” Olsen said. “The tours through the garden centre — it just gave people relief. And that’s when it started to snowball.”
You can find everything from plant spotlights to recommendations for adding colour to an outdoor space, to videos explaining corn gluten on the company’s Instagram. The content isn’t super polished, Olsen said, but it’s real: “I’d rather be pretty human about it, and get super, super excited about something and carry that excitement through.”
It's also about education: a Royal City mandate. “It’s up to us as an independent garden centre to teach,” Olsen explained. In addition to running the garden centre, she’s been a professor in Humber College’s horticulture program for 22 years and says she loves to watch the light bulb go on when a student “gets it.”
Every Tuesday at 5 p.m., Olsen co-hosts the Get Growing segment on CTV Kitchener. Live from Royal City Nursery, the TV spot offers tutorials and planting tips across subjects: tropical plants, soil, winter greens and so on. For Olsen, teaching is an extension of helping customers at the garden centre. She uses their questions to plan the content.
“If what they’re asking this week is, ‘Can I plant my vegetables? Is it warm enough?’ I want to make sure we’re answering that on air,” she said. Again, it’s personal. And it’s content, not necessarily a sales tool — though Olsen usually features plants you can find at Royal City. Often, customers come in looking for whatever she talked about on Tuesday.
Jorgen (John) Olsen
“TV is for the boomer, and long-form content is for the boomer. I’ve got some customers who will sit down and watch a 20 or 30 minute how-to video if they’re interested in actually doing it. For the millennials, you want to be short. Think microlearning. So your Reels are really short. Your videos are 30 to 60 seconds tops. And [it’s] the basics,” she said.
It’s about packaging complex, maybe not-so-fun information — like the different macronutrients in different soils — into digestible bites. Most importantly, the information must be correct. This ethos comes from Olsen’s teaching background; students can tell if you don’t know what you’re talking about, she said.
Looking into the future, the company will continue to grow into their five-and-a-half acres of land. It just wrapped up a massive expansion, opening another fully climate-controlled building and a tropical plant house to help become more year-round. Olsen carries with her a sense of hope and wonder — and the capacity to keep growing.
“Our very basic roots are hope. Nobody plants a seed with the intention of that seed doing nothing. Gardeners are a strange bunch. We plant hope every single year,” she said. “We need to not be afraid to try stuff. When we do, sometimes it doesn’t work, but more importantly, a lot of times it does.”
When stepping foot in Royal City Nursery in Guelph, Ont., you can expect to leave with not only a beautiful, locally grown plant, but solid horticultural advice.
The third-generation full-service garden centre sells trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, water plants, tropical plants, house plants and all the solutions they require — from fertilizer to soil to pest control. A member of Landscape Ontario since the association was formed in 1973, Royal City boasts a landscape design/build division and a women’s clothing boutique.
“I love being able to connect an indoor space to an outdoor space in an incredibly personal and meaningful way for someone,” said Royal City co-owner Tanya Olsen.
“And to me, that outdoor space desperately needs to be an extension of the indoor space. It needs to be an extension of your personality, and it needs to be somewhere where you can go and just be. To me, it’s a great honour to help somebody create a space that will do that for them.”
Olsen’s grandfather, a master horticulturist, opened the business in the 1960s after emigrating from Denmark. His son and daughter-in-law (Olsen’s parents) came on board in 1986. Olsen grew up in the garden centre. She doesn’t think of it as a career, but as what she does. She joined full time in the 1990s and took over ownership in 2015.
First store.
Picking cucumbers, July 1965.
The ground up
Olsen’s was an unusual succession. In 2013, the Ministry of Transportation expropriated the company to extend Highway 7. Olsen’s parents decided to retire and left her the name, but the rest was up to her to rebuild. “I was in. At that point, all in, everything in,” she said.She drew up a business plan, met with banks and opened the new Royal City Nursery under her ownership in 2015. The company leased a nearby building for a year before it was up and running in its new, permanent home (still in Guelph) in 2016. Three quarters of the staff carried over into the new ownership.
Olsen had 54 years of legacy behind her, but was effectively opening a brand new business. She took the opportunity to reinvent Royal City, changing its offerings and expanding the boutique. A few years ago, she added a growing division — born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was difficult to get stock. Many of the garden centre’s plants are now grown within 200 feet of the store.
It was important to Olsen to maintain her parents’ and grandparents’ horticultural focus, continuing to get the right plants in the right place for the right people. She believes it’s about marrying the indoor space with the outdoor space to create a cohesive experience.
This is also where the company’s design/build division comes in. Olsen and her husband, David White, who came on as co-owner in 2015, make projects as “personal as possible,” matching each project to the client’s personality and lifestyle.
“We try to encourage our customers we’re designing for to be an active participant in the design. [It’s not about] us telling them what they want or should have; we would rather coach them. So we spend a lot of time on the mentoring, teaching side of things,” White explained.
You can usually find White on site at a client property, using his 20 years of experience installing landscapes at another high-end design/build firm in Mississauga, Ont. He and Olsen met in post-secondary, while working toward their Bachelors of Landscape Architecture.
“I did the BLA because I wanted to understand spaces, how we influence people to move through a space and how we influence space to elicit a reaction from a visitor, whether that visitor has wings, four legs or is a human,” Olsen said.
Learning-forward content
Royal City Nursery is known for its active social media presence. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Olsen went live on YouTube and Instagram for a few minutes each morning, taking viewers on virtual tours of the garden centre and offering short how-tos. For many stuck at home, it was a way to reconnect with the outdoors.“I still have people coming in saying, ‘Oh my god, you made such a difference in our lives,’” Olsen said. “The tours through the garden centre — it just gave people relief. And that’s when it started to snowball.”
You can find everything from plant spotlights to recommendations for adding colour to an outdoor space, to videos explaining corn gluten on the company’s Instagram. The content isn’t super polished, Olsen said, but it’s real: “I’d rather be pretty human about it, and get super, super excited about something and carry that excitement through.”
It's also about education: a Royal City mandate. “It’s up to us as an independent garden centre to teach,” Olsen explained. In addition to running the garden centre, she’s been a professor in Humber College’s horticulture program for 22 years and says she loves to watch the light bulb go on when a student “gets it.”
Every Tuesday at 5 p.m., Olsen co-hosts the Get Growing segment on CTV Kitchener. Live from Royal City Nursery, the TV spot offers tutorials and planting tips across subjects: tropical plants, soil, winter greens and so on. For Olsen, teaching is an extension of helping customers at the garden centre. She uses their questions to plan the content.
“If what they’re asking this week is, ‘Can I plant my vegetables? Is it warm enough?’ I want to make sure we’re answering that on air,” she said. Again, it’s personal. And it’s content, not necessarily a sales tool — though Olsen usually features plants you can find at Royal City. Often, customers come in looking for whatever she talked about on Tuesday.
Jorgen (John) Olsen
Growing customers
When it comes to a target audience, Olsen takes a two-pronged approach. The nursery’s core customer base is baby boomers, but that generation is downsizing and shifting their priorities. To ensure she has customers in 10, 20 years from now, Olsen also produces content for millennials.“TV is for the boomer, and long-form content is for the boomer. I’ve got some customers who will sit down and watch a 20 or 30 minute how-to video if they’re interested in actually doing it. For the millennials, you want to be short. Think microlearning. So your Reels are really short. Your videos are 30 to 60 seconds tops. And [it’s] the basics,” she said.
It’s about packaging complex, maybe not-so-fun information — like the different macronutrients in different soils — into digestible bites. Most importantly, the information must be correct. This ethos comes from Olsen’s teaching background; students can tell if you don’t know what you’re talking about, she said.
Looking into the future, the company will continue to grow into their five-and-a-half acres of land. It just wrapped up a massive expansion, opening another fully climate-controlled building and a tropical plant house to help become more year-round. Olsen carries with her a sense of hope and wonder — and the capacity to keep growing.
“Our very basic roots are hope. Nobody plants a seed with the intention of that seed doing nothing. Gardeners are a strange bunch. We plant hope every single year,” she said. “We need to not be afraid to try stuff. When we do, sometimes it doesn’t work, but more importantly, a lot of times it does.”