July 14, 2025
Tanya Olsen: Rooted in tradition, growing the future
Tanya Olsen
At a birthday party when she was eight, Tanya Olsen, owner of Royal City Nursery in Guelph, Ont., was asked what she wanted to do when she grew up. “I want to run Royal City Nursery and I want to be a horticultural apprenticeship instructor just like my dad,” she replied.
Years later, Olsen’s words came true. She’s not only the third-generation owner of the nursery (after her grandparents and parents), she’s also a professor at Humber College’s horticulture program. Olsen never had a doubt about what she wanted to do.
“For me, horticulture isn’t a job, it isn’t a career. It’s what I do. I desperately love the industry. I love the ability to marry an indoor space with an outdoor space and make it usable, make it creative, make it unique and really help a customer see themselves living in that space on a very personal level,” Olsen explained.
“I truly do not know what the heck I would do if I weren’t doing this,” she added. “I’ve been in this business since I was really little. Somewhere, my mom has a photograph of me sleeping in a wheelbarrow while she potted bare-root roses.”
Olsen got her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Guelph, where she met her husband, Dave, who is now co-owner. That same university is also where her grandfather worked, running the greenhouses, before opening Royal City in the 1970s.
Olsen feels lucky her family has been so immersed in the industry for so long. “That’s how I learned,” she said. She and her sister were introduced to plant identification on childhood trips to the cottage. While walking through the woods they would be asked, “What’s this? How does this work?” Olsen explained, “We always talked plants and nature with both my grandparents and my dad. We’ve done that forever and always.”
Olsen’s involvement with Landscape Ontario (LO) is also hereditary. Royal City Nursery has been a member since the association’s inception. Olsen’s father, Peter, served as president in 1986, pushing for stronger membership recruitment in his term. Growing up, Olsen attended the Waterloo Chapter’s annual Fall Freeze Up dance with her parents.
Her first time teaching took place at LO’s home office in Milton, Ont., in partnership with Humber’s horticulture program. She’s taken classes, too, and is a member of the Garden Centre Sector Group, encouraged by member Art Vanden Enden.
The two are creating training videos for fellow members to train seasonal staff. Videos focus on basic botany, watering, customer service, houseplant identification, maintenance and placement. Next on the list of topics are: annuals, container gardening and native and pollinator plants. “That’s one of the biggest hurdles, is training,” Olsen explained, noting how quick the seasonal hiring period is each spring.
She also thanks LO and former executive director Tony DiGiovanni for helping Royal City Nursery move locations when it was expropriated from its land in 2015. LO helped cut through some of the red tape when it came to zoning and site planning.
“I love the fact that […] if I have a problem or a question, I can unabashedly call someone. And I’m pretty sure I would actually get an answer. And sometimes those answers come at really strange hours of the day, because I’m asking the question at really strange hours of the day,” she said, laughing. “There’s a network standing behind all of us.”
Now, Olsen feels it’s her responsibility to share the knowledge she lives and breathes with industry newcomers. She’s taught both the landscape technician and apprenticeship programs at Humber for 22 years. Her courses encompass everything from business, to construction, to plant ID.
“I like the light bulb,” she said of teaching — something she also said of helping customers at the nursery. It’s valuable, she explained, to watch somebody get something and to see the industry she already loves through her students’ eyes.
Her dad taught at Humber, too, until he passed away in 2015. To honour Peter’s legacy and commitment to the industry he so dearly loved, the family asked for donations and established The Peter Olsen Scholarship Fund through the Ontario Horticultural Trades Foundation. Each year, basic-level apprentices and advanced-level apprentices can apply to receive a financial scholarship from the fund.
In 2025, the Peter Olsen Scholarship Fund paid for two students’ full tuition. “For my family — for me and for Dad, we really want to promote someone who […] actually sees themselves in the industry and who really exemplifies what we look for as a potential business owner,” Olsen said.
The scholarship is awarded to students who value learning and are naturally curious about the industry — qualities the Olsen family value in their efforts to support the next generation of landscape professionals.
“It’s a little bit of that legacy sharing. It’s a little bit of that storytelling that our grandparents did with our parents, who did with us. If we don’t teach those around us, then we lose an awful lot.”