2025 Thank You and Year Recap from Westwood Garden Center

January 2, 2026

2025 Thank You and Year Recap

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Plant Lovers in North Idaho,

As we close the doors for our winter break and reflect on an incredible 2025, our hearts are full of gratitude. Thank you for making this year one of the most memorable yet at Westwood Garden Center! Your enthusiasm, smiles, and support turned every season into something special.

Events

Our first event of the year was our "Spring Fling" - Our community here in North Idaho gets spring fever just as bad as we do! We were happy to host everyone who was itching to get outside. We were surrounded by tulips, daffodils, and pansies, charcuterie and drinks were served, and we had several creation stations available! We played games and many went home with plants and other prizes!

Spring Fling vibes

Spring Bulbs & games

Custom Planters

"Moms and Mimosas"
Sons and Daughters brought Mom for a special afternoon treat at Westwood Gardens - we had Mimosas on tap, charcuterie, and games, and of course many mothers were treated to a cart full of flowers and plants for their Gardens! And of course everyone was offered a flower crown to take home!

Mimosas Flowing

Snacks Ready! & full carts

Prize Winner!

"Plant Bingo"
What a FUN game! So many prizes, everyone was laughing and having a great time. We had this event on our yoga deck on a warm summer evening - we made new friends and enjoyed the company of folks we knew already. This was a HIT and we will definitely be doing it again next year.

Bingo on the Yoga Deck

Laughs and Prizes

"Ladies Night"
Another lovely summer evening - We had Sangria, Charcuterie, Games, and of course Creation Stations! Many ladies put together planters, Hanging Baskets, and we all had a great time! We will definitely do this again!

Making Flower Crowns

Creating beautiful planters

"Yoga with Allison"
What a treat to have Allison teaching yoga in the garden in 2025! We are eager to find out what dates she will be able to teach in 2026! There is nothing more peaceful than sinking into a state of peace while surrounded by nature, and Allison is an incredible teacher.

Yoga in the Garden

Plants & Highlights

Spring is always busy for us - and we had so much fun making Hanging Baskets, porch planters, planning your garden beds, and so much more. A stand out "weird" basket plant we had this year was "Parrots Beak" - we will be sure to get more in next year! A BIG THANK YOU to Lori for managing our annuals section - and planting up so many beautiful hanging baskets, and a BIG THANK YOU to Marie for planting custom planters and hanging baskets for our customers.

DID YOU KNOW: You can bring your OWN planters in each year and we will plant them for you!? Marie does an amazing job!

Gorgeous hanging baskets

Custom planter magic

Pansy Purple 2025

FRESH DELIVERIES: A couple times a week, we get in FRESH deliveries! There is a huge RUSH getting everything checked in, organized, and put away - HOPEFULLY before we open! A HUGE thanks to Anna who was often there for check in - and KNOWS HER PLANTS! (and thank you for training her Shirley - and for coming in on days off to help us on big delivery days!!)

Fresh plant arrivals

HOUSE PLANTS: We had a great selection of House Plants this year, and we look forward to doing the same in 2026! String of Pearls were very popular this year, and we also found a lot of people enjoyed Monsteras, Succulents, Sansevierias (Snake Plant) and African Violets. A BIG THANK YOU to Susie for keeping our house plants healthy and happy all year long!

String of Pearls & Monsteras

Succulents & more

Customer Care:Our first priority is always making sure our customers are taken care of! We appreciate each and every one of you, and want to make sure you know it! Lisa has ben working with us during our busy seaason for several years, and she knows how to make anyone's day brighter! Thank you Lisa!

Lisa and Helena with Scarecrow

Boat Garden Flowers: Did you know we plant our own flowers to use in our wreaths? Our amazing team worked together to keep the flowers flourishing all throughout the summer and harvested frequently to ensure we had LOADS of color in our fall and winter workshops! BIG THANK YOU to Aubrey for planting, and doing most of the weeding in the flower garden- and thank you to EVERYONE else for assisting with the Boat Garden!

Our blooming Boat Garden

Trees: Gary and Will worked hard in our tree section to keep everything tip top - thank you guys SO MUCH for all your muscles - repotting massive trees, loading up onto trucks, and much more. Gary has over a decade of experience in Tree care, and we are grateful he was here with us this year. From Evergreen to Deciduous , to Christmas trees- we had a great variety and nearly sold out!

Will with Trees

Gary in Greenhouse

Organic Vegetables: Tomatoes, Peppers, and Squash - Oh MY! We were literally OVERFLOWING with veggies and Herbs this year - and Allison had a beautiful vision and managed to organize our chaos, making things easy to explore for everyone seeking to have their own organic Veggie Patch! Thank you Allison! We get most of our vegetable starts from small local farms, and we also offer seeds, and supplies.

Overflowing With Herbs!

Fruit Trees and Berries: We are PASSIONATE about food autonomy and we encourage everyone to have their own veggie garden and fruit trees, and berry patch. We ran out of Red Raspberries first, then Red Strawberries... I am seeing a theme! We love to see COLOR in our gardens! We had a great variety of heirloom and exotic fruit trees and shrubs - with suitability in as low as Zone 3!

Apple Tree

Perennials: We may be a small plant nursery, but we have BIG variety! Our perennial section was LOADED with new plants every week, and Shirley is the MVP over there - she kept everything pruned, organized and beautiful all year - all while training our newer staff members as well!

Vibrant Perennials in Shirley's Home Garden

Kids Classes: Susie did such a great job organizing and helping kids do SO many fun crafts this year. Almost every Saturday we had a new craft for kids to dive into - some notable ones were: Easter basket planter, Mini Veggie Garden, Strawberry Planters, Fairy Garden, Succulent Dish garden. We are looking forward to even more fun crafts next year!

Little gardeners at work

Fairy gardens & succulent dishes

Fall Highlights

Fall Fest: Our BIGGEST Event of the year! We had several FREE games for kids to play, FREE face Painting for kids, loads of giveaways, and our highlight event this year was a Monarch Butterfly release with Bill Harryman - Bill is involved with a research group at WSU with Dr. David James, and they have been working on this Monarch butterfly project since 2012!

DID YOU KNOW: The monarch Butterfly is Idaho's state insect! Rathdrum, Idaho became a "Monarch City" in 2018, and was the first in Idaho to receive this distinction! 🦋 If you spot a butterfly in your garden as they make their way south, please try to note the tag on their left wing- and email the serial number to monarch@wsu.edu to further assist in their research.

Fall Fest Butterfly Release with Bill Harryman 2025

Monarch Release in our Perennials

Kids games & face painting

Games Galore

Pumpkin Decorating: We all enjoyed making centerpieces and pumpkin planters! The beautiful heirloom pumpkins were the most popular - with folks coming to our Fall fest and loading up their carts with JUST pumpkins - you know it's become a tradition in our area and we are one of the first to get Pumpkins in each year!

Heirloom pumpkin creations

Custom Painted Displays: We had a "refresh" on several displays - thanks to the talented Helena! We are so thrilled to have Helena working with us this year, and she has such an artistic talent!

Helena's Artistic Photo BOO-th

Wreath Workshops: We love wreaths around here and we sure had fun helping everyone make fall and winter wreaths with our well tended dried flowers and wild harvested greenery.

Did you Know: Winter Wreaths will last all season on your porch! Replace in the spring with a new wreath, and save your bow for next year!

Winter Wreaths

Winter Grapevine Wreaths

Local Businesses Featured: WE LOVE LOCAL! Michelle of Tamarac Garden - wild foraged skin care and tea, Marie's Crafts - hand made jewelry and gifts, Shirley's Feed the Children Baked Goods (For Costa Rican Children), Sheryl of North Idaho Fragrance Company - soaps, fragrances.

Tamarac Garden

Shirley's Baked Goods

Made by Marie

N. Idaho Fragrance Co.

We had some funny moments that were distinctly "2025". With the advent of "AI" many people were fooled by plants that don't exist in real life - but are showing up on facebook feeds! Watch out for scams everyone!