Thanksgiving Week at the Bruce Company

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thirteen ten Wivy and every Day Outdoor Living brought to
you by the Bruce Company Online, Bruce Company dot com,
Facebook and social media The Bruce Company. Great day to
get into the Middleton Garden Center of the Bruce Company
right at twenty at thirty Park Interstreet. That's twenty at
thirty Partment Street. Get in today, say hi to Lisa
and check out Lisa's sweater.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I will not be wearing my sweater.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Noat will you wear it on television? So if we
were watching Channel three, no, because.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's not Bruce Company, right and it's not doesn't have
a be on it, So I will not.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
We're gonna have to get a picture of something because
so we're getting ready to do the show. And I said, Lisa,
that is a beautiful sweater. Where did you get it?
And what did you tell me?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Please need it?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You made you literally with your own two hands and
your knitting needles and a big ball of.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yarn, lots of balls.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I wasn't working, and so it was, Yeah, it was
when I left Madison in two thousand and six and
we moved to Sheboygan, but I didn't because I'm in
the garden center industry. It's kind of hard to walk
into a garden center in July and say I would
like a full time position. I'm amazing. So I had
to wait until the following spring.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
So I mean we had a new house and it
was a new place to live and all that kind
of stuff. So there was a lot of stuff to do.
But I knit. I knit anyway, but I knit a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Not only did I learn you knit, I also learned
you're very good too. So that's a very nice thank you.
It's great to see you too, Lisa. And I know
there's a lot going on this time you start. We
started a couple of weeks ago and now until the
new year.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I know, it just goes so fast.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, So a couple of things, obviously the big thing
we'll talk about some green things. Do you guys got trees?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
We do? We do. We have trees up on the yard.
There are all the normal living room sizes five through eight.
There are some nine foot tens are super scarce, okay
this year super scarce. If you are a person that

(02:07):
likes to have like a ten foot tree, when you
come into the garden center, give them your name and
your contact info because we do a pre order sort
of thing in the end of August in early September,
so we go out and find the trees to fill
the orders as tree as those bigger trees get more

(02:28):
scarce and I'm hoping that the weather will sort of
catch up. I mean, we have a series of some
droughty years where trees growth slows down. So there are
a lot of factors why, but that's the way to
make sure that we're looking for a tree for you.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
So ten plus foot, if you want to do like
a twenty, that's when that's.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, that's that's gotta be hold. Yeah, anything over a
ten needs to be pre ordered.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Now let's talk to you about I always find it
fascinating about kind of the behind the scenes things because
you know, as folks that fit the Bruce Company, we
see all these beautiful trees, like, oh, it's awesome, beautiful trees.
Let's find it out. Let's find the one that's going
to look great in our house, not realizing on the
back end there's a reason why those trees look so beautiful.
There's a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, there's a lot of ours and blood and sweat
that goes into that on the part of the farmers.
We get our trees from Wisconsin growers, but there are
a lot of tree farmers all over the country, and
so it is a lot of year's worth of work
that is all sort of you know, condensed into four

(03:39):
or five weeks of a season, so you know, and
a lot of them will do wreaths and other kinds
of things to sort of supplement that. But you know,
you've got to plant the trees, You've got to nurture them.
They need to be sheared every year to get those
beautiful shapes. So it is a lot of.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Work, it is. And I know once against the Bruce
company as well, they get a little primping, a little
a little bit primping and.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yes they do what do I say, prepping, primping and
pricing three piece. So yeah, so they are coming out
of the lot. We are stocked with uh, wreaths and
all the greens for for you to do your pots.

(04:24):
And we have today and tomorrow that look really good
and then the temperatures look like they're going to plummet
after that, so that you know, if you have some
time today and tomorrow, this is a great time to
get your yard decorated. So get your wreath on the door,
get your garland hung, get your lights out, all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
What about for folks that want to go with the
forever tree, good mix there still, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
We're we there's one a couple of sizes that are
sold out, but we have some beautiful eight and a
half slims. We've got some nice unlit trees and the
really cool lights. I lit a nine and a half footer,
three thousand lights, Oh Chi, Lisa, in twenty minutes.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, all of Middleton is aware you did that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, And so it took longer to figure out how
to thread the extension cords through the ceiling grid to
plug the thing in that it did to actually put
the lights on the tree. So the year, you know,
the days of saying, oh, I can't, I can't light
my tree because it just takes forever and it's such

(05:29):
a hassle, and you those days are over gone. The
new lighting systems are so.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Easy for people that see by the way the upside
down treesy, are you able to special order that for
next year? Status on that?

Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that I cannot guarantee clearly since Thanksgiving is Thursday,
that I can get a tree in somebody's hands on
a special order by before December first. Okay, I just
can't so I don't know off the top of my

(06:01):
head what their stock is like. But certainly if somebody
wants to commit for a tree for next year, yeah
we can, we can look for them. We can get
that going for sure.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Never too early in the world of gardening and the
world of having the things that you really really like
is getting that order in early and getting it take
care of. I mentioned mentioned the greens, mentioned the trees.
Did we talk about the bracket challenge yet? I don't
think we have.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Let's know, how it talked about the bracket challenge in
a couple of weeks. So, as you know, we do
a bracket challenge every holiday season, and we've done all
kinds of different topics, favorite characters, Christmas song, and this
year I was sort of stumped, so I asked for help,
and I got some really good suggestions from our social

(06:46):
media followers, and we decided to go with baking.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
So Week one was classic cookies and the winner of
that week was the Sprits cookie.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
The Sprits Sprits.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
And Week two were Holiday breads and the winner is
Bobka and I'm stunned that you don't know what about
You'll have to google it.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
It's delicious.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now, this last week was uh cookies from around the world,
and right now the sort of quarter finals I guess
would be it is, uh the rosette, you know that
fried rosette on the where you put the batter on

(07:31):
that iron and you then you put in the deep
fried yes, and it kind of falls off. Versus a cookie,
a Polish cookie that my grandmother used to make. Really yeah,
I can't remember that. Yeah, it's like a whole bunch
of a whole bunch of consonants and very few balls,

(07:52):
but it's got a like a sour cream dough and
it's there's jam in it and it's delicious. Love. And
then this week, which we will start this afternoon, are
the those fancy holiday desserts. Ooh, I like trifle and
the Bouche de noel, the Yule log and that kind
of stuff. So that's going to be really fun. The

(08:13):
next week we will do the fight. That will be
finals week.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
So for those who's playing along, what's our? What's our?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So every so every Monday, when I get back to
the store, I will draw three winners, one from each day.
So whatever the winning dessert or whatever the winning bait
good was that day, then I'll just randomly pull one
of those people. You get a ten dollars gift card, beautiful,
and then at the end the two the there'll be

(08:39):
twenty five dollars gift cards.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Oh fantasy.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
So yeah, so it's fun. It's not like enormous, but
it's fun. Yes, and we get to see, you know
what our area's favorite holiday bake good is. I'm not
making any predictions.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
No, well it's you sound it sounds like you've got
some wild big so far.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, so it'll be like Sprits Cookies versus is Bobka okay,
and then whatever whichever I think I think today it's
going to be the Rosette cookie. So which is which
is sad for me? So if you remember that polst cookie,
go ahead right now to the Facebook page and like
flood it with some boats.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
So Lisa's Lisa's favorite my grandmother's.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Cookie will be a winner.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yes, do that right online, just heading over to the
Bruce Company's Facebook page, The Bruce Company of course Facebook
and social media, The Bruce Company Online. Bruce coompany dot com.
That's Bruce Company dot com. All sorts of great stuff
going on at the Bruce Company. Get on into the
Middleton Garden Center twenty at thirty Partment Street. That's twenty
at thirty Partment Street. If you've got a question, We've
got Lisa's studio here for you right now. I love

(09:43):
to have you join us. Six oh eight three two
one thirteen ten. That's six soh eight three two one
thirteen ten, real quick, Lisa, I apologize, eys, we're kind
of going over. Take a sippy or soda, right, I've
done sorry about that. Holiday hours and uh, yes.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
So we will be close Thanksgiving, sure, yeah, match of course,
of course, of course, and then our holiday hours start
on Friday, okay, And the only change for the holiday
hours is Sunday. So Sunday we will be open from
ten until five, okay, and then nine until six Monday

(10:19):
through Saturday. And that's for about three weeks, and then
we go to winter hours, and we'll talk about winter
hours get drastically shorter. So we'll talk about that when
we get closer to that.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
As the kids stay stay tuned on that stuff again.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Tuned for more info.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yes, a great opportunity too. If you got a question,
we'd love to have a join us six soh eight
three two one thirteen ten. That's six so eight three
two one thirteen ten to our conversation with Lisa and
take your call next as every Day Outdoor Living brutch
by the Bruce Company continues right here thirteen ten do
w u ib a eight twenty one thirteen ten Wui
b a and every Day Outdoor Living. It's brought to
you by the Bruce Company online, Bruce coompany dot com.

(10:54):
That's all one word, Bruce Company dot Com, Facebook and
social media, the Bruce Company. Oh what a day it
is to get out into the Middleton Garens Center, First
Company right at twenty eight thirty Parmenter Street. That's twenty
eight thirty par Mentor Street. I'll talk about some of
the great specialism and some of the cool stuff going
on in store real quick. Though. During the break, you
showed me a video documentary that's.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Coming to Netflix about Yes, about the Christmas tree industry.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
In New York City, New York City.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
It comes out on the first, so I know what
I'll be doing on the first.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
If the trailer is any indicator. It's going to be
a good one.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's going to be what it looks like, really fun
and informative too, because I think a lot of people
don't know, they don't realize what goes into any kind
of agricultural pursuit, production of.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Food, growing plants, growing Christmas trees, all that kind of stuff.
It's just sort of outside of everybody's sphere of experience,
and so it's kind of good to see, like what
hard work that is?

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, it is. And they talk about the weather. One
nice things about the first company.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
You guys have a it's covered, Yeah, areas, I'm not
saying that, like drips of things don't come through through
the pant roof panels, but ultimately it's you know what
else came in this week week? Those glittered and multi
colored point SETI.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Which are Christina got yellow ye yellow.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, like citron yellow.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I'll have to see him.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
And there's some new varieties too that are that are
really cool. So purple Skyler knows all that. Yes, there's purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, Yeah,
those are them. And then there's you know, there's one
that's like a much darker burgundy, and then there's glitter
of course, so we had we had a fun thing

(12:43):
going on that we said that that glittered point sets
are how glitter is produced. People don't realize how hard
it is to produce. It comes on glittered points. You
gotta you gotta like harvest the glitter.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
And the natural the colors as well.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, yeah, but we and we have all the you know,
all the normal ones too, So lots lots are in.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
The traditional ones. And obviously the glitter is a little magic.
That's where in the coloring too, is there's a little
little magic.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, there's sort of I call them fantasy points that yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
They're very lovely though they are very nice. I get
if to stop in.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
It's not for me, but they are very cool. So
I know people love them. So they're here.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
They are in Speaking of things at the at of course,
the garden Center got a lot of special lot of specials.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Go to our yeah, go to our website specials page,
and there are all kinds of things. Ornaments are twenty
percent off. There's some uh, some things in the boutique
like hats and gloves and scarves and that sort of stuff.
Clothing Amarillis bulbs are on sale as well. As paper whites.

(13:57):
So there's a lot going on.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
There's a ton going on, and uh, we talked about
the social media. I know one of the things to
you guys have been Emmy's goofball, isn't she Yeah, Emmy.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Of course does the goofy I do.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
For folks looking to watch some fun videos. Also, I
know you guys have been posting up on I'll.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Post another one tomorrow. Oh really, I think it's going
to be the upside down tree one because that's the one. Well.
I watched that one being filmed and I thought that
was the funniest.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
How's the tree walk I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Guess walk is let's see, we put in ballots yesterday.
I think we're close to four hundred.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Is upside down still crazy?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah? The same three are holding steady, So upside down
tree is in the first position. The second one is.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Something with whimsy.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
It's the woodland it's the Woodland tree. And the third one,
I believe, and I think those two are tied. The
third one is one of the snowy Oh cool, Yes,
I love that.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
And that's how many did you? I always forget?

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Remember they're thirty two looks and I think twenty two
or twenty three trees. Wow, so not all the looks
on the walk are decorated trees. All of them are
you know, other things to stop and look at.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Yeah, what's great about that is getting something We talk
about gifts that are unique and special, but also when
it comes to like decorating your tree or decorating your
home for the holidays, it's cool to have things that
are different. You know that that Again, it doesn't look
like every other house on the block. You got something cool,
you got something unique, something special. And I know at
the Bruce Company, you guys provide those type of things, agains,

(15:42):
stuff that you're not going to get at every single
place across the country. You got you really really well made,
really really good stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, and just think they're different. And we have all
sorts of super creative folks on staff that can sort
of help you either of something that you have in
your minds ie, we can help you sort of bring
that to reality, or we have all kinds of ideas
for things. When you just come in you say, I
want to do something that's different this year, and this

(16:10):
is what I have, and we can sort of help
you through that process.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
I'm talking about specials too, gift cards, gift cards.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Oh yeah, the gift card special I always forget about
the gift card special It's the best. It is the best.
So we're in the theme of you know, we want
to help you make make it easier for you to give.
We have our gift card specials. So we do this
every year. For every fifty dollars gift card you purchase,

(16:37):
you get an extra ten on us. Happy holidays, everybody.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, So you can put them all on one. You can.
It's in multiples. So if you buy one hundred dollars,
you get an extra twenty. If you buy two hundred,
you get an extra forty. We'll help you with the
math and you can put it all on one, or
you can split them out. You can give fifty and
keep ten. You can give sixty instead. It's completely up

(17:04):
to you. Hey, whatever, whatever, however you want to personalize,
it is good with us.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Are we passed bulb season? Are we still good ground?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
There are very few bulbs, okay, mostly their hyacinth, ohhy
and some mixed some bags of like mixed things that
include eyes. It's mostly eyes and related.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Do you ever just sell like a mystery bag of
bulbs or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
We used to when we had bulk bulbs. Okay, yeah,
because people would take a ball bout of a box
and then they'd set it down and you didn't know
because because we used to have I don't know, fifty
tulip varieties, but they were all in bulk, and you
bought the tulips by the bulb. You know, they were
maybe I don't know, fifty cents or seventy five cents,
whatever they were, and there were little bags and you

(17:56):
put them in there, and then they were little cards.
You put the cards so you remember what you got.
Now they're all in packs, which is easier for everybody.
Oh yeah, easier for the growers, easier for us, easier
for customers, you know what you're getting. But we did
have a box of like we don't know what this is.
Like we know it's a daft dol, we know it's
a tulip, but other than that, not one percent sure,

(18:20):
we're not even five percent sure. What is it?

Speaker 1 (18:24):
You've you've you've got a line about gardeners and delayed gratification,
and that.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Not only is a delayed gratification, it's a surprise.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Great, So we don't do that anymore.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
No, unfortunate because it was kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
That does sound fun. There's always fun stuff though going
on at the Bruce Company mentioned of course. Uh, the
bracket challenge underway right now. Great day to get on
into the Middleton Garden Center of the Bruce Company. Haven't
voted yet to the tree walk yet. The tree walk.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Ends on Sunday. Oh and that's one hundred dollars gift
card in the in the loops. So so whatever tree
gets the most votes, that's where we puller.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Also, as I look at the forecast, not terrible forecast,
but seeds and suet definitely as we get into these
colder months, I want to make sure.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
That the purpos your birds will appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Big fat birds. So watching the thing about about what
are those called? These the pigeons in New York.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Okay, you know these guys, Yeah, I didn't really the
pigeons that live in Central Park versus the pigeons that
live around the city, they have very different body makeups.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
The ones that are in Central Park are quite well
fed and quite.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well I'm not surprised, and they cool a.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Lot because they're very happy as opposed to Some of
those probably know that.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
The more they cool, the more food they Yeah, it's probably.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
A learned response. Fascinating creatures, birds all around, and of
course what a great way is we look towards the
winter months, attract some birds, get a nice little crew
hanging out by your place, always something nice to look at.
So get on in. Great day for the Bruce Company,
Get on into that Middleton Gardens and Bruce Company twenty
eight thirty parm Interis Street. That's twenty thirty Partment Street
on my Bruce Company dot comf book on social media

(20:01):
The Bruce Company, Lisa, it's always too much fun. You
have a great day you as well. Show news comes
your way next here at thirteen ten dol w you
ive