It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer. These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”. Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants. Here is why…
When I think of the word “wallflower” or “shrinking violet” for that matter, I conjure up an image in my mind of a timid plant that is shy and socially challenged. It is not very flashy and prefers to grow in an obscure location where it will be barely noticed by the passing visitor. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth when we are talking about wallflowers….
There is no doubt in my mind that spring has sprung. This indisputable fact lies in the discovery this week of the first white blooms on a wild plum tree that lives down the street from the nursery… The proverbial dam of winter has been breached and I, for one, am more than ready to start basking in the glow of spring floral color…
It’s that time of year again when garden centers fill their benches back up with a whole new crop of bare root roses. Our crews have spent the last several weeks carefully pruning and planting several thousand of them so they can be taken home and lovingly plunged into your gardens. Please remember that roses are seasonal and they are only ordered once a year, so when they are gone, they are gone until another year comes along. Here are some tips on how to grow fabulous roses in our maritime climate…
Let’s face it, compared to other regions of our country, we have it pretty darn good when it comes to winter. Occasional snow rarely sticks around for more than a week or two, night time lows are usually above freezing and the day temps can even get up into the 50’s. Nothing stays dormant for very long, in fact we can have quite of variety of plants that actually bloom in our mild maritime winters. Life is good if you are a gardener in the northwest….
I have just spent this last week, and countless hours, researching the topic of ‘trends for 2020’’ in hopes of bringing you something of deep profundity. Unfortunately, I have to confess; it has been a struggle to find the perfect morsels of wisdom for your reading pleasure and I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I am trying to set the bar too high. The trends for 2020 are really just a continuation of what I have observed over the last 5 years, so here are some of the points that caught my eye that hopefully you will find informative and useful…
I know it is crunch time for gift buying and you might still have a few tough ones to figure out. Avoid the crazy mall madness and have an actual tactile experience of touching the gifts you’re searching for (to maybe even be hand-wrapped with care, rather than just clicking a mouse for an online purchase) by traveling down to your favorite garden center where there is always plenty of parking this time of year - you just might find that something perfect you’ve been hunting for. Here are a few ideas to try out…
Speaking as a self-proclaimed “plantaholic” who likes just about all things with foliage, fronds, or needles, one plant I started to salivate over in the 1990’s was Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia sp.). For us in northern latitudes, these mythical plants were uncommon and were perceived as…