Spring has sprung!

Okay, I don't want to get ahead of myself and have to eat my words when we get a hard freeze or that March snowfall that everyone seems to worry will still come--and it might--but it would sure appear that spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest!

Here at the nursery, we've been busy in the last week stocking shelves, receiving orders of plant "plugs" for our greenhouses, transplanting perennials, and planting hanging baskets and geraniums. Just today, we planted 4100 geraniums, nearly filling our entire "Geranium House" greenhouse (see the picture to the right)! Earlier in the week, we planted 380 hanging baskets--our first batch of the season.

Tomorrow, the first of our shrub and tree orders will arrive. While we will have much the same selection of shrubs and trees as previous years, we're looking forward to expanding our selection of fruit, including several varieties of blueberries and raspberries, grapes, pears and cherries.

As I said, we've been busy, and we're excited to begin another new season--our 72nd! We welcome you to stop by anytime during the day Monday-Saturday to browse what's new and learn about what's coming up. Now, cross your fingers that the mythical March snow stays just that--a myth!

Happenings this week...

This time of year, we get a lot of deliveries! From shrubs, trees, annuals and perennials to fertilizers, hand tools and other hard goods to pots and hangers for our greenhouses--a lot happens each week in February! Here's what's on tap for this week:

• Our stock of Jackson & Perkins roses will arrive. We're excited to offer many new varieties in addition to the tried-and-true classics.
• Our remaining order of perennial starts will arrive.
• Our first shipment of plugs for hanging baskets will come in.
• We plan to finish the new greenhouse.
• The remainder of our hard goods selection will arrive. This is especially exciting considering the new items we will be stocking as well as an entirely new department! More information about that to come soon.

As you can see, this is an exciting time of year for us here at the nursery. If you're getting anxious to work in your garden and want to see what we have to offer that is new and exciting, please stop in--we're sure you'll be thrilled to discover new solutions for your garden!

Beautiful new perennials!

Our first batch of perennials has arrived. We just finished planting a wide variety of root masses, tubers and starts--all of which promise to be winners! This batch of 625 is just the first--more will be arriving soon. Pictured here is a beautiful daylily called "Frans Hals."

In case you haven't noticed the link to the right of this post, we encourage you to follow us on Facebook! Become a fan and you'll receive regular status updates on sales, what's new at the nursery and garden tips and hints, all in your Facebook news feed or on our page whenever you log on. Visit www.facebook.com/vgnursery today to become a fan. We look forward to you joining our online community!

Spring is coming early!

After last year, this year feels like we went straight from autumn to spring! The perennials in my flowerbeds are all sprouting and many of my bulbs are ready to bloom. Even my roses have leafed out--normally, they would just be starting to bud...in two weeks from now!

With a mild winter and and early spring coming, we've decided to have a pre-season sale. For all you gardeners looking for a reason to start working outside again, take advantage of 10% off all 2009 stock at Vander Giessen Nursery! This sale is for a limited time only, so stop in soon.

In my last posting (was that almost a month ago already?) I wrote about new projects for the new year. Well, we've been busy this last month, so I want to show you some of what's happened. Here is the progress we've made on our new greenhouse--

In another greenhouse, we've made great progress building a new growing and display bench. It's hard to get a good picture (so you'll have to check it out for yourself!) but here's what's changed so far--

Aside from construction, there are a lot of other changes coming to the nursery this year that will greatly benefit you! While I don't want to let you in on all the secrets at one time, here's one new thing to look forward to: a larger variety of hard goods, including several organic options for potting soil, fertilizer and pest control!

As we begin another new year of gardening, be sure to check back here regularly for updates on what's new at Vander Giessen Nursery. Trust me, you'll like the changes we're making!