With all the cool weather we've had this spring in our area, you may have had several false starts in your gardening endeavors. Maybe you've taken advantage of a few nice days here and there to do some weeding, but when it comes to planting your vegetables, the weather sours just when you're ready to plant...and now it's starting to look like it's too late to start.
Not to worry! In a "normal" spring, you could have planted your garden shortly after Mother's Day--and maybe you did. If you're seeing growth, great. But if you're still waiting and starting to wonder if you should even bother, don't give up! Given the continued cool weather, our soil temperature is just starting to warm up to the point of encouraging seed growth and development. So even if you have to plant your garden the first of June--nearly a month behind a "normal" schedule--you won't be behind. In fact, a garden planted later (but when the soil temperature is warmer) will likely outperform one planted during earlier, cool weather.
If you've been wondering if this is a shaping up to be a "why bother" year, don't give up hope. We're fully stocked with vegetable starts and seeds, so check out what we have in store for your garden today!
May 26, 2011
May 25, 2011
May 19, 2011
May 16, 2011
More Great New Plants for Your Garden!
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| Coleus 'Pink Chaos' |
Now that we’re beyond Mother’s Day, it’s safe to plant annuals outdoors. At this point, the chance of a frost is extremely small—even with continued cool weather, our nighttime temperatures are now in the 40s. As you plan how you’ll fill your planters, save a spot for “Pretty Much Picasso” supertunia. First introduced last year, this trailing petunia is a great addition to sun-loving hanging baskets or patio pots. With its bright pink flowers edged in lime green, it’s a totally unique flower that will have you doing a double-take when you first see it. [Note: unfortunately, we are already sold out of this beautiful plant--and it looks like most places are. But look out for it next year--we'll have it in plentiful supply, along with another exciting brand new petunia!]
If you’re looking for more shade-tolerant trailing plants to spill over the edge of your containers, try Dragon Wing begonias. Like their “wax-leaf” or fibrous begonia cousin, this trailing variety can take sun to full shade and require very little maintenance. Sporting arrowhead-shaped glossy leaves and cascading sets of flowers, Dragon Wings add a unique texture to planters you can’t easily replicate.
Additionally, like another very popular “spiller” calibrachoa, Dragon Wing begonias will bloom right up to the first hard frost, giving you color for months to come.
In container gardening, there are three types of plants: so-called “thrillers, spillers and fillers.” The above plants are both “spillers”—they trail down the front or sides of your container. For “thrillers” you often see dracaena (commonly called “spikes”) in the middle of a container. If you’re looking for something new to use, though, try coleus. Today’s coleus breeders have taken the plant to entirely new dimensions. With leaf textures and color covering the spectrum of possibilities, coleus is a whole new plant. And if you like gardening to be just plain fun, try out names like “Coco Loco,” “Pink Chaos” or “Big Red Judy.” If that’s not fun, I don’t know what is!
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| Basil 'Boxwood' |
This time of year, we’re all excited to add color to our yards, yet far too many gardeners fail to follow through with proper care. To make your flowers bloom stronger and longer, the key is proper fertilizing. Miracle-Gro is okay, but at Vander Giessen Nursery, we’ve always seen better results with a product once called Peters, now labeled as Jack’s Classic. Use this water-soluble fertilizer weekly and you’ll see the difference that proper care can make in protecting your gardening investment.
Spring may be slow in getting here this year, but that doesn’t mean you have to let it get you down. Eventually, it will warm up and get sunny—it always does—but in the meantime, get out of the doldrums with some exciting new options in flowers for your garden, and as always, have fun!
May 11, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
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| The best fertilizer for your annuals--put your Miracle-Gro-loving friends to shame! |
May 9, 2011
Making the Best of Things...
I received this tonight from a customer, and it made me smile, so I thought I'd share it with you. Enjoy--and thanks, LeAna!
An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
At 4:00 AM the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over...I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie
At 4:00 AM the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie
May 7, 2011
A Lesson in Planting
As I look out the window of my living room this evening, I can admire a beautiful specimen 'Sango Kaku'--commonly called "coral bark"--Japanese maple. In the last month, it's been great to watch it awake from dormancy and leaf out. Normally, I probably wouldn't care so much; after all, I don't pay a lot of attention to most trees this time of year as I'm more interested in watching spring bulbs and annuals come into color.
This particular tree, however, is a rescue tree--a year ago, it was near death. Let me explain. A very well-intentioned customer bought it at Vander Giessen's and, as soon as he got home, planted it. Sounds good so far. But as it leafed out, it quickly showed signs of major sickness: all the leaves started turning brown and curling up, and worse yet, the normally red-hued branches began turning black.
Worried that he had purchased a diseased tree, the customer called me to come take a look at it. After inspecting the tree, I discovered that, in planting it, he had buried it almost two inches deeper than the depth of the original rootball. Where the bark of the tree had once been exposed to open air, it now was surrounded in neatly-packed soil.
Unfortunately, this problem is all too common in planting shrubs and trees. While you may have every intention of doing right by your plants--after all, you've spent real money on them!--you can love them to death before you've even had the chance to get to know each other when you plant them too deep. In the case of this customer's tree, Japanese maples have very thin bark, and piling dirt too high around them can suffocate the tree as the soil cuts off supply of water and nutrients to the branches. And Japanese maples aren't alone.
With the exception of a very few plants, most anything will suffer if you plant it too deep. My grandma has a saying I wrote about a year ago and would like to remind you of: "Plant it too high, it will not die; plant it too low, it will not grow." Really, it's better to plant the new additions to your yard too high and gently slope the ground away from the base of whatever you've planted than to sink it in a hole--you're very rarely going to kill a plant doing so.
So, other than a cutesy saying, what's the moral of this story? Well, it's two-fold. First, take care to plant properly. It's not rocket science, but planting can easily go awry if you don't have the proper knowledge to keep your plants above grade. When you're buying plants, ask about the best way to plant them.
Second, don't underestimate the resiliency of plants! My Japanese maple is a testament to that, and it's not like I'm a miracle worker--I just had some patience. After digging up the nearly-dead tree, I carefully washed the bark, pruned out the dead branches, re-potted the tree in well-drained soil and doused it with Vitamin B1 to stimulate new root growth that I hoped would help to bring life back to the tree. A year of care later, I have an absolutely beautiful, healthy tree in my front yard.
If you've ever come home to a recently-planted barberry wilted and dropping leaves because you forgot to water it during a warm summer day, or if you've ever turned your back on a hanging basket just long enough for it to go entirely limp--don't give up. With a little care and patience, you can usually bring it back to life (and quickly, too!).
As you get started with planting in your yard this spring, take care to plant properly--err on the side of planting too high if anything--and don't give up if you get it wrong at first. Plants are very forgiving, so if you goof up, you can usually correct your mistakes easily enough. Now go do some planting--and have fun!
This particular tree, however, is a rescue tree--a year ago, it was near death. Let me explain. A very well-intentioned customer bought it at Vander Giessen's and, as soon as he got home, planted it. Sounds good so far. But as it leafed out, it quickly showed signs of major sickness: all the leaves started turning brown and curling up, and worse yet, the normally red-hued branches began turning black.
Worried that he had purchased a diseased tree, the customer called me to come take a look at it. After inspecting the tree, I discovered that, in planting it, he had buried it almost two inches deeper than the depth of the original rootball. Where the bark of the tree had once been exposed to open air, it now was surrounded in neatly-packed soil.
Unfortunately, this problem is all too common in planting shrubs and trees. While you may have every intention of doing right by your plants--after all, you've spent real money on them!--you can love them to death before you've even had the chance to get to know each other when you plant them too deep. In the case of this customer's tree, Japanese maples have very thin bark, and piling dirt too high around them can suffocate the tree as the soil cuts off supply of water and nutrients to the branches. And Japanese maples aren't alone.
With the exception of a very few plants, most anything will suffer if you plant it too deep. My grandma has a saying I wrote about a year ago and would like to remind you of: "Plant it too high, it will not die; plant it too low, it will not grow." Really, it's better to plant the new additions to your yard too high and gently slope the ground away from the base of whatever you've planted than to sink it in a hole--you're very rarely going to kill a plant doing so.
So, other than a cutesy saying, what's the moral of this story? Well, it's two-fold. First, take care to plant properly. It's not rocket science, but planting can easily go awry if you don't have the proper knowledge to keep your plants above grade. When you're buying plants, ask about the best way to plant them.
Second, don't underestimate the resiliency of plants! My Japanese maple is a testament to that, and it's not like I'm a miracle worker--I just had some patience. After digging up the nearly-dead tree, I carefully washed the bark, pruned out the dead branches, re-potted the tree in well-drained soil and doused it with Vitamin B1 to stimulate new root growth that I hoped would help to bring life back to the tree. A year of care later, I have an absolutely beautiful, healthy tree in my front yard.
If you've ever come home to a recently-planted barberry wilted and dropping leaves because you forgot to water it during a warm summer day, or if you've ever turned your back on a hanging basket just long enough for it to go entirely limp--don't give up. With a little care and patience, you can usually bring it back to life (and quickly, too!).
As you get started with planting in your yard this spring, take care to plant properly--err on the side of planting too high if anything--and don't give up if you get it wrong at first. Plants are very forgiving, so if you goof up, you can usually correct your mistakes easily enough. Now go do some planting--and have fun!
May 6, 2011
Gift Ideas for Mom
In case you haven't heard, Mother's Day is this weekend! (I'm just kidding--we've all been hearing about Mother's Day for weeks, now.) If you're still looking for ideas for your mother--or if you need to give your husband or kids a few ideas--we've got plenty of great options for you at Vander Giessen Nursery! A few of our suggestions include:
Finally, if you wish to get your mom one of our very popular Lynden Baskets, we urge you to come in today--we're selling through our first crop fast and will likely be sold out soon. Not to worry--you can give Mom a gift cetificate for the purchase of a basket and she can come pick out one of our later crop of baskets in the next couple of weeks--but if you like to give your mom a basket in bloom now, you're running out of time!
Have a great Mother's Day weekend!
- Hanging Baskets (Lynden Baskets, Fuchsias and Begonia Baskets available)
- Earth Box garden planters
- Gardening hand tools (including the very popular Hori Hori garden knife)
- Ceramic pottery
- Pre-made patio planters
- Fountains
- Gift certificates
Finally, if you wish to get your mom one of our very popular Lynden Baskets, we urge you to come in today--we're selling through our first crop fast and will likely be sold out soon. Not to worry--you can give Mom a gift cetificate for the purchase of a basket and she can come pick out one of our later crop of baskets in the next couple of weeks--but if you like to give your mom a basket in bloom now, you're running out of time!
Have a great Mother's Day weekend!
May 4, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
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| Lynden Baskets are going fast--get them now and they'll look like this in a couple months! |
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