Dayton "Dirt' May 22, 2009

It’s time or just about time (depending on your local conditions) to set out your frost sensitive plants from tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and annual flowers.

You may not know it but some flowers such as petunias are resilient in that they can actually survive and soon thrive after being exposed to temperatures as low as 28ºF. Other annual flowers such as Impatiens, New Guinea Impatiens and Coleus would never survive such a freeze or repeated cold nights so that you need to plan accordingly as to what to plant first.

In the garden you can use Preen for Vegetable Gardens Weed Preventer but in the landscape, including your annual flowers, the original Preen works great especially if you slightly work it in or water it in well as you water your newly set out plants.

You can start putting out pots of tropical plants as long as you can keep an eye on the weather for cold frosty nights which will require some action on your part. Just be sure to place them in partial shade for a week before putting them in the bright sun.

Osmocote 14-14-14 works well as a fantastic slow, easy feed for annual flowers in pots, the ground or hanging baskets. In fact, our rose expert, the rose lady, loves to use osmocote on her roses to push growth and blooms.

Our next batch of perennials will be ready soon that will include a new bright yellow Coneflower called ‘Mac-n-Cheese’ that can be planted next to it’s bright red sidekick ‘Tomato Soup’! Where do "they" come up with these names?

Our roses including the new Knock Out Rose called ‘White Out’ are starting to bud up to bloom shortly.

However, as I have previously stated in earlier blogs, the Rhododendron alleé is my favorite area of the nursery with ironclads like ‘Boursault’, ‘Nova Zembla’ and ‘Boule de Neige’ displaying large flower trusses that look like jewels sitting on top of an whorl of leaves.

Come on in and get some ideas for your home and we’ll do a quick sketch for you to scale so that you know what to put where. We do ask that you try to come in on a weekday if possible and set up an appointment with one of our designers so that we may give you our undivided attention.

For the most part, the weather now reflects the Goldilocks Principal: not too hot, not cold, it’s just right! Enjoy!

Tom