Dayton "Dirt" - December 13, 2014

This week the cold weather has returned in what can be called an old-fashioned winter. The low temps or single digit temperatures will freeze the ground deeply without a generous blanket of snow. We still have a selection of mostly Fraser fir with 4 beautiful Frasers waiting for a home with a high ceiling in the 10-11 foot range. Grave blanket construction is still in full swing as customers are still ordering for a pick up or delivery. The most unusual delivery to a cemetery ever was one to Lakewood cemetery in Akron in which the daughter of the deceased ordered a fruit basket with real fruit, a grave blanket and a small Scotch pine tree decorated with red bows. The fruit basket, tree and blanket each had a card attached stating that the deceased parents were loved and missed. The low nightly temperatures made it necessary to cover the stored azaleas with a ¼” thermal blanket while some of the perennials only require a lighter weight blanket in order to protect the plant roots from a deep freeze. The azaleas though, do not fare well if the blanket contacts the evergreen leaves so that a metal frame suspends the blanket just above the plants. That is even more important with mountain laurel. In a little over a week, the winter solstice will signal the first day of winter only to be followed by even longer growing daylight time peaking with the summer solstice of June 21st. Some of the cuttings we are rooting in the greenhouse for spring need longer days and more light intensity to root successfully in which the supplemented light is achieved by a high pressure sodium light that also produces heat which will root the various cuttings even faster. With the sights and sounds of Christmas so near every Ohioan who winters in Florida seems to have returned to enjoy the holiday with friends and family but will return quickly to Florida to enjoy the warmth and to avoid triggering the threshold that would require the payment of the Ohio Income tax. So much for a Florida reprieve. Tom