Dayton "Dirt" - April 11, 2014

The warm up this week is pushing flower bulbs out of the ground with crocus starting to bloom their heads off and daffodils budding up for just maybe a peak of “yellow sunshine” this weekend. Even so, many plants are still behind their “normal” schedule to pop. An old photograph that I took with a Kodak instamatic 104 camera from April 14th of 1972 shows a whole host of blooming daffodils almost at peak bloom. Our nursery stock is coming out of our winter storage huts for two reasons: 1. We want to start selling them. 2. The extra heat in the huts because of limited ventilation will force the plants into growth early which is not desirable because of future frost damage to new growth. The planting of the greenhouse product is almost done with tropical plants arriving this past week. Now comes the one week delay of being able to sell the tropicals because of the two insecticide sprays that we like to apply before selling them. Although no “bugs” are visible, the plants after all are from Florida where “bugs” seem to be the state motto instead sunshine state. The greenhouse will open at the very end of April with a limited number of perennials available now along with pansies and violas. So much to do with so little time! Tom