Dayton "Dirt" - June 12, 2015

This past week has been one of a restock of the shrub sales yard with much of the stock coming from Lake County.  Much of our spring potted stock is normally ready but with the later planting this year due to severely cold weather, availability has been slower so that much of the stock won’t be available until the week of June 21st with many trees following a week later.  Already, over 1000 hosta “plugs” have arrived from Holland, Michigan to be potted and availability on these won’t be until April of 2016 since the plants are quite small.  June is a good month to plant small hostas for our production in that they are able to become well established before another hard winter.

While stock in the annual flower house dwindles, quite a number of shade hanging baskets of non-stop begonias remain as they were initially slow to grow.  Gorgeous rose-like blossoms of iridescent red, yellow, orange, apricot, pink and white just about cover the lush foliage.

A roundup spraying in the garden has devastated the weeds including the dreaded garlic mustard that if left unchecked will choke everything in its path.  The Mountain Laurel in the garden are at peek bloom in varying shades of pink.  With the return of hot or some say warm weather, the perennial greenhouse and annual flower greenhouse have been sprayed with another coat of white wash material that blocks and reflects the sun which lowers the temperatures inside the house.

 Even though vacation time is soon, the work still has to be done.

Tom