Dayton "Dirt" - May 11, 2012

This morning it was 39 degrees at the nursery at 5:00 am which is just borderline for a frost when the air is still and able to stratify into its colder lower layers. Our water pump starts to water at 3:30 am and runs through 4 cycles so that any frost would be washed from the plants protecting the flowers and new growth. The greenhouse will be bursting with flowers of every description just in time for Mother’s Day although I must confess I think the perennial house is gorgeous with all its array of sundry goodies. I just wish the Clematis vines would stop growing so much as they have already been trimmed 3 times since early April to make them stocky and full. Outside the greenhouse the Rhododendron Nova Zembla is gorgeous with its fuchsia red flower trusses sitting on the leaves like large jewels. I like the deciduous azaleas too with the sunny colors of yellow and orange that is sometimes mixed on the same plant! The tea roses seem to be budding up well and so far the foliage seems to be nice and clean thanks to my organic fungus control called Bi-Carb that keeps off the black spot and white powdery mildew. It’s almost 6:00 am now and I’ve got to get started cleaning and watering the greenhouse, loading the perennial house with plats, and unloading the huge geraniums in a 12” pot that I have on a wagon. Hope to see you soon. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - May 5, 2012

Last Sunday morning I recorded 30º F on my thermometer but I’ve heard of different areas going as low as 26ºF. Especially hard hit was the Lake County area as temperatures everywhere fell to 26ºF and froze the flowering azaleas even close to the houses! What makes the cold temperature in Lake County so strange is the fact that Lake Erie is usually a buffer from such cold temperatures in fall and spring but somehow it did not help even one to two miles close to the lakeshore. At the nursery, the rain gauge is filling up although I’m hoping for much more rain. The greenhouses are just loaded with plants of every color and shade in the perennial house and annual flowering house in anticipation of the good weather finally appearing. The azalea and rhododendron are so beautiful in our shade house with splashes of color all over the nursery. After surviving the frosts the past couple of weeks the azaleas in the garden are magnificent from shades of red, purple, white, pink and lavender. The weeds in the garden are another story. Although their not that tall now, it seems that they have survived from endless windy days and our having to prepare for frost in which both take away our opportunity to spray roundup on the little devils. In the greenhouse it’s hard to believe the size of the flowering plants as many of them were so small when they arrived as an unrooted cutting that I had trouble handling them. The geraniums from our stock plants are so big and bushy in the one gallon nursery containers that they look like shrubs just loaded with flowers! It’s time for me to go as a write this blog at 6 a.m. because the greenhouse is already calling. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 13, 2012

No doubt the freeze on Saturday morning, April 7th did a lot of wide spread damage. At the nursery, the low temperature was 27 degrees just before sunrise. Our frost covers blanketed our stock that had some tender new growth. These “breathable” covers will protect tender growth and flowers as much as 8 degrees below freezing. Other plants were under cover of our movable roof greenhouse that we closed at night in order to trap the previous day’s heat. Another aspect of our frost control is that we must drain our irrigation system to prevent any smaller above ground pipes on valves from breaking when the temperature falls below 30 degrees. How well I remember April 8th of 2007 when temperatures during the night fell to 19 degrees with 35 mile per hour winds after an unusual warm up in late March and early April. The nursery is just about set up now except for the perennial house and annual flower house that will be open at the end of April. Tomorrow is a big day with our seminar on Clematis that is back by popular demand. Debra Hardwick is our Clematis expert. She has more than 300 varieties and 900 plants in her garden in Delaware, Ohio. Debra attracts a big crowd as her presentation last year attracted nearly 80 participants. The cost of the seminar is $5.00 which includes refreshments with the talk beginning promptly at 11:00 am this Saturday. Be sure to bring lots of questions as Debra has the answers with her years of experience with this wonderful genus of plants. Don’t forget that today is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, born in 1743. While Jefferson is known for writing the Declaration of Independence, support of public education and promoting freedom of religion, he was quite the farmer and gardener as well having planted over 1000 fruit trees at his home, Monticello, and his extensive perennial flower gardens. His hope was that America would be a land of largely self-sufficient farmers tending their crops on their own land. How so much has changed! Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 20, 2012

April 20th seems more like May 10th. I blame on that lousy, unusually warm March! The azaleas in the garden and all over the nursery are beginning to bloom making a spectacular show. I’m hoping again for a “good” rain of at least an inch as the soil is getting quite dry. How ironic after such a wet year last year! The perennial house opens tomorrow (Saturday) followed by the annual flower house on Wednesday. This year all of our product except flats of vegetables and flowers is our own production from our new greenhouse out back. The warm weather seemed to “push” things ahead in the greenhouses too so that we had to do some extra trimming. Some cold tolerant plants like the larger petunia that are tolerant of light to medium frosts were already taken outside but normally we don’t take them outside until May 1st! We’re keeping up with the weeds (I think) as several sprays of round up 2-3 hours a day to keep things in check. Soon our tea roses will be outside their protective cover but I’m afraid to bring them out just yet so I’m still anticipating some frost which could beat them up. I’ll see you at the nursery! Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 6, 2012

So far the local orchards have escaped any devastating frosts and the temperature at which significant damage will occur is below 28ºF. The only downside of this scenario is that several more frosts will surely come through April and early May which may cause havoc for the orchard people yet.

At the nursery almost everything is out of winter storage with the perennial and annual houses to open in late April.

If you have not applied a pre-emergent crabgrass preventer on your lawn, do it quickly as it is starting to germinate and most of these pre-emergents will prevent the weed seeds from germinating and also kill very small seedlings of crabgrass.

The digging in Lake County is already done as many of the trees and shrubs cannot be dug with tender new growth although some will become available as soon as this tender growth hardens off.

With Easter this Sunday the greenhouse display is magnificent with blooming flowers radiating their beauty. As Jesus spoke, “Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin. Yet I tell you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.”.”

I’m looking forward to the return of the Eastern Bluebirds to our nesting boxes but I must admit that I have not had time to even look for them! Be sure to take a peek at the redbuds in Wolf Creek Gardens before they go out of bloom soon to be followed by the florida type dogwoods.

It’s a beautiful spring for sure but it’s too early! Oh well, I guess it’s human nature to always complain about something!

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 30, 2012

Well, the frost this past week did a quick number on the Magnolias and some of the fruit trees and small fruits such as blueberries. It’s still too early to assess all of the damage on fruits but even if much of the orchards were spared this time what about upcoming freezes that we normally receive in April!

It’s almost time to bring the remainder of our stock out from winter storage as we have that in our plans next week as long as the forecast is decent.

Palm Sunday weekend is here and with it the Easter flowers adorn the greenhouse. Lilies, hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and then some will be showing off their skills.

I’m hoping that the weather remains somewhat cool in order to save some flowers for May! It won’t be long for the greenhouse to open late next month.

See you soon!

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 23, 2012

Strange weather just continues here in northeast Ohio. According to local weather records that go back to 1886 this past winter was only the ninth warmest. The weather record that was broken was the 65 inches of precipitation we received in 2011.

At the nursery we had to accelerate our potting of bareroot trees and shrubs although I would much rather have cold to cool weather so that the plants would be able to push out some new roots before growth would break out.

Last Saturday with the “What’s New” seminar I was astonished at the turnout as when weather warms work in the garden beckons.

Tomorrow our seminar will be “Cooking With Herbs” that should acquaint many of us with this sometimes strange pallette of plants.

I remember visiting the United Kingdom in 2000 and thinking how expensive was the food in London and the food’s blandness. Then off through the Chunnel to Calais, France and then to Paris. At the time the French franc exchange rate with the dollar made France so much more affordable than the UK and the food was delicious! Sauces, creams and herbs seem to be a hallmark of French cuisine.

Maybe on Saturday, our expert will give everyone a few pointers on the “art” of herb use even if no one aspires to become an expert chef.

Plants in the greenhouse have gone “wild” with the warm, sunny weather so that we’ve had to do more trimming than normal to keep the growth in check.

See you Saturday.

Tom