Dayton "Dirt" - April 25, 2014

It’s been a rush at the nursery to get ready for the opening of the perennial house and annual flower greenhouse. As always I have reservations about opening the flower and veggie house so early; however, many customers have small greenhouses to get an early start on spring. Tea roses and more hydrangeas are coming along nicely although they are a little behind schedule with the cooler temps. This year perennial hibiscus will not be available until the end of May as the bareroot plants could not be dug out of the field in Holland, Michigan because of snow and frost in the field until early April. Normally we plant the hibiscus in late March to be ready by mid-May. With both the perennial and flower house open on Saturday, April 26th there will be plenty to look at although not everything will be ready and again it is because of the previous cold dark weather. Three times this week we have covered shrubs with new growth so as to prevent the growth from frost burn which would decrease the saleability of the plants. Even now, plantings of new product are still being processed for which the product will be available in July and August. I think garden club members will find our selection of specials to their liking and it seems we are well stocked this year instead of last year when we had some last minute “hiccups” because of the non performance of one of our vendors. May Day is more in sight and we can only hope some consistently warmer weather will come with it. Daytime temperatures of 60-70º F and nighttime temperatures of no lower than 45º F in early May would be nice. Wishful thinking maybe as we’re not living in Camelot. Tom

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

Dayton "Dirt" - April 4, 2014

The spring warm up has finally begun in earnest although I’m sure there will be some backtracking of the weather in the temperature and/or snow department. Even now it is a rush to get everything done since many of the scheduled projects could not go on because of the continued cold. Normally we pick up our bare-root trees and shrubs to be potted the last week of March. However, calls from the various growers to delay pickups resulted because of frozen soil last week. The warmer temperatures and rains have finally broken the deep frost so that we were able to pick up plants just yesterday so that they may be prepared and then potted this weekend. The annual greenhouse attached to the store has now opened for the growing of hanging baskets and other plants that must be spaced for growing on. Even with the much warmer temperatures, the plants in the greenhouse must grow with temperatures about 65º F or they will not develop in time when the greenhouse must be open for sales in early May. Fortunately, almost all the older greenhouse heaters of only 67% efficiency have been converted to those of 80% and even 93% efficiency with those that are the first stage to heat the greenhouse. A time lapse film would be interesting of the growth of plants in the greenhouse as the cold, cloudy and short days of winter seem to hold the plants in limbo with longer days and more sun start a sudden acceleration. No doubt, spring will not be as glorious as it normally would be with severe winter damage on various trees and shrubs but as we all know, it’s happened before. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 28, 2014

After the cold blast earlier this week things in the temperature department look to be on the upswing so that it’s a wild ride the next several days to set things up for sales as much of the stock is now just shoved in our movable roof structure in order to keep the extreme cold from damaging the plants root systems as they are above ground. Our perennials are mostly planted and seem to be growing well; however, the annual flowers are a little behind because of the delays from vendors of young plants and the winter being so dark before. Surprisingly, the flower bulbs planted last fall are starting to just pop through the ground and normally many would be in bloom by Easter on April 20th. Unless there is a consistent “extreme” warm up (hopefully not) it looks as though the blooming cycle of spring bulbs will be delayed at least one week. Pansies, Violas and Primrose are all available now and just love cool weather but of course not extreme cold such as the super cold nights we’ve encountered this past week. The new Proven Winner hydrangeas we have forced into bloom are growing nicely and should be ready for Easter to be enjoyed indoors and then planted outside when the danger of frost is done. Today it’s nice and a little rain I think would be in order. Hopefully the warmer temps will now give all of us some relief from the high natural gas heating bills and the dry air in our heated homes. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 21, 2014

The first day of spring has welcomed us with some colder and snowy weather with next week not looking like spring weather either. The question now is will March “go out like a lamb”? After a period of shut down production of cuttings from the Dummen Company of petunias because of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus TMV, production is flowing from shipments from Israel. The new crazytunias that were one of the series of virus infected petunias will now be available in our greenhouse although a little later in May. The funky variegated blooms should be a big hit with everyone. The nursery has been wild this past week with the receipt of several shipments, potting perennials, potting annual flowers, transferring our stock geraniums to bigger pots, trimming and cleaning up thousands of perennials from winter storage. Surprisingly, the plants fared well with a double cover of overwintering fabric in the covered polyhouses except there were some minor losses from mice chewing their way through the bottom of pots to get at roots and the tender crown of the plants. While most of the mice fell victim to our traps, there are some that just seem to escape. After a good trimming and cleaning away of the dead foliage from last year the plants are sprayed with a fungicide to kill a fungus called Botrytis that will rot them if left unchecked. This fungus grows well in humid environments with no air circulation which is just the case in the winter storage huts. At the nursery as well as everywhere, spring is almost sure to be about 10 days to 2 weeks off in the temperature department because of the prolonged cold weather. Chores in the landscape yard and garden most likely must be delayed from the “normal” schedule although much trimming may have to be delayed as winter damage just showing up now will not all be evident until even mid-may. We can only hope the insect and mite population did not fare well either. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 14, 2014

While winter weather is no stranger to March and even into April, the long duration of bitter cold has made this week’s past cold snap more aggravating. With the warm up earlier in the week, some watering of the perennials in cold storage revealed only minimal damage and of course some death on the plants near the outer edge of the plastic house. It seems the ground froze hard outside the storage huts and then move laterally to the inside even though the plants were covered with a double layer of overwintering blankets. Another surprise was mouse damage underneath the sealed blankets has been minimal which is probably due to our catching at least 50 mice in mouse traps set in the house’s since covering them in early November with white plastic. The transplanting of rooted cuttings has begun with greenhouse product for transplanting continually coming in. Some shipments have been late, some frozen, some in very good shape. The new self-watering benches that “move” in the greenhouse have increased our planting space by at least 20% that enables us to try out a few new items but as all greenhouse growers know, a greenhouse has to be filled with saleable product in order to be profitable because of high heating costs and other expenses. The insect growth regulator I now favor with the trade name called Enstar seems to be doing a great job of killing the young insects call nymphs while other products mixed in the same spray tank kill the adults. The products used in this combination play havoc with the critters that would run rampant in the perfect environmental conditions of the greenhouse. Spring is only a week away if only it will “act” like spring. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - March 7, 2014

Are we truly free of the single digit weather? Production is now 1 week behind at the nursery because of delays in the potting of roses and perennials which will spill over into other scheduled procedures. Around the Akron area, I’ve noticed the severe burn on some of the broadleaved evergreens becoming more pronounced. Again, it’s a function of super cold weather, sun, (-12º F), strong relentless winds and no insulating blanket of snow. Damage not showing up as yet may be dead or dying bark on trees and shrubs, dead or damaged Zone 6 and even Zone 5 herbaceous perennials and flower buds frozen on various species of plants such as Forsythia and evergreen azaleas. The warm up is also on its way but it has been painfully slow. An unusually fast warm up as in 2012 would be even worse! Our store officially opened on March 5th, five days after the planned opening again due to inclement weather of predicted heavy snow that was not nearly as prolific as originally forecast. Tomorrow’s seminar is our last of the winter seminar series pertaining to that question on everyone’s mind: “What’s New?”. There is so much new that we’ll only be presenting the highlights as we must keep the seminar to the end time of 1 pm. Last week’s seminar was quite a surprise with over 60 participants showing up on a subject I know little about. Jill Manda of Manda’s Plant Farm was entertaining as well as informative. We’re already planning next years seminars so that if you have any ideas, contact us at info@daytonnursery.com. Tom