Dayton "Dirt" - May 15, 2015

Here we go again with cool weather and some frost. Many annual flowers are tolerant to a light frost but some are not which would include wave petunias and New Guinea impatiens. Also, as everyone knows or should know, heat loving vegetable plants such as tomatoes and peppers will not tolerate a frost. Covering plants with a sheet or blanket is helpful but not plastic as the cold will be conducted through the plastic where it touches the plant. Watering frost off plants in the very early morning before sunrise is helpful in that the heat in the water will raise the plant’s temperature above freezing and prevent the plant’s cells from breaking due to the freezing of the water within the cells. Tropical plants too do not like cold nights even if it does not frost so that it’s a good idea to “drag” them indoors when temps fall below 50ºF.

With May 30th the official free frost date for northern Ohio, it is always a risk to plant tender annual and vegetable plants early.

This week we received our last shipment of hibiscus, mandevilla and other tropicals from Florida so that hopefully they will be gone by June 1st as I don’t look forward to spaying them for the many Florida bugs that come with them sometimes. Selection of most perennials, vegetable plants andflowers looks great through Memorial Day so hope to see you soon.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - May 8, 2015

How long we have waited for the warm weather of May and an end to the cold nights. While the greenhouse has been very busy this past week I would still advise caution in planting too early even with the long range forecast looking good as the official last frost free date is May 30th for northern Ohio. The greenhouse has been restocked with herbs and flats of flowers and veggies of every description and an early delivery of tropical plants is almost making the greenhouse burst with a  wide selection of hibiscus, mandevilla, plumbago, palms and bananas.

The production greenhouse in the rear of the property is still relatively full although “holes” are beginning to show up where once there was a mass of color. On a happy note, some petunia, hanging baskets looked as though they had the Tobacco Mosaic virus but lab tests revealed that a mottling of leaves was only a genetic defect. The new Torelus hanging baskets are coming into full bloom and are just gorgeous especially since they had a late trim to make them full and compact.

With color everywhere at the nursery, the whole scene seems surreal as if only a dream could produce such beauty.

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - May 1, 2015

It’s finally May day and the greenhouse with annual flowers, hanging baskets and vegetable plants is finally open. Many home improvement stores were stocked on the inside and outside with tomato and pepper plants as well as annual flowers over a week ago which seemed very strange to me considering the frosty nights and cool to cold daytime temperatures. Many new varieties of flowers and veggies are packed in the greenhouse this season due to the availability of unrooted cuttings  that were rooted last winter in our greenhouse and the fact that the purchase of a new seeder and seed germination chamber made it easier to grow at least 50 new varieties of vegetable plants in 3½” pots. One disappointment though is a pepper that is the hottest on record. The seed germination rate was only about 50% and the plants are weak even though the seed was sown in mid-March.

Torelus, Stachys, Crazytunias, dark red-leaved Caladiums, darker and blacker Collasia (elephant ears) are all the rage are just a few of the new varieties available. As usual, color is everywhere in a  kaleidoscopic array. A few items are not available to get as it is so early yet although the weather for the next 10 days looks great for growing. However, do remember that it’s early May.

As usual, the Calliope geraniums in hanging baskets are beautiful although next year one new type that will provide a dark-leaved version that is just as shade tolerant and just as vigorous in sun. Gorgeous dahlias are in bud with sporadic bloom with lots more “in the oven” to come. This year we rooted cuttings of dahlias shipped from Costa Rica that makes it quite easy to offer more colors, sizes and shapes of this gorgeous flower. While setting up the greenhouse for sales I noticed  some of the flowers on the vining geraniums dropping prematurely which is an indication of a build up of ethylene gas. On close observation, heavy winds forced exhaust gases from the heaters into the greenhouse and birds were flying in and out of one of the vent pipes. A simple  moderation of the exhaust pipe got rid of the nesting birds and the wind push back.

With the perennial greenhouse and annual greenhouse both open the work load to keep these greenhouses cleaned and stocked increases greatly as if there already isn’t enough work!

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 24, 2015

For Earth Day on April 22 and Arbor Day on April 24, I think its fitting to honor President Theodore Roosevelt who served from 1901 with the assassination of President McKinley to 1908 and is widely remembered for his sweeping reforms of land use, land and wildlife preservation and his role in the formation of National parks covering millions of acres for all Americans then and of today.

Therefore, I think its fitting to print his address to the school children of the United States about Arbor Day in 1907:

Theodore Roosevelt
The White House
April 15, 1907

To the School Children of the United States:

Arbor Day (which means simply “Tree Day”) is now observed in every State in our Union — and mainly in the schools. At various times from January to December, but chiefly in this month of April, you give a day or part of a day to special exercises and perhaps to actual tree planting, in recognition of the importance of trees to us as a Nation, and of what they yield in adornment, comfort, and useful products to the communities in which you live.

It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetime the Nation’s need of trees will become serious. We of an elder generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted.

For the Nation as for the man or woman and the boy or girl, the road to success is the right use of what we have and the improvement of present opportunity. If you neglect to prepare yourselves now for the duties and responsibilities which will fall upon you later, if you do not learn the things which you will need to know when your school days are over, you will suffer the consequences. So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal, whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life.

A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as hopeless; forests which are so used that they cannot renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits. A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water. When you help to preserve our forests or to plant new ones you are acting the part of good citizens. The value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught in the schools, which aim to make good citizens of you. If your Arbor Day exercises help you to realize what benefits each one of you receives from the forests, and how by your assistance these benefits may continue, they will serve a good end.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Dayton "Dirt" - April 17, 2015

As tax day approaches many timely chores in the garden can be accomplished such as the putting down of crabgrass preventer and feed on the lawn, transplanting of perennials, planting cool weather cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts and the transplanting of trees and shrubs time is quite short in that the plants are starting to break dormancy which then will end transplanting until fall or next spring. Certain plants such as Japanese Maples, Dogwoods and most Magnolias only like to be moved just before growth begins while most can be moved spring or fall.

At the nursery this past week the jamming open of a side vent on the west side of the production greenhouse as a major storm approached caused great concern. With wind gusts threatening, a large open vent on the west side would allow a severe storm to take off the roof of the structure and even bend steel supports such is was the case in a microburst in July of 2000. Fortunately, Ron of the Orasko Greenhouse company came to the rescue and solved the problem before the storm hit with its full fury only a couple of hours later. Then there was the case of a leak in a four inch water line 3 feet under the ground that was excavated and repaired before the storm filled the hole with water! All of this “excitement” was all the more increased with the unloading of a tractor trailer full of heavy balled and burlapped trees and helping customers.

By this weekend almost all trees and shrubs will be available but not the perennials in which most like the annual flowers will not be done “cooking” until the tail end of the month. So much work to do in so little time!

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 10, 2015

Finally, we’re able to empty our winter storage huts and bring out plants although our shipments from Lake County won’t arrive until next week due to delays of wet fields that prevented digging. Even now, potting of a wide variety of trees, shrubs and perennials still goes on at a feverish pace to ready plants for late spring, fall and even next year sales. The roses potted in early March seem to be right on schedule in that they should be available by Mother’s Day which will include our new addition of the old-fashioned, very fragrant David Austin roses.

Some of the daffodils in the garden are beginning to pop into color and the thousands of emerging tulips received their spray of deer repellent as the deer, by evidence of tracks, have already been eyeing them for a meal. Finally, I have seen the hawks out in force to scoop up small and hopefully larger rodents such as rabbits that caused some damage from their eating in one of our storage huts.

The sun and longer days have greatly accelerated growth in the production greenhouse as the plants are growing like weeds! Several hanging basket varieties on the greenhouse benches have needed a severe trimming in order to create a full, compact basket for the month of May. The stock plants of Calliope geraniums were cut to small nubs in early March before transplanting them into much larger pots and now have at least tripled in size! Spring is here, however; snow is still a likely event!

Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - April 3, 2015

It seems only yesterday that cold nights below zero and a heavy blanket of snow was the norm. With the arrival of April, better weather has come and still the emergence of spring flowering bulbs and the buds swelling on trees and shrubs is slow due to the cold and wet ground.

The “set up” of nursery stock at the nursery will be delayed about a week this year so that the week of April 15th will be our goal to get ready for sales which is a result of not trusting the weather to ‘behave” as we pull out container plants from winter storage that are somewhat advanced from the warmer temperatures of the winter storage huts. The annual flower greenhouse has been heated up to start filling up with plants from the growing greenhouse in the rear of the property and tropical plants that will arrive from Florida next week. This section of the greenhouse including the tropicals will be closed until about May 1st as that is the time much of the flower and vegetable plants will be ready although it is too early to plant.

With Easter this Sunday, we will finish up our Easter flower deliveries and then will go “whole hog” to set up the greenhouse for sales in May. So many new hanging baskets and potted plants are growing that the problem will be of where to display everything! Just this past week, another 62 flats of tomato seed was sown representing 40 varieties of hybrid and weird heirloom types. Potting, trimming and tagging plants is the norm in the greenhouse these days!

Happy Easter!

~Tom