Dayton "Dirt" - January 9, 2015

The cold weather this week is like deja vu as the first in a series of polar vortices roared in last year the very same week.  As a precaution, all the small perennial plants and grasses in the cold storage huts are insulated with a thermal blanket which when laid over the plants, tends to hold in the ground heat in order to prevent the root system from receiving the brunt of the cold blast and thus killing the root systems.

On our thousands of evergreen azaleas in another cold storage house, a thicker blanker of ¼” thick foam is laid over small cold frames made from electrical conduit.  The suspension of this microfoam over and down around the plants prevents the sometimes wet microfoam from coming in direct contact with the plant’s leaves which tends to produce leaf burning when the azaleas are uncovered in March.

In Columbus, the garden center-landscape trade show had many interesting speakers on a wide variety of topics such as that to do with marketing, production and so on.  Many of the speakers are from various universities and actual business people that combines researched knowledge with practical experiences.  I especially remember a talk by Dr. Hannah Mathers about managing water quality for the irrigation of nursery stock.  Much of what Dr. Mathers related is still in practice at the nursery today.

Next week comes another batch of annual flowers and perennial cuttings from Costa Rica that again will be stuck into prepared cells of rooting media and then placed on the heating tubes in which hot water circulates.  The temperature at the rooting zone is maintained at 72º F by a boiler in which rooting will begin in one week and completely finished in another two weeks.  Next week too is the commencement of transplanting newly rooted geranium cuttings to hanging baskets and 1 gallon pots that will be ready for sale around the first week of May.

Even now, approaching the depths of winter with so much to do, the month of May is not far off.

Tom