Dayton "Dirt" - June 15, 2012

At the nursery, the sales department is starting to slow down from its hectic pace in May but the production department is going strong. Our Igloo mums just arrived from the Aris company to be potted into 9.5” pots for fall sales and then oodles of hosta, astilbe and grasses are ready to be transplanted for fall and next spring’s sales. One of my favorite shrubs in the nursery is Mountain laurel with its multi-colored clusters of small blossoms. This rhododendron-azalea native grows in groves in the Allegheny National Forest under the shade of gigantic oaks, white pines and sometimes Canadian hemlocks although I think they don’t like the invasive roots of the hemlock tree. On a recent visit to the forest, the laurels were in massive bloom only to be dwarfed by their companions of rosebay rhododendron that will bloom at the end of June and July. The annual flower greenhouse has some good buys as almost all the flowers, veggie plants, herbs and hanging baskets are 50% off the regular price in time for planting the flower or veggie garden if you can utilize what we have left. A good buy for sure are some beautiful 6.5” potted geraniums that we’ll be bringing in for Saturday. The plants are normally $8.00 each but will sell at $4.00 each with the discount. With another week gone by, the Owl Barn market gets ever closer to its opening date sometime late next week. Sweet corn and tomatoes from southern Ohio will be the first produce offered with other items joining in as the season progresses. Hope to see you in the market! Tom

Dayton "Dirt' _ June 9, 2012

The cool early June is now giving way to more “normal” temperatures and as long as water is available, the vegetable garden should provide quite a bounty as long as you weed it! Our newsletter for summer is out so make sure you take advantage of all of the specials. For those of you planting your veggies late, we have beautiful 1 gallon tomatoes for only $3.00! The plants are robust and full with many having green tomatoes. We just finished a planting of new Igloo mum varieties as a test for Aris of Barberton that will hopefully pan out in order to be introduced as four new Igloo colors and forms. The blueberries in the field already look like they’re going to turn color so that the birds are probably getting all excited. Stop by the nursery this weekend as we’re well stocked and the hanging baskets are simply beautiful. Happy Gardening Tom p.s. Place July 14h on your calendar for our 2nd annual Blueberry Fest with food, music, hayrides and more. See you then!

Dayton "Dirt" - June 1, 2012

The record heat during Memorial Day weekend gave way to cool and rainy for the first day of June. With some more rain and temperatures in the mid seventies to low eighties in the day, it’ll be perfect weather for early June. Perennial flowers are still coming on stream out of our production area. We’re on the tail end of our annual flowers and hanging baskets although I must say that the vegetables plant selection and herbs are still adequate for most customers. Trimming, weeding and fertilizing is all going on “out back” that will result in new crops for later this summer and for next spring too. We’ve started growing a lot more dwarf conifers such as the Jean’s Dilly Alberta Spruce, Little Gem Nest Spruce and Donna’s Mini Mugho Pine just to name a few. The greenhouses have already received their second coat of white wash on the roof and sides in order to block out more of the hot sun and to reflect the sun’s radiance thus keeping the houses much cooler for plants and people alike. We finally placed the flowers in our pot-n-pot system along the road, which are Spellbound Impatiens and Sunproof Coleus of different colors. The impatiens are deceptive as this new variety does not have to have shade as it will happily grow in the sun or shade. The large geraniums around the Owl Barn are the Americana brand that served as our stock plants from which we took 3 batches of cuttings to make more geraniums of a smaller size. You’ll find the shrubs well stocked too as we’ve brought a lot more out from our growing area. I like the nursery but after all those long spring hours, its almost time for a vacation. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - May 18, 2012

The weather has been just about right for planting although the nights could be a little warmer and just a little more rain would be nice. The greenhouse is at its peak inventory right now for most items although we do have plants in production that will be ready for Memorial Day and going on into June. As our newspaper ads have stated “our perennial production house just keeps pumping out more and more gallons of perennials” The new facility will enable us to produce higher quality plants because of the movable roof which keeps the plants cool and at the same time can be used to create 30% shade which keeps the plant roots cooler too. Many of the Rhododendrons are out of peak bloom now when normally they are in full bloom on May 20th. With the early warm weather in March and all the subsequent freezes, I thought at least these freezes could destroy the flower buds on our new blueberry planting so that the plants could put on more growth without the flowers getting in the way; however, I see now that most of the flowers are turning into berries! Today my grandmother, Myrtle Dayton, would have been 108 years old being born in Barberton in 1904. At her last home in Barberton, I can still see my grandmother fussing over her Herbert azalea on the north side of the house and showing off her layering of the plants branches to produce new plants. The azalea is still there on the corner of Park and 7th St. but I wish someone would treat it to alleviate it from a lacebug infestation. As long as the azaleas are out of bloom, they should be treated now with the Bayer tree & shrub protection product. Soon the gardens will be all planted with many gardeners in that age old contest of having the first ripe tomato. There are several enzymes in a tomato that must come together in order to produce that delicious, fresh-picked tomato flavor instead of the flavor of a cardboard box that is hard to swallow from imported winter tomatoes! See you in the greenhouse. Tom

Dayton "Dirt" - May 25, 2012

As the Motown song goes “How I wish it would rain”, I do hope it rains soon even if it is on Memorial Day. At the Seiberling Farms in Norton, I spoke to Chuck Seiberling’s nephew Brad that stated if it did not rain last Monday (which it didn’t) that they would have to start irrigating the sweet corn and other crops from the Hudson Run that courses through the farm. In a word, please be vigilant of watering your new tree, shrub, perennial and annual flowers at least until establishment. Trees and shrubs generally establish themselves over a 3-4 week period and annual maybe in about a week or ten days. Another “watch” is to keep an eye out for chinch bugs on your lawn starting now as the little devils can destroy whole swaths of lawn before you know it. Just take an empty soup can and cut the bottom out of it and press it in the lawn and then fill the can with water. If any of the critters are present, they will float to the top and then you can apply an insecticide to kill them. This Memorial Day is the traditional garden-planting day and we’re well stocked for the weekend but please get here early as some items are already gone and others are in short supply. May 30th or the actual Decoration Day always conjures up memories of reading about the great Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood in 1889 when 2200 people were killed when an upstream dam at a resort called South Fork broke from heavy rain. Heavy rain now would be a welcome although not that heavy. Tom

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