The dog days of summer are still persistent with the hot steamy days. Major orders of perennial “plugs” have arrived along with bare root hosta and daylilies. Daylilies root into their pot quite quickly so that they will be available in mid to late September with the slower rooting hosta not available for sale until April. Creeping phlox that we begin to sale in late April are quite small and difficult to handle and yet will overfill a 7½” wide pot by mid-April just before they get ready to bloom.
Inventory is finally done and entered on the website as some of the numbers were not accurate even though the system is a perpetual inventory. Many new items have come on line that were potted in early March and April while a few others potted in April are not yet quite rooted in.
To check our current inventory, click here.
The renovation of the buildings and most of the grounds is nearly complete although two larger projects remain having to do with the renovation of one of the beds in the front lawn area into a massive perennial garden in which at least 250+ perennials will be on display from late spring and summer. All the plants will be labeled with access to the new garden through the perennial house. An increase in the size of the present bed and the improvement of the soil with drain tiles and soil amendments will be accomplished with considerable labor and dollars but well worth the cost for the long term performance of the garden.
One display lacking will be those of shade perennials as no trees to create the needed shade are present except the Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia) with each an extrusive root system that almost nothing can be planted underneath them.
These Dawn Redwoods were planted 25 years ago in soil so compacted by a bulldozer that the hole was dug painstakingly with a mattock.
The shade perennial display of Epimedium, Hosta, Brunnea, Dicentra, Pulmonaria, Convallaria, Ferns and many more will for now remain only in the Wolf Creek Botanical Garden under the shade of White Pine and the native Wild Black Cherry.
Two weeks remain for the Dayton Dollars to be spent so that be sure to use up all these “free” dollars before they expire at the end of August.
See you soon!
Tom