With the first week of June coming up, the work at the nursery entails weed control, planting of our pots along the driveway, inserting petunias on the trough of the Owl barn and still the planting of perennials that will become available in the spring of 2020.
The annuals in 8 inch pots are now ready and just gorgeous with their kaleidoscope of colors all ablaze. Verbena ‘Meteor Shower’© (shown above) doesn’t look like much now but this newer type of Verbena is fun to grow with it’s lollipops of lilac blooms on deep green foliage. Plus, it attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and resists deer!
The Wolf Creek Garden needs maintenance too as rhododendrons now need spent flowers removed is a process called deadheading.
The hostas that will arrive for potting are from Walters Gardens in Zeeland, Michigan and are created from a process called tissue culture as many of these perennials can be propagated quickly this way in a test tube full of an agar solution. Paul Hoffer of Perry, Ohio used to work for Wayside Gardens in Mentor, Ohio and said that hostas were propagated the old-fashioned way by divisions. The dividing process is much slower and required a 10 acre patch of hostas to supply the market in the mid 1960’s.
While the greenhouse is winding down with annual flowers and vegetable plants, later stock for summer sales are coming on and growing quickly with the long and warm days of June as we get closer to summer solstice.
So much to do!
Tom