With nearing mid-October, it’s almost time to put the plants away for their winter storage. First before that happens we will get on with the work of planting thousands of tulip bulbs to greet customers next spring.
The annual flowers are scheduled to be removed in the ground beds this coming Sunday and then the long process of digging wide ditches to plant the bulbs will ensue. Fortunately we will only have to dig the trenches about 4″ deep to be followed by an insulating and nourishing one inch layer of sweet peet.
Plans are now in the works to renovate the conifer portion of the lower display garden called Wolf Creek as well as an expansion of the upper shade garden to the east where some brush must be removed as well as healthy vines of poison ivy. Our hope is to expand our herbaceous shade perennials as the varieties are now too limited where they are growing in their present location.
Work has begun on the replacement of the deteriorating fiberglass on the east side of the shade house we call the Cravo and will most likely take a month or more to complete as we “sandwich” in between other necessary work and the fact that this project has a required finish by March 15th of 2020.
This Friday also is the arrival of more varieties of Magnolias that will grow well if planted this fall but many for certain will go into winter storage and come out for sale in early April.
The poinsettias are expanding quickly and just a hint of color in the flower bracts is beginning to open. Formerly, we applied a neonicotinoid to the plants to keep the dreaded whitefly under control but now we have abandoned this strategy in forms of the beneficial insects that we release to parasitize their enemies. We hope this year to eliminate all pesticides from the greenhouse to make it truly “green”.
Our revised watering video has finally been finished. It is posted on Youtube. Stay tuned for more planting videos coming up over the next few weeks!
Tom