Coming up on February 22nd will be the birthday of our founding father and first President George Washington born in 1732.  How strange though that his family Bible states he was born on February 5th and to complicate things more, the English Parliament changed the beginning of the year from April 1st to January 1st in 1759 so that by our calendar should not his year of birth be 1733?

Although revered and idolized for his service to the nation in times of war and peace, Washington was at heart a farmer in which the farm ran better when he was there.  A slaveholder too like other southern presidents, he freed his slaves upon his death in December 14, 1799.

After our annual employee meeting today, roses and a fairly large order of perennials will arrive next week and must be processed and quickly potted.  Many of the bare root perennials can be split into two or three pieces before they are potted into trade one gallon pots.  After potting, the roses will go into a house that will require a minimum temperature of 28º-30º F so that they have time to root in before the new growth begins to break.  On the other hand, herbaceous perennials will be kept at a minimum of 55º F so that they can root in and begin to grow into saleable plants around May 1st.  Processing the plants before potting takes a significant amount of labor although everyone will be called back to work and the customer traffic in the store will be low because of weather so that we are able to get a lot done by following efficient labor practice to accomplish so much.

So much coming up!

Tom