The snow was certainly a surprise on Sunday although timely for the fourteenth of November. Almost everything in the sales yard was put away into winter storage with the ongoing construction of another house for storage of plants in early spring, only to be vacated for annual flowers such as verbena, calibrachoa and petunias. After developing at warmer temperatures they will be finished out at much cooler temperatures so that growth will be compact and not a straggly mess.
On Sunday, with the snow, harvesting spruce branches at Galehouse Tree Farm, in Doylestown, was wet and miserable.
Another 30 Scotch Pine from the Heritage Tree Farm must be obtained for the construction of those items such as our cascading pillows and blankets. The newly finished items must have two coats of a product called Greenit to mitigate the yellow coloring of the naturally off color of the dormant Scotch pine.
Our winter seminars in the Owl barn are in works to be held after the hiatus of last year because of the pandemic, although a surge in cases in Ohio could potentially shut things down for a third season.
The flower bulb planting is not quite done as another thousand have yet to be planted although we still have up to February 15th as long as the ground is not frozen.
Our Fraser Fir and some white pine came in Tuesday from the Feisley Tree Farm with Fraser Firs available up to 12 feet.
Long ago I spoke to John Ford who was then the curator of the Secrest Arboretum and predicted that the tree would become the Christmas Tree of the future due to its straight trunk and a long needle retention if kept in water after a fresh cut of about one inch off the trunk. All of what John Ford foretold has become true.
Tom