Today is the last day of business for the nursery as now we will close down until March 1st except for opening on Saturdays for our Winter Seminar series of educational garden topics. While repairs, maintenance and clean up is the norm in winter, the greenhouse production will remain a flurry of activity. Transplanting of several thousand rooted cuttings will begin in early January and continue right up into mid-April with the transfer of various kinds of flowers to 4½ inch pots.
Then there is construction of new display unit and the proposed steps leading down the hill on the north side of the Owl Barn to make Wolf Creek Gardens more accessible to the nursery visitors. The seldom seen garden is a riot of color beginning in late April with the blanket of azure blue and hot pink blossoms of creeping phlox, the May flowering of massive rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel and dogwoods and the continuing bloom of the late blooming rhododendron and the summer flowering of the lower hydrangea, perennial garden in summer.
Ongoing improvements to the nursery’s massive and complicated irrigation system are still on the go to prevent failures of the self-washing filter, pump intake and electric starter that all failed this past spring causing some disruption in the customer service area and production as we struggled to repair the system to protect the product from damage or even death from a lack of water.
Just recently we have placed new orders for product from Chris Hansen of Zeeland, Michigan and a beautiful eclectic line of new lupines bred in the United Kingdom that will further expand our new line of perennial offerings for this coming spring.
With so much to do, there is no time for a long winter vacation in a warmer climate as winter passes quickly anyway.
Happy New Year!
Tom