This past week we did our annual spraying of all the rhododendron and azaleas in the Wolf Creek Botanical Garden before the deer chop the plants to pieces. Another spraying will be accomplished in late December followed by yet another in early February. Each spraying takes about 5 gallons of concentrate that is mixed with a quart of concentrate into two gallons of water which yields a ratio of concentrate to water of 1:9. The only other condition for spraying this product is that it be above freezing and no rain during the drying time of approximately one hour.
The same product is used on our tulip parade with only one spray when the foliage reaches about two inches.
As the grave blanket business accelerates, more construction is on the way as 16 cascading pillows had to be made from scratch and then delivered or picked up before Thanksgiving.
Still construction on our newer house is pending although the 30 ft. by
96 ft. house with roll up sides for ventilation only will be used to store product in late March to be followed by the storage of certain annual flowers to keep them colder and thus more compact.
The full dormacy of the trees and shrubs is almost complete outside and inside the storage houses.
As far as poinsettias, the foliage and flowers if eaten by pets is mildly toxic. Formerly Temik, a deadly insecticide in a granular form was effective in eliminating the main pest of poinsettia, whitefly. At Dayton’s, we use a small wasp that parasitize larvae hiding under the leaves and kills them. Since we use no pesticides, there is no deadly residue for you or your pets just as we accomplish in our greenhouse for the growing season, flowers, perennials, herbs and vegetable plants.
At Dayton’s with water recycling, solar panels and beneficial insects, our goal is to produce more plants in a sustainable way and we are not finished yet.
That’s all for now.
Tom