Inside the Greenhouse - July 8 - SALE

Yes - all annuals are on sale now and ...  it's all looking good.  In the following photo are solenia begonias.  The color is "orange", but it looks more like an apricot to me.  These begonias can take full sun.

Next are the popular nonstop begonias for shade.  Usually red is the preferred color, but this year folks leaned towards yellow.

 Below is a wall pot for shade waiting for the customer to pick it up.  Yellow non-stops and lobelia and German Ivy.

I've always liked signet marigolds (marigold tagetes tenuifolia).  They have pretty foliage and a lovely scent.

The white marigolds are fun for a change.

And below are photos of Harlequin Dahlia, grown from seed.  Usually I only plant the Figaro series, as they are pretty and dependable.  But next year I will do more Harlequin, as the blooms are really flashy and unusual.

Last photo is a dahlia grown from cuttings - Hypnotica Lavender.  It's quite perfect in form.

Busy and Blooming

Ideally, at least once a week I would submit something horticulturally interesting and educating to this blog. I am grateful to be incredibly busy right now, but the people waiting for their pots to be planted (not to mention seeds I MUST get in the ground) come first.

Saturday morning was the first day at farmers' market in St. Johnsbury. After setting up with Rose I returned home and was then picked up by Ed Smith to participate in a one hour radio call-in show about gardening. I was surprised by the number of questions that came in - and the fact that I could answer most of them.

Despite the late spring, everything in the greenhouse has been blooming right on schedule. Here are two of the new introductions.

Calibrachoa Minifamous Double Amethyst

Double Wave Red Petunia

The double wave is quite spectacular and surprising. I'm not so crazy abut the fact that once the bloom has gone by it really needs to be removed, unlike other petunias grown from cuttings. Those blooms just kind of shrivel up and disappear. These are so full I don't think that's going to happen.

Business is booming here, which is a fortunate thing, as the fuel bill averaged $500 a WEEK in March and April. It will take a lot of six-packs to cover that expense!

I have had some of the same customers for 20 years, so there has been much hugging going on in Cabot. Gardeners are good people.

The Greenhouses are Open!

It is way past time to get new photos up on this blog. The plants in the greenhouses are doing great and if anything, are a bit ahead of schedule. But outside we are 2 - 3 weeks behind when it comes to digging perennials and getting plants potted and laid out.

Last year the ice out at Joe’s Pond was April 5; this year it was April 27, a good indication of the difference between the two seasons.

We officially opened Sunday and the weather was lovely. Next weekend is Mother’s Day and I hope there are a lot of appreciative children out there in a flower-buying mood, as we have lots of blooms ready.





I have a huge soft spot for violas and pansies.



Some of the perennials that we over wintered in pots, like the above columbine, are blooming already.



'Dark Eyes' has always been the most popular fuchsia and it is the hardest for me to size up, but this year the fuchsias are huge and walking down that aisle is like being in a blooming tropical forest.

At the moment some of our perennial gardens are swamp-like and I am hoping those plants will survive until we can get in there with our shovels.

Meanwhile, I am giving an illustrated talk (and plants as door prizes) Tuesday, May 10, at 6:30 in the Cabot Public Library about "new" perennials and annuals for the northern Vermont gardener.

The Snow is Melting ...

... And I am in my usual spring frenzy of planting seeds, transplanting seedlings and getting ready to uncover and dig perennials. I was wondering how people find the time to write in their blogs and thought it would be fun to take some “before” photos, with every intention of having fabulous “after” photos to show later in the spring.

The “big greenhouse” has a peeked roof and the two layers of plastic stay on it year-round. In the fall we roll up the plastic on our three larger hoop houses, as it gives the plastic a longer life and saves potential cave-ins from snow, which I did have one year.


Above and below is the “pansy house” right now.






And the pansies have been started in the big house..


Below is the "tomato house" as it looks right now.







Stay tuned!



The benches outside are empty and will slowly be filled as it warms up.



We haven’t put the glass (recycled doors) on the cold frame (above) along the big house because if we have a late snow it would break the doors. We are filling up the big house and even have some blooming thunbergia.






The red-winged blackbirds have arrived. The children next door are playing on the swing and I have even seen some motorcycles go by. They are predicting 60 degrees today and then back into freezing temps. Onward.