Crunch Time Continues

I'd sure love to be sitting in those seats above right now (shot taken in our new children's garden last year). However, crunch time continues with ordering the remainder of our seeds and finishing off most of our spring orders. I try to get the majority of ordering done quickly so we have time to make signs and be ready to roll when plant material starts arriving in 2-3 months. I had a great time over in Michigan last week presenting at the Plants of Distinction Conference in both Novi and Grand Rapids. Dr. Laura Deeter (Ohio State University) and Dr. Bert Cregg (Michigan State University) were the other speakers and did spectacular talks on Hortus mustus (cool plants) and conifers respectively. I spoke on "Ornamental Edibles" and "Container Cornucopia". Mary and Rebecca from MSU Extension ran a nice program and the attendees were an enthusiastic bunch. I certainly hope that my shameless promotion of RBG to these "potentials" will bring in new visitors and members!

To the left is a shot of another of our biodegradable pot samples for an educational display that Janice is preparing. This pot was initiated by Jack Van de Wetering who was looking for a biodegradable pot that would break down in less than one year and provide superior root penetration. The final product is 80% rice straw, 20% coco fibers and has spray of natural latex added as well. See http://strawpot.com/index.html for more information on this neat product. To the right is ZEBA Quench, a corn starch-based hydrogel that when hydrated and incorporated in to container soils (or other soils), will lessen watering requirements immensely. Some other hydrogels are petroleum based and when they start breaking down in the environment (depolymerize), there are some toxicity issues. I promoted this new product at my talk as a safer option and we will use it as well in all of our containers at the gardens.

We had a huge crowd of volunteers today. Marianne and Kay helped with preparing color-coded labels for our seed orders. Their monotonous work will pay for itself when our plants come back in spring and can be identified readily and allocated to their planting location quickly. Janice was in to work on some of her projects for awhile too. Marv and Terry worked on bringing in lights and displays while Urban was out pruning. Little Jerry drew the short straw and was responsible for dispersing 128 oz. of coyote urine (see to the left) in garden areas that are being decimated by hungry deer. I never thought it would come to this but the damage is significant and we'll see how this works. I don't even want to know how this is extracted...Dick W. and Del worked on their reindeer while Vern, Bob A., Dave and Jim worked on various carpentry projects. We also saw Maury, Dr. Gredler, Bill O. "Fireman Bill", Doug, Cathy, Rose, Jean, Deb, Bev and Dick H. today too. Too many tasks to list but lots of progress!

I'm going to continue to promote some neat plants as time allows in my blogs (see below). The topic of blogs and finding verified information came up in Michigan. Of course, we should all know that just because it's on the internet, doesn't mean it's true. Factual information should be verified by multiple sources and be sure to separate out subjective opinions from hard facts/data. I used the example of putting something on my blog last year that I thought to be true based on internet information and later found out that I was dead wrong. Be wary but do understand that there is an enormous number of wonderful, educational, horticulture-based websites and blogs that can be great resources. There is a great blog called The Garden Professors (just "Google it") that has some really neat information from four horticulture professors, including Dr. Bert Cregg mentioned above. This blog was mentioned at the conference and I've enjoyed reading it the past couple of months. Regardless, the value of the internet as a learning tool is truly amazing although it is a shame that it has also become a venue for less savory activities as well.

Below is winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) that we hope to see in as little as 7-8 weeks from today. This fall-planted bulb is truly a harbinger of spring and we plant it by the hundreds. It will eventually colonize and is our first bulb to bloom out in the gardens. This buttercup relative will do great in areas where overhead, deciduous canopy will later fill in to create shade, well after this bulb is dormant. I thought I'd include a shot of 'Fireworks' Pennisetum (annual grass) at the bottom as it looks so exciting and Dr. Deeter promoted it in her talk as well. This shot was taken at Chanticleer Gardens this past summer and really shows both the value of colorful foliage but also the merit in texture provided by an ornamental grass. Look for it!