Impactful Plume Celosias

While the day was overcast and cold (not unusual for this time of year!), we had a productive day at the Horticulture Center. Pat M. was in to process more lights which continue to flow back in from the garden on a daily basis. Larry H. headed back out in the gardens for more Holiday Lights Show (HLS) take down efforts. We have a meeting today to review our event and come up with some plans for this upcoming December. We'll need to plan on larger crowds and adjust accordingly. Before you know it, we'll be dragging lights out of storage (late August) for testing and the start of HLS set-up all over again in late September. Janice finalized our vegetable offerings for the Spring Plant Sale (mark your calendars for Mother's Day weekend!) and we're well over 100 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, hybrid tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, etc. We'll get the full listing of veggies and herbs on our website by the end of February. We also saw Bev F., Urban, Marsha M., Karen B., Christy, Chrissy, Candace and Kris K. today.

As I continue to peruse seed catalogs and get seed orders together, I'm never shy about ordering plume celosia (Celosia plumosa) varieties. In 2006, we did a big Celosia Collection (see further below) and the range of flower coloration is impressive, including some with maroon foliage! These members of the amaranth family have a long bloom period in the summer and their feathery flower clusters offer not only color but visual texture. The flowers are also popular in settings for "tactile engagement". Included in this blog are some of the many varieties available in the market; the majority can be purchased and grown from seed (easy to grow).