APRIL 2013

THINGS TO DO:

Prune Roses. I have attached a copy of our Rose Care Guide, one of the many information sheets that we hand out.  There are also a couple of photos of our roses that we pruned this year. You can see how severely they can be pruned to perform well. Don't forget that we will have a truckload of gorgeous roses arriving around the end of April.

1. CHOOSING A ROSE: There are several classes of roses. Here are a few of the basics to help you choose the ones that best suit your needs.

Hybrid Tea- These are the most popular bush type roses. They typically reach 3-5 feet tall and have medium to large flowers borne singly on a long stem. This is the classic cutting rose.

Floribunda- The flowers of this bush are usually smaller than a Hybrid Tea but in large clusters. These plants are shorter at about 2-4 feet tall. Floribundas make great flowering hedges or borders.

Grandiflora- These lie somewhere between their Hybrid Tea and Floribunda parents. They produce the flower of a Hybrid Tea in clusters like a Floribunda. The height is taller though at around 8 feet which makes them a fine background plant.

Climber- Most are vigorous Floribundas or Hybrid Teas that form long canes. You will need to tie them to some sort of sturdy support since they don’t actually “climb” by themselves. Climbers are useful on a trellis or espaliered on a wall or fence.

Miniature- Smaller versions of the above classes. Use them in containers, inside or out, as borders or ground covers.

Hardy Shrub- They are older varieties of roses before roses were hybridized and are very cold hardy, disease resistant and fragrant. The leaves tend to be more crinkled than a hybrid and some produce large hips. Expect them to get 4-7 feet tall and the most popular are Rugosa Roses. Use them effectively as a hedge or background plant.

2. PLANTING: Follow the Silver Heights Nursery “Planting & Care Guide” and, in addition, mix 1 cup Bone Meal into your prepared soil. After planting, sprinkle 1 cup Epsom Salts (the magnesium improves leaf color and vigor) around the root area and water in thoroughly.

3. FERTILIZING: A regular fertilization schedule can be started 1 month after planting. But do not feed after September 1st nor before May 1st. Use an organic or organic based fertilizer such as Happy Frog Rose Food or Fruit and Flower, Gro-Power Flower n’ Bloom, Chickity Doo Doo or Fish Emulsion. Mulch year round with Back To Earth Compost for moisture retention and to protect roots from both heat and cold extremes.

4. PESTS & DISEASES: The best way to deal with these problems is to prevent them or catch them in the early stages. Keeping your plants healthy is the first step toward prevention. Do not let your roses become stressed due to lack of water or nutrients. Never use high nitrogen fertilizers that will cause rampant green growth which insects and diseases find very inviting. Plant your roses in full or morning sun so the leaves will not stay damp. Never water the foliage, only the root area. Keep the center of bush type roses “opened up” to encourage good air circulation. Remove debris, fallen leaves and buds from underneath your plants. Check your roses frequently for any signs of pests and diseases. Here are a few of the most common problems and solutions:

APHIDS & SPIDER MITES-Spray in the morning with a strong jet of water for three days, then treat with insecticidal soap if still present. Beneficial insects.

THRIPS-Spray with insecticidal soap. Beneficial insects.

BORERS-Prune damaged canes and seal ends with tree seal, nail polish or paraffin.

POWDERY MILDEW & RUST-Use sulphur or neem spray as a preventative and to deter spreading. Prune off and dispose of badly infected plant parts.

5. PRUNING: Major pruning should be done in the spring when the buds begin to swell. All pruning cuts should be made ¼ inch above an outward facing bud, at an angle sloping away from the bud. All removal cuts should be made at the source, leaving no stub. The basic principles of pruning bush type roses are as follows: Remove dead canes to the crown. Prune canes damaged by cold to a point where the wood is showing white all the way through. Remove any weak, crossing or rubbing canes and those that tend to crowd the center. Cut off any suckers coming from below the bud union at their source. Shorten any remaining canes by one third to one half. In general, Hybrid Tea roses should be pruned to maintain 3-6 healthy canes, Grandifloras as many as 8 and Floribundas 6-8. Miniatures are pruned in the same way as the larger bush roses. Climber’s laterals can be shortened to 3-6 inches. Shrub roses should only be pruned to shape when young. When mature, remove twiggy growth, very old canes to the ground and shorten other canes by one third. To keep roses fresh looking throughout the flowering season prune spent flowers just above an outward facing leaf with 5 leaflets. This is where a new flower will come from. To cut flowers to enjoy indoors, prune this way also.

Of these 3 roses the one in the front has been properly pruned.

Pruned Hybrid Tea.

To keep your roses beautiful and healthy use Fox Farm's Happy Frog Rose Food. This all organic fertilizer has an analysis of 4% nitrogen for healthy green growth, 4% phosphorus that encourages rooting and flowering, 5% potash or potassium for overall hardiness and disease resistance and contains  7.98% Calcium which plants need for cell wall development and growth. It is also important for enzyme activity, metabolism and for nitrate uptake. This fertilizer has 1.56% Magnesium which promotes dark green leaves and a long list of beneficial mycorrhizae. The Happy Frog Rose Food bag boasts "a custom blend to deliver optimum nutrition for roses and it will create strong plants and increase the color intensity of your flowers". Use this fertilizer monthly throughout the growing season at a rate 1/4 cup per foot of height, work it lightly into the soil and water thoroughly.

Plant Veggies. As I reminded you last month you can plant cool season vegetables like cabbage and broccoli from transplants now but since our average last frost date in Silver City is May 1st, which means it falls somewhere between April 15th and May 15th, you would not want to plant warm season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers now without protection. (Stop into the nursery and pick up a copy of "Silver City's Suggested Planting Times".) Protection would be a heated greenhouse, your heated house or sunroom or a Wall O' Water. The made in Dillon, Montana Wall O’ Water is a long-lasting, durable product, designed to protect plants and extend the growing season. Using the physical properties of water, it protects the plant from cold as low as 12° F, from winds as strong as 40 mph, and from animal activity. In addition, the Wall O’ Water reduces water use by sheltering the base of the plant from sun and wind, reducing transpiration. It is a series of 18 tubes filled with water to form a rigid wall of water surrounding the plant. During the day, that water is warmed by the sun and this heat is retained to insulate the plant from cold conditions. This system retains nearly 900,000 calories of heat to protect delicate plant roots and warm the soil surrounding your plant. When filled with water, the product weighs more than 20 pounds giving it plenty of mass to withstand wind and animal activity. You fill the tubes with water and allow it it warm the soil for a week. Then plant your transplants inside. This can give you a 4-8 week jump on the season.
This year we will be offering our vegetables in 3 packs instead of 6 packs. We feel this will allow our customers the opportunity to plant a larger variety of vegetables as well as helping gardeners with smaller spaces save money.

PLANT OF THE MONTH: 

Phlox subulata. Creeping Phlox is an evergreen groundcover that is blooming around town right now. Its needlelike foliage forms a mat 3 feet wide and 6-10'' tall. The very early spring flowers are 3/4''wide and come in 'Emerald Blue', 'Candy Stripe' and 'Red Wings'. This plant is drought tolerant and hardy to zone 3 or 30-40 degrees below zero. Plant in full sun or half a day of shade in a rock garden, as a bank cover, in the front of a perennial bed, cascading over a wall or in a pot. You could even plant tough bulbs like Tulips and Daffodils with this groundcover for a real spring show. To keep it fresh cut back by half after blooming and broom it when it looks sad in February.

Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue' blooming its little heart out on March 19th, 2013.

OPEN!!!

We open today, March 26th at 9:00 and will be open Tuesdays-Saturdays 9:00-5:00 through September. Look forward to seeing you.

Almost there!

We have been very busy getting the nursery ready to open on March 26th. A truckload of soil and hardgoods has been unloaded. Hardgoods being anything that doesn't require water. Next we made the long drive to our perennial plug grower and picked up some beautiful new plants plus some old favorites. These have been potted into #1  containers and they will be ready for sale, depending on the weather, by late April or early May. Here are some of our new products.

Classic Brands 'More Birds' Songbird Feeders and Hummingbird Feeders. We went with Classic Brands feeders because the company actually researched 1000 bird lovers to see what they wanted in a feeder. The information they gathered led them to implement the following features on the Songbird Feeders:

• Easy Fill. All of the feeders have wide fill openings.The tube feeder has a funnel top.
• Easy Clean. Each feeder has removable tops, sides and bottoms and are dishwasher safe.
• Stay Full Port. All of the ports stay full even when the seed gets low.
• Attract More Birds. Most feeders make the birds put their heads into the feeder and they lose their peripheral vision which makes them concerned about predators. These feeders bring the food out to the birds and have large round perches where the birds can sit in any position and feel safe and comfortable. 
• Choose Your Birds. With a changeable shutter you can serve any kind of seed or thistle. The perches also adjust for larger or smaller birds.

We are carrying the 'Harmony' which has a 2 pound capacity and 6 feeding ports and the 'Abundance' that has a 6 pound capacity. Here is a link to some feeding tips that 'More Birds' provides. Feeding Tips

The attributes they applied to the Hummingbird Feeders are:

• Easy Fill. Wide mouths and flat bottoms make these very easy to fill.
• Easy Clean. Each feeder base comes apart and has a large opening.
• Lots of Features. The feeders have more feeding ports, built in perches and bee guards. 

The two Hummingbird Feeders we chose are the 'Elixir' an antique red bottle with burnt penny finish, holding 13 ounces and sporting 5 perches and the 'Diamond' which holds 30 ounces and has a built-in ant moat.

Paradise Bay Hats. These are the classic straw hats that last forever and provide good shade from our intense sun. We sold them at our old nursery and have had many requests to bring them back. They sell for under $10.00.

Ocean Forest Potting Soil and Fox Farm Fertilizers. The nursery will continue to sell these high quality soils and fertilizers and have managed to keep the prices either the same or a little less than last year!

Bird Netting, Frost Guard, Landscape Grade Weed Barrier and Shade Cloth by the foot, Pond Pumps, Benches, Organic Fertilizers and Insecticides, Redwood Trellises, Plastic Pots, Super Saucers, Rain Gauges, Birdbaths, Deer Stopper, Tree Stakes, even more Beautiful Glazed Pottery and new Yard Art. 

Again this year we will only be announcing sales and new arrivals on our blog. If you subscribe you will be among the first to know. Subscribe now by entering your email address in the box below "Subscribe via email" and hit the "Subscribe" button. You will then receive an email from Feedburner which you have to respond to to activate your subscription. It is that easy and you will then get any new posts we make. You will not receive any other emails or spam by subscribing to our blog. We will be giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to a lucky subscriber on May 1st. This will be a random drawing and the winner will be notified by email.  You don't need to do anything except subscribe or already be subscribed to enter.

Thanks again for your continued support and we hope to see you soon!

February 2013

THINGS TO DO:
Break out the broom. You probably don't think of a broom as a garden tool but I quite often use mine as one. One of my favorite uses is cleaning the winter damage from my  Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata). After a good sweeping the Phlox looks green and bright and ready to display its early spring flowers. Another sweepable (is that a word?) plant is Creeping Thyme (Thymus minus or serpyllum). It tends to look brown and dead at this time of year but cheers right up once I've broomed it. Other plants I sweep are Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa), Iceplant (Delosperma) and Creeping Rosemary (Rosmarinus). A broom is sometimes useful in cleaning fallen leaves from sturdy shrubs such as Sage (Salvias) and Lavender (Lavandula). Enjoy this warm spell and get those plants cleaned up.

Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) before

and after sweeping.

Divide perennials. Propagating a plant by dividing it into several individual plants, complete with roots and buds of their own, is called division. Most herbaceous perennials, those that die to the ground in the winter, will benefit from being divided every few years. Bee Balm (Monarda), Daylillies (Hemerocallis), some Sage (Salvia), Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) and Coneflowers (Echinacea) are just a few that fall into this category. If your perennials have become overgrown, died out in the center or just don’t bloom as well as they used to, rejuvenate them by dividing now. Have the area you plan to transplant them to or the containers you will pot them in ready so you don’t leave their roots exposed for too long. Add 1/3 Back to Earth Compost to 2/3 of your native soil and a handful of Bone Meal to encourage root growth when planting in the ground. Use Uni-Gro Organic Potting Soil for containers. Start by digging up the root system using a trowel, spade or in the case of large clumps a garden fork. Shake off the loose soil and remove dead leaves and stems. Wash the soil from the crown so you can see the buds clearly. Divide the clump into sections that contain several buds or shoots and healthy roots discarding any old, woody growth. Replant and water thoroughly with a root stimulator to settle the soil around the roots. If it as been dry you may want to water the plants you are dividing the night before you plan to dig them to make your job a little easier.

PLANT OF THE MONTH:
Potentilla fruticosa 'Goldfinger'. 'Goldfinger' Cinquefoil, referring to its five-leaved leaflets, is a small, mounding deciduous shrub that grows at a moderate rate to 3' by 3' and is well adapted to moist or dry soil. This member of the rose family (Rosaceae) flowers all summer with deep yellow 2 " blooms at the ends of its branches. It is deer resistant and low maintenance, only needing to be sheared to about a foot tall in late winter keeping it fuller and more floriferous.  This shrub makes a good background plant in a low perennial bed with Coneflowers (Echinacea), Pincushion Flowers (Scabiosa), the ground cover Dwarf Plumbage (Ceritostigma) or other low growing red or blue flowers. It is also nice as a foundation plant or in a cottage garden. Potentilla 'Goldfinger' will be happy in full sun or part shade, is cold hardy to zone 2 (-50 to -40) and drought tolerant once established.

 

Potentilla fruticosa 'Goldfinger'

January 2013

THINGS TO DO:
Prune deciduous trees and summer flowering shrubs & vines. Here is the link to Pruning. I think we covered it pretty well in this post but if you have a specific question leave a comment or email us at silverheightsnursery@gmail.com.

Apply dormant spray. If you have had problems in the past with insects and diseases on your fruit and shade trees, shrubs or perennials now is the time to manage them with dormant spray. An application of horticultural oil will smother overwintering aphids of all kinds, scale, mealy bugs, whiteflies and spider mites as well as their eggs. It is also effective against the larvae of coddling moths which is the common apple worm. Lime sulphur spray will control powdery mildew, peach leaf curl, apple scab and twig borers. A copper fungicide can be used to keep leaf spot, peach leaf curl and shot hole fungus in check. Be sure to spray the entire plant including branch crotches where insects like to lay their eggs. Clean up any debris out to the drip line and spray the soil as well. Always follow label directions carefully on all of these products and choose a warm, calm day for best results.

Start seeds indoors. If you are planning your spring garden there are many cool season vegetables that can be planted from transplants as early as March 15th so now is a good time to start them indoors from seed. Remember, the quality of the seed you use is important. We carry Lake Valley and Pagano Seed. These seeds are all untreated and contain no genetically modified or engineered organisms. We are not open now for you to purchase them from us but a lot of you stocked up before we closed. If you do need seed before we open I would recommend Johnny's Seeds or Territorial Seed online. Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Lettuce and Spinach can all be started now and will be ready to transplant outdoors in 8-12 weeks.  Fill a seed tray with good potting soil like Uni-gro that drains well. Firm the soil gently and plant the seed according to package directions. Most cool season vegetables germinate well at a temperature between 50 and 70 degrees so the top of a refrigerator or a warm window sill is fine but don't forget that window sills can get awfully cold at night. After planting water the soil well to ensure that all air pockets have been filled. Keep the soil moist, not wet, using a watering can with a fine rosette or simply misting with a spray bottle. Once the seeds have germinated they will need lots of light. A sunny window, heated greenhouse or fluorescent grow lights work best. When the seedlings develop their second set of leaves it is time to transplant them. Using your fingers or a spoon dig up individual seedlings keeping the rootball intact. Plant them in 3-4'' pots filled with potting soil. Water thoroughly to settle the soil and fertilize regularly with Fox Farm Liquid Grow Big or Big Bloom or granular Fox Farm Tomato and Vegetable. Keep them in bright light and water when needed. You may want to transplant these vegetables again into larger containers as they outgrow their pots. One week before you plan to plant your vegetables outside you will need to "harden them off" or get them used to direct sunlight and changing temperatures. Set them outside for a few hours  every day gradually increasing their exposure to sun and cold. Once they are ready for the real world plant them into your garden. You will want to cover them with floating row cover until freezing temps have passed. Does this sound like too much trouble? We'll have plants ready to go when we open for the season.

PLANT OF THE MONTH:
Humulus 'Summer Shandy' Hops. A Shandy is beer mixed with a carbonated beverage such as ginger ale or lemon-lime soda and if you plant one of these hops vines you could be making your own shandy this summer. Yes, hops are used for brewing beer, but this deciduous vine was bred for its ornamental appeal as well.  The new leaves emerge yellow-green and mature to a bright golden-yellow. 'Summer Shandy' has a refined habit and less aggressive growth than other varieties.  Growing at a moderate rate to 5-10' tall it is well-suited to home gardens, on a fence, trellis or spilling out of a large pot. It is cold hardy to 20 degrees below zero and would appreciate some afternoon shade.

Humulus 'Summer Shandy' Hops

Happy Holidays!

This is Wolf Creek Pass, CO in February of 2011. We were hoping for something like that here this Christmas but no such luck. Yes, I am one of those! One positive note on the warmer winter is our great vegetable garden. Even with a few nights in the teens we are cutting lettuce and bok choy, pulling radishes and it won't be long before the broccoli and cabbage are ready. Amazing what a little floating row cover will do.

Farmer Gus

So from our family to yours, Happy Holidays and the best of everything in the New Year!

Thanksgiving

• Looks like the warm weather is going to continue for a while. Don't forget to check your plants and water accordingly. Here is a link to a previous blog on everything you would ever want to know about watering. June 2011 Watering
• Saturday, November 24th is Small Business Saturday. There are so many great, locally owned businesses in Grant County. Please get out and support them.
• A friend sent me a link to this website and I thought I would share it with you. Just Label It!
• Steve and I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! Wherever you are and whoever you are with, enjoy the day.