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Contents |
Nursery Update Archives
Well, 2002 is finally here and so is the 2002 version of the plant-packed Plant Delights Website. The printed catalogs were mailed on December 28, so until yours arrives, you can enjoy our updated website. Here, you will find over 400 additional plants that are not in the printed catalog, but which are only available in sufficient quantities to list here. The new printed catalog contains 16 more pages than last spring, which allowed us to provide more and larger color photographs. We will begin spring shipping on February 11 to those in the deep south, so specify any delivery date between then and your date of last frost. For those of you in Buffalo, that may take quite a while. Of course, this year, those of you in the Great Lakes Snow Belt will probably find zone 8 plants hardy with your deep winter blanket. So far, we have had a great winter for overwintering perennials here at the nursery, so losses should be at a minimum. In other PDN news, we are delighted to welcome our new head grower Candi Byrd. Candi has a strong background as a grower and takes over from Bridget Zazzara, who is headed north to study at Longwood Gardens. We were very pleased to be rated as the #2 Mailorder Nursery in America for Hostas, and the #4 overall best Mailorder Nursery in America for Perennials in the 2001 GardenWeb.com customer poll. We would like to thank those customers who voted for us, and we will strive to not only maintain, but improve on that ranking. You will notice a slight increase in some plant prices this year, as well as the same in the area of shipping costs. We could no longer hold the line in shipping, after absorbing 5 years of increases from the shipping companies. Although we truly hate to raise prices, and have actually still lowered prices of a few of items, we constantly study our production costs. Between increased production costs and the desire to reasonably compensate our staff, we found the small increase necessary. Maybe you missed the fact that many popular mailorder nurseries have bit the dust or filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the last year. These closings were due to many factors such as the economic downturn to the events of September 11, but most of all to a difficulty in managing a proper balance between sales and expenses. What may seem easy and potentially lucrative to a back-yard hobbyist is in fact a very difficult business, made worse by the fact that most nursery owners are plant geeks and not MBA’s. We are again reminded of the importance of maintaining a livable bottom-line as well as making great plants available. Please, be sure to patronize your favorite nurseries, and help them to be here for tomorrow. From the owners and staff of Plant Delights, we would like to take this opportunity to wish our customers and friends a very happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Enjoy the website! -tony It's December, which means only a few more weeks remain before the new 2002 Plant Delights Nursery Catalog will hit the mail. All of the plants have been selected, the text has been written, and the photographs have been selected. Now, all that remains is to finish putting everything into a publishable format. David Lee, our master graphic arts designer/shipping manager is spending nights and weekends putting this all together. Over 150 new plants and over 700 color photographs grace the pages of the upcoming 2002 catalog, expanded from 96 to 116 pages. We hope to have good stock on all items, although anticipating demand for a new plant is anything but an exact science. We have essentially stopped shipping plants for 2001, unless we are apprized of a horticulture emergency to which we could respond. Newly arriving orders will be scheduled for spring 2002 shipment. Remember, there are still gift certificates. If you're tired of getting new ties, socks, or more golf balls than you could possibly lose, you could always drop a hint for a Plant Delights Nursery Gift Certificate. A simple call to our Customer Service folks at 919.772.4794 gets one on the way, so you'll be ready when the new catalog arrives. From the staff at Plant Delights, we hope you have a great Holiday Season and we hope to hear from you when the new catalog arrives. God Bless America!
1 'Colocasia Black Magic'
It's hard to believe, but the year is coming to a close...and without a hurricane to hit the US! Fall has been beautiful and consequently lots of folks have been planting in their gardens. Frankly, with all that's gone on in the world this fall, the garden is truly the place to be. I can easily remember back to the "good old days" when we didn't know a Taliban from a telephone. The change in consumer purchasing habits due to the terrorist disaster has had tremendous effects on our industry with many small nurseries folding up shop, while major players such as Burpee went in to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I cannot emphasize enough...patronize your favorite nurseries, be they local or mail order. Many small and some larger nurseries simply cannot endure income slow downs, particularly in the fall and winter. We are already looking forward to a big spring, and our greenhouses are nearly fully stocked. Stocked that is with a dizzying array of wonderful new plants. We are working nearly round-the-clock on the 2002 catalog as we finish writing the descriptions and begin the tedious process of selecting photographs. Several of our staff has just returned from the wonderful Southern Plant Conference in Athens, GA. With seventeen of the top plantsmen in the country as speakers, this was one of the most intense and fun conferences that I've ever attended. Held every two years, the next SPC will be held in Charleston in fall 2003. For more information, go to www.sna.org. This has also has been a great fall for chocolate! The specialty chocolate as well as the home-made chocolate chip cookies have been superb...keep 'em coming! Okay, it's time to get back to the catalog and for you to get back to your garden. See you soon.
1 'Colocasia Black Magic'
I hope everyone now has received their fall catalog by now. Response to the larger color photos has been wonderful, which is really good because they were really expensive. The catalog is filled with many choice new items, so don’t be left out as plants begin to sell out. So far fall orders are far exceeding last year, which as Martha would say, is "A good thing". We have just completed construction of a new underground irrigation tank, which will take the place of the one that collapsed back in June. This has been a time consuming and obscenely expensive task, that has left facilities manager Larry Blakeman, claustrophobic, covered in mud, and probably thinking about finding an air-conditioned office job. In the same area, Gary Mazur and Joe Steele of Raleigh’s Envision’s Co. are just finishing the installation of the new patio pavers around the new Southwestern Garden. We can’t wait for you to see this area, filled with agaves and cacti...truly amazing! We would like to welcome two new employees to the permanent Plant Delights staff. Sarah Gwynn has replaced Cindy Brooks in our office. Sarah has already made great headway in the task of pronouncing some of those long Latin names. Cindy has returned to the less stressful life of taking care of family and some part-time work. We would also like to welcome Brian Hicks, who joins us in our newly created position as Plant Pathologist. It will be Brian’s job to keep the plants healthy and free from insect and disease.
1 ‘Colocasia Black Magic’
We have finished our mid-summer inventory and our fall catalog, which is back from the printer and in the mail. We hope you enjoy many of the new treasures as well as the return of several old favorites
1 Colocasia 'Black Magic'
Hi folks..it's us again. We have finished a very successful spring open house. It’s always great to see so many folks indulging in their favorite addiction...plants. We have been busy propagating and hope to have most items that were out earlier back in stock in a couple of more weeks. Our next event is a visit from the American Hosta Society Convention which arrives in town next week to the tune of 450+ people. Once the group departs, it's back to work on the fall catalog that is due to be mailed in mid-August. Remember that our summer open house is scheduled for July 6-8 and 13-15. This is when we have quite a few out-of-towners that visit for the first time. We look forward to meeting you in person. The gardens have never looked better, so bring plenty of film.
We have just added a new summary of our results with winter hardy palms in our garden this winter...check it out in the articles section. Below, you will also find our updated "best sellers" list. Check and see if your favorite made the list.
1 Colocasia 'Black Magic'
Where has the year gone? It's May already and so many garden chores remain to be done. The gardens here at Juniper Level have been spectacular this spring. The cold spring has worked to compress the season, so that combinations that we have never seen before are emerging this year. This is of course after an April that included temperatures in the 90's and then back to below freezing. You can imagine what it was like for the staff that spent the better part of a day covering hostas, arisaemas, and other tender foliage. Fortunately, major damage was averted. We have completed the first weekend of our spring open house with near perfect weather in the 70's, resulting in thousands of visitors. Let's hope we get as lucky for the second weekend. After the first open house weekend, we are out of several more items, but are potting as fast as possible to get stock built back by mid-June. We still have over 90% of the spring catalog items in stock and some really gigantic hostas remaining. Shipping is still at a fever pitch with record shipping volume being set virtually every week. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to those of you who have taken time to order this spring, and especially those of you that have taken time to write nice letters or send chocolates.
1 Colocasia 'Black Magic'
Well, we thought spring had arrived, but after a week of nights in the mid's 20's, those plants that peeked out too early have been reminded to wait a while longer. For us, this is the most agonizing time of year....cover, uncover, cover, uncover...and as they said in the 70's, the beat goes on. We actually have nearly 100 hosta varieties, growing in containers outdoors that are already well sprouted, so you can imagine what we do when the forecasts dip below freezing. Garden clean-up is well underway, and things are already looking good for spring open house season. The Narcissus bulbocodiums are in full flower, as are the Ranuculus ficaria cultivars, the hellebores, and the spectacular Edgeworthia chrysantha. Magnolias and witchhazels look great this year...perhaps the best ever. Many of the early trilliums are already in full flower, T. cuneatum, T. maculatum, T. underwoodii, and T. foetidissimum. Other gems for early March include Helionopsis orientalis, which is loaded with bright pink flowers, and many of the asarums with their outer-space flowers. Arisaema ringens has already poked it head out, as has Dracunculus vulgaris. It won't be long now before the rest of the garden bursts forth in a blaze of glory...just in time for April open house.
1 Athyrium f.f. 'Frizellilae'
As I look out the window through the cold, ice filled screen, I quickly turn to pages 24 and 25 of our printed catalog. There I find Cannas. Lots of vibrant, alive and colorful flowers that scream at me by saying "SPRING IS COMING - REALLY!" Spring was here, if only briefly, and we enjoyed the heck out of it. Kind of like when you're at a restaurant and they bring out a tray full of tasty food - to the guy in the next booth. We think that this ice-encrusted day is an anomaly, and spring will wrap its warm arms around us again tomorrow. We've already started shipping to southern locations on February 12, and the pace is certainly picking up. We've had many people place orders so far, and ordering early definitely improves your chances of getting everything you want. Right now, there are several plants that look especially good, including Tiarella 'Jeepers Creepers', Sisyrinchium sp. 'Puerto Yellow', Pulmonaria 'Dark Vader', Euphorbia robbiae and Trillium underwoodii. One last thought. We couldn't do without our favorite people in the world - you! Thanks for taking a few moments to take a look around our site. We hope you find something you like, and remember, ice is for hockey and cold drinks.
David Lee The 2001 catalogs were mailed on Wednesday January 3. If you don't receive your catalog before too long, let us know and we will try again. Local catalogs will be recieved first (usually 2-4 days). After this, customers along the I-95 corridor will begin to see there catalogs arrive (usually 4-7 days). Large cities in the midwest seem to be next (7-14 days). Other large US cities seem to take 7-21 days, and smaller more remote areas should be all delivered by the end of January. We hope you will enjoy the new format, and we welcome your comments either way. At the end of January, orders received so far are on another record pace. While we still have plenty of most items, a few thing are already suffering from "depleted stock syndrome" Three items are out of stock, due to disease related crop failures, Carex 'Island Brocade', Carex 'Silk Tassel, and Lachnocaulon anceps. We apologize for this problem, but will make these items available again as soon as possible. As with most other nurseries, this winter has been rather trying, due to our very cold weather. While we have not experienced temperatures below 11 degrees F. (as of 1/7/01), we have been consistently cold...three consecutive weeks when we didn't get out of the 30's. While the plants are hopefully faring fine, many things will be later to break dormancy, and our heating bills have gone into orbit. Last year, we were paying .62 per gallon for propane, and this year, it is at $1.80, and still rising. So, what can you do to help? Perhaps sending extra chocolates would be a good start! Thank goodness, we have seen less middle-of-the-night greenhouse temperature alarms this year, thanks to our superb facilities manager Larry Blakeman. Trust me, there is nothing quite so enjoyable as being awakened 4-5 times during the night and early morning, staggering out to a frozen greenhouse, then trying to replace a gas valve or heater motor....while watching your plants freeze to death! This is a nursery owners' idea of living on the edge. Okay, time to pack up for another road trip...be sure to check out the schedule of talks, and I hope to see you on the road this season...if you can't get by the nursery for a visit!
11 Lamium maculatum 'Anne Greenway'
21 Trachycarpus fortunei 'Bulgaria'
Well, the 2000 shipping season is drawing to a close, as we reach the end of November. This month has seen several of us glued to our desk, composing the 2001 spring catalog, which will go to the printer in early December, then in the mail on January 1. As always, there is an array of wonderful new introductions, including some of the most exciting new hostas in years! It's been a busy fall with traveling, and I must include a word of thanks to all the great audiences around the country. It is truly rewarding to get a chance to meet customers face to face, and share in your gardening successes. Our fall weather here at the nursery has been outstanding, even with the driest fall on record. If going without a hurricane means drought, then we'll take the drought. Granted we have had to apply a little more water to the display gardens than normal, but that's okay as well. You may be wondering what ended up as our top sellers for the season...and we didn't need four recounts to decide:
1 Hibiscus 'Kopper King'
11 Sabal minor 'McCurtain'
21 Ajania 'Yellow Splash'
Well, I hope everyone has recieved the new catalog by now, and are enjoying the exciting new plants found therein. Fall orders have certainly picked up from last year, since everywhere except Texas and parts of the deep south have had plenty of rain. So far, no hurricanes...can we make it for another month? Actually for us, rot has been more of a problem this year...but hey, we wouldn't be in this business if we didn't enjoy a good challenge. Supplies on most items are still good, so expect to get most if not all of the plants on your order. This time of year, orders will be shipped as they are recieved without any backlog. We have hired a whole new staff of shippers who are now training for the spring shipping season. Please remember however, that many plants are in the process of going dormant, so if they look a bit bedraggled...it's only their fall appearance. Plants grown in containers tend to go dormant several weeks earlier than the comparable plant in the ground. In the staff department, we were saddened to loose Al Glen, but he has more important chores staying home with his new baby. Who knows, we might even see Al back in a year or two. Our new production manager is Betty Wagstaff, who comes to us after 14+ years at the renown McLamb's Nursery in Angier, NC. We are lucky to have Betty, who is a true propagating whiz, determined to make darn sure that we don't run out of plants.
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