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Contents |
PDN Newsletter Archives 2006February 2006Greetings from Plant Delights. If you can tear yourselves away from the thrill of Olympic Curling, we hope you are enjoying your 2006 Plant Delights Nursery Catalog. We also hope you have had time to check out the many wonderful plants and other features on our website. The web catalog has more than 1000 additional plants that are not available in the printed catalog. If you prefer not to peruse the catalog on-line, you can simply go to www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/web_only.html and print out a list of the plants that are not in the main catalog. Overall, it's been a great winter at PDN so far with a low temperature of only 19 degrees F. That's about 14 degrees above our normal, so marginally hardy plants in the garden have fared quite well while plants that need a long winter chill are still quite groggy. The only downside is that we are not able to update our hardiness data with such mild temperatures. We have recently discovered that a small rogue band of dyslexic gremlins snuck into the press room when our catalog was being printed. We have found a few dozen catalogs with pages 32-71 missing (actually they were repeated with earlier pages). If you happen to find any of these misprints and don't want to sell them on eBay, we'd like to know how many are out there. We are ready for our first-ever Winter Open House, February 25,26 and March 4,5. The hellebores and other winter-flowering plants are looking great, and we truly hope you can drop by for a visit. Last year, we potted up a greenhouse full of hellebores into 3qt pots just for winter open house visitors. They are in full flower now, so come choose your favorite colors. We are already sold out of one of the top-selling plants for 2006, Arisaema 'Black Jack'. We have a smaller crop still in the ground that will be ready for shipment by September. We will back-order those that came in after we sold out and ship your dormant tubers when they mature in September. Many of you have been requesting The Hairy Potter and the Horticulturist Apprentice t-shirts. Well, they have finally arrived and can now be ordered. Unfortunately, they aren't on the website quite yet, so you'll need to call our Customer Service Department at 919.772.4794. I hope you sent in your Top 25 Contest entry forms and are now anxiously watching the top sellers list. Our first list for 2006 has quite a few newcomers. Zantedeschia 'White Giant' has zoomed to #2, while Arisaema 'Black Jack' comes in at #3. The wonderful Allium 'Millennium' remains strong at #5, followed by Sabal minor 'McCurtain' at #6. Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket', which finished 2005 at #24, is already up to #7. I'll leave it to you to continue perusing the list. We hope you enjoy following along as we update the list throughout the season. April 2006Howdy folks, and I hope everyone is having a great spring as is the case at Juniper Level. So far, the late spring frosts haven't been too bad. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we are finished with winter, but we'll be watching the forecasts closely over the next few weeks. There is nothing more agonizing for a nursery than trying to figure out when to uncover the greenhouses in spring. If you wait too long, plants stretch and become weak. If you uncover too early, well.... you know what happens if it gets cold again. Also, if you have more rain than your quota, please send some our way. We're already six inches behind for the year since the folks in the PNW have been hoarding all the winter moisture.We've been snapping photos as fast as we can and still can't keep up. It's been a great spring for most plants in the garden, especially the arisaemas. The early-flowering A. amurense group has been stunning this year. This is also the best show we have ever had from Arisaema kishidae 'Jack Frost'.... a patch is certainly quite stunning. Arisaema taiwanense is also coming into full flower, along with the beautiful Arisaema sikokianum. If you haven't tried the Asian jack-in-the-pulpits, you'll find them quite easy, especially when they are planted in well-draining soil. We have found that even the often-difficult Himalayan species have grown very well when we plant them under large trees or shrubs where they will be very dry during the summer months when they are dormant. The terrestrial Calanthe orchids are also just coming into flower, and what a sight. If you live in a zone where these will thrive, it's hard to imagine a better and easier-to-grow spring woodland flower. If you have a woodland garden and don't grow Phlox divaricata, why not? There is no single plant that makes a better floral show than the US native, Phlox divaricata. Although not as showy as phlox, a group of plants that I wouldn't be without are the Solomon's Seal. This broad group of architectural gems for the woodland include several genera of shade-loving Lily relatives such as disporum, disporopsis, polygonatum, and smilacina (now Maianthemum). I mentioned helleborus in our last update, but need to make a special mention of H. 'Walhelivor'. This stunning hybrid from David Tristam of England is one that you really should try. The problem is that it doesn't photograph well, which explains why we had only sold three plants of this before winter open house. When people saw it in person, over 100 flew off the benches in just a matter of hours. Please forgive my photographic skills, and give this unique hellebore a try. Many of the early hostas are up, while most of the later emergers are still sleeping. Emergence comes from the genetics of the Hosta species used to breed a hybrid. Species from warm climates tend to emerge earlier. This information can be useful to those of you who live south of Zone 7 where there is often not enough winter chill for hostas to thrive. We have compiled a list of some of our favorite low-chill hostas that are much better adapted to warmer climates.
Low Chill Hosta List
Did I mention ferns? I used the search feature on our website the other day and found that we have over 119 different ferns listed. If you haven't explored the world of ferns, please follow our lead and enjoy the wonder of these delightful garden plants. There aren't as many early spring flowers in the sunny part of the garden, but a couple that I wouldn't be without are the dianthus and the early sun-loving phlox. I'm particularly fond of Phlox nivalis 'Camla', which makes a solid carpet of mauvy flowers year after year... simply outstanding. My favorite dianthus are D. barbatus 'Heart Attack', D. 'Feuerhexe', and the stunningly brilliant D. 'Neon Star'. Even in our hot humid summers, these wonderful cultivars don't even blink. We are in full shipping mode now with plants flying out the door and headed your way. If you don't believe me, watch our shippers work via the PDN Shipping Cam If it looks like they aren't moving, hit the refresh button. If you live nearby or are looking for an excuse to visit, I'll be giving two Plant Expedition talks next week.... one on our 2005 trip to North Vietnam/Thailand (April 18 - Gardeners of Wake Co., Raleigh) as well as our 2006 trip to South Africa (April 20 - JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh). You can find more details on my program schedule. Our spring open house begins in three weeks (May 5-8 and 12-14), so start making your plans to attend. The garden renovations from this winter are settling in and will be in full splendor for spring open house. We have directions and a list of nearby hotels to help you plan. We were thrilled to be featured in the April edition of The NY Times in an article by famed garden writer Ken Druse. If you missed it, you can find the article at The NY Times website. You will need to register, but it is free. There is also an easier to access audio/video version with more photos (try the moden version if broadband won't load for you). I know you've got better things to do that sit here reading my diatribe, so I'll stop now and let you get back to important things such as gardening. Again, thanks for being a PDN customer! Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com May 2006Well, our Spring Open House is over and we'd like to thank those who attended. We didn't have as many visitors as normal, but this was in part thanks to many folks who did their spring shopping at our winter open house in February. The most memorable moment of our Spring Open House was the dramatic hailstorm that struck while folks were shopping during our final Sunday. This is our fifth hailstorm this spring after having only one in the previous 18 years that we've had the nursery. Someone here must have been really bad.As an incentive to visit during open house, we always add some new plants to the nursery sales area which are not otherwise available. Since attendance was down a bit, we have a few of these left that we are now adding to the web. Click here to view this list of web-only plants. For those who are waiting, we have a new crop of the Arisaema triphyllum 'Black Jack' that are now ready. If you missed the first crop this spring, don't wait, since supplies are still limited. For those who missed our spring open house, here are some of the highlight plants that were putting on a show for the visitors. The Salvia gregii and Salvia microphylla cultivars and hybrids were stunning this spring. Most of these put on their best show in spring and fall. One of my favorites is the unique S. 'Christine Yeo', which is certainly the best of purple flowered selections. These salvias like it hot and well-drained, so find something else for those soggy-soil sites. If cold hardiness is a problem, try S. 'Pink Preference', which I feel is the same plant as S. 'Wild Thing', which is being touted as a standout in Denver's Zone 5/6 climate. Closely related to salvias is the US native, Stachys coccinea 'Hot Spot Coral'. For the same conditions as the salvias, the spring floral show or coral-red is hard to beat. Every year seems to be a great one for Dianthus. I'd like to mention two of my favorites, D. barbatus 'Heart Attack', a perennial Sweet William with three months of killer flowers and D. 'First Love' that starts blooming for us in mid-February and continues until frost. I mentioned a bit about solomon.s seal in my last update, but I want to specifically mention three superb, but virtually unknown species. Polygonatum filipes is a small plant with very long pedicels, creating a most unusual floral show. Polygonatum macropodum (macro-big and podum - feet) is probably the most architecturally wonderful plant in the genus. From the arrangement of the stems to the abundance of flowers, this species is a winner. Lastly, I can't write without mentioning the wonderful P. cyrtonema. This 4' tall species is one of those plants that you can't walk by without stopping to admire. Forming a massive clump, a specimen of this is a great addition to the woodland garden. One of the more talked about plants at Spring Open House was Amorphophallus dunnii. Although you don't hear much about this easy-to-grow species, it is one of the Amorphophallus for the garden. Unlike A. konjac, A. dunnii doesn't spread by stolons and it's flowers smell like fresh carrots instead of the more memorable smell of rotten meat. A. dunnii flowers every year to coincide with spring open house, prompting visitors to assume them to be phallic garden sculptures. Another of my favorite amorphophallus, A. kiusianus is just opening in the garden today. I wish we could coax it into flower two weeks earlier for open house, but we just can't seem to make that happen. Amorphophallus are really easy-to-grow and provide so much fun in the garden when they are tucked in among ferns and hostas. As I mentioned, not all plants agree to flower during our open house days and unfortunately, most of you can't be here to enjoy the ever-changing floral show. Visitors to the garden this week were particularly impressed with the stunning patch Callirhoe involucrata var. lineariloba, which produces a mass of white flowers. Try as we might, photos just can't do this plant justice. Another favorite that has burst out in the last few days are the Acanthus. We're too hot for most Acanthus, but a few have proven to be real stars. A. 'Summer Beauty' is an A. mollis hybrid that has been amazing in our climate with stunning 6' tall flower spikes. Equally as good of a grower is A. balcanicus var. hungaricus, which has a shorter, but no less showy 3' tall flower spikes The Hymenocallis or spider flowers are starting to open with the wonderful early-flowering H. traubii leading the way. Our patch, which weaves itself in among other plants, in a non-disturbing way has several dozen bright white flower that seemingly float in mid-air. I'll end my plant diatribe with a mention of Campanula 'Sarastro'. Campanulas have been frustrating in our climate, either they die within a week or spread so fast that they reach my neighbors house in the same time. Campanula 'Sarastro' is one of the few cultivars that changed that paradigm. We have had Campanula 'Sarastro' in the gardens for 3 years and it never fails to please with its huge tubular purple flowers and superb garden habit. Now if I could only get it to flower two weeks earlier so that open house visitors could see it in person.... oh well. We're already starting work on the fall catalog and there will be plenty of choice gems to choose from. Even after all these years in business and all the great plants that we have had the pleasure of introducing, it still gets us excited when we are writing descriptions for these new exciting plants. If you missed our Spring Open House, the next opportunity is as a part of the American Hemerocallis Society, Region 15 meeting. The busses roll into PDN on Saturday June 17.... a great time to see the gardens and pick up a few of your favorite plants. For more information, click here for the AHS Region 15 meeting website. For those who entered our Top 25 contest, the May 20 list is now posted. The new is that Aroids still rule the top 2 spots in the list. There have been quite a few other significant moves since April and leading the way is Echinacea 'Evan Saul' which moves from 13th to 4th. Dianthus 'Heart Attack' moved from off the list into the 5th position in sales, but this always happens when people see this in the garden during open house. Nierembergia 'Starry Eyes' jumped from 12th to 6th, while x Heucherella 'Stoplight' surged from 23rd to 7th. Only seven more months before we announce the winner of the $250 gift certificate... I hope your picks are staying near the top of the list. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. June 2006 - Heronswood ClosingMost of you have probably heard by now about the closing of Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Washington. Heronswood was one of those very special nurseries that comes around only once in a lifetime and we are all lucky to have been able to partake of the horticultural treasures that Heronswood made available.Heronswood fans have reacted with anger, not just at the loss of such a special nursery, but at the poor way in which the closing was handled. Nursery faithful were left with no chance to say goodbye, or to visit and purchase plants for one last time. At this time, I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on Heronswood, Burpee, and mail-order in general, and of course, how it relates to us here at Plant Delights. The closing of Heronswood is a terrible loss for horticulture, but not one that was unexpected...at least by anyone who studies horticultural businesses. All the signs were there. In 2005, the first color catalog appeared, but instead of a full plant listing, only a few hundred plants were chosen that followed no rhyme, reason, or price point strategy. In 2006, Burpee discontinued the main catalog to save money...in spite of the fact that this was the main source of income. The scant selection of plants for the 2006 color catalog were even more bizarre, being obviously selected by a catalog designer with no plant knowledge. The website, was also outsourced to India and not only appeared 3 weeks late in a crucial January season, but the re-designed "artsy" site was so bizarrely unfunctional that even web veterans couldn't make sense of it. Anyone who didn't see the end coming was looking through rose-colored glasses. Heronswood and Plant Delights lived their horticultural lives as "sister" nurseries on opposite coasts. Dan and Robert purchased their property in 1987 and we purchased ours in 1988. We both began with on-site sales and both began mail-order in 1991. The set-up of our operations, including a botanic garden to test and display plants were amazingly similar. Over the years, Dan and I have been fortunate to travel together on month-long plant expeditions and have visited each others operations many times. It is rare that two businesses would have such a parallel development, but this undoubtedly lead to our long-term friendship. Both Heronswood and Plant Delights specialized in unusual plants, Heronswood focusing more on wild seed-grown woody plants and some perennials, while our focus was on perennials, with an emphasis on selected forms. Our catalog offerings also reflected our differing climates. While we probably killed as many Heronswood plants as anyone, that never stopped us from ordering with the hopes of finding a percentage of the plants that would enjoy our more hot, humid climate. We both used humor as an important tool in our catalogs, although our writing styles were dramatically different (esoteric vs. redneck). Our catalogs also evolved differently, with PDN opting for color photos and a smaller number of offerings in the printed catalog, while the Heronswood catalog became a veritable literary encyclopedia with over 2500 listings. We both also wanted to create businesses that would engage a personal connection with our customers. When successfully done, this creates a very loyal base of customers, but the down side is that it makes the loss of a nursery like Heronswood like losing a friend, or in our case a sibling. Since we fully expected that this would be the last year for Heronswood, we spent several days at Heronswood last June (2005), lecturing for one of their wonderful garden seminars, purchasing an obscene array of plants, and saying what proved to be our goodbye to the wonderful Heronistas (Heronswood Staff). Our two nurseries were almost identical size in June 2000, when George C. Ball of the Burpee Holding Co. purchased Heronswood. Around the same time, George also purchased the remains (URL and mailing list) of the defunct Garden.com in January 2001 for the reportedly absurdly high price of $2.4 million). Burpee had also built 4 mega-garden centers in 1999/2000, which were all out of business by the following year. By September 2001, it became obvious that George had overextended himself, when the Burpee Holding Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. So, who is this George C. Ball? The story starts with George J. Ball, a pioneer in commercial horticulture. The George J. Ball Corporation was an umbrella corporation that eventually included several companies such as Ball Seed, Pam American Seed Co., Ball Flora Plant, Ball Publishing, and Burpee. The company was started by George C.'s grandfather, George J. Ball. George J. had 4 sons who took over the business in 1949 when George J. Ball died. One by one, the four brothers died or went in different directions. The remaining brother Carl, eventually retired in the mid-1990's and divided the company among his three children, George C. Ball, his brother Dexter, and his sister Anna. The George J. Ball Corporation was split among the siblings with Anna getting Ball Seed, Pam American and Ball Flora Plant, which she ran under the umbrella corporation, Ball Horticulture. Dexter took a buyout, while George C. formed a separate company that included Ball Publishing and Burpee, which George J. Ball Corporation had originally purchased in 1991. George ran Ball Publishing a short time, but then sold it back to his sister, Anna. George continues today as President of Burpee and as outlined earlier, also went on to pursue other less successful ventures under the umbrella of the Burpee Holding Company (no business relation to Anna's Ball Horticulture). With the failed garden centers, the story goes that George poured huge amounts of money into each garden center, which in turn lost huge amounts of money. George then showed up himself to fire the staff and lock the doors. Sound familiar? Many of us questioned the motive of the Heronswood purchase, since it was clear that the purchase was not good from a business investment perspective. For the price that Burpee paid for Heronswood, and the expected yearly cash flow, the payback of principle would have neared a human lifetime. There is no banker in the world that would rate this as a good investment for financial return. So, why did Burpee purchase Heronswood? We can only speculate, but this is not the first large corporation to buyout a smaller nursery. Most of these buyouts have not proven profitable for the larger profit-minded corporation and have been maintained only as a five-year tax loss write-off. I have never met George Ball and have not spoken to him regarding the Heronswood purchase. I know that Burpee had laid out grandiose plans for Heronswood at the time of the purchase. The plan included a 20-acre production facility, a tissue culture lab, and much more. The Heronswood gene pool certainly had a value for the Burpee breeding program, but of more interest was probably the position that Heronswood Nursery held within the nursery industry. Heronswood was constantly featured in magazine articles and television shows. Dan and Martha Stewart were good friends and purchasing Heronswood no doubt meant some access to that world for Burpee Having closely followed the Heronswood deal from the beginning, I have no question that both parties made the deal with the best of intentions, but as we all know, not all relationships work out. Granted, divorce is usually a better option than the more aggressive spouse killing off the weaker one, but unfortunately, this relationship didn't live up to expectations and the results led to a very messy ending. I have read newspaper reports that indicate that Heronswood will re-open for mail-order on the East Coast. Yes, and I've got some well-draining swampland in Florida for sale. None of us know for sure what will happen with their nursery stock or even the nursery display gardens. None of us know if Dan and Robert will start a new nursery venture. I expect they don't even know at this point if another nursery is in the cards. At least, the type of non-compete agreements in place have generally been ruled void by the courts. I think it would be great if the City of Kingston would purchase the gardens and open them as a public garden. Better yet, George Ball could recover a bit of good will if he donated the property to the town of Kingston. If you never visited Heronswood, you missed out on one of the truly special botanic gardens in the country. What would have happened if Heronswood had not sold to Burpee? No one knows. What I can tell you is that most mail order nurseries have a life expectancy of 10-15 years. I can count on one hand those that have lasted longer than this under the same ownership. I'm talking about when a mail-order nursery is run as a business (a industry standard salary paid to the owner) as opposed to a hobby mail-order nursery. Why is this the case? In reality, it is a combination of factors, from mental stress to fiscal stress. While it may seem hard to believe, it is very difficult for a mail-order nursery to be profitable. Remember, I'm talking about those run as a business with real business overhead. Some of the largest mail-order nurseries in the country are suffering mightily and one came within days of being closed quite recently. Could Heronswood be purchased and run as a mail order nursery again? The answer is no... if you actually wanted to make money. Burpee purchased Heronswood for far more than it was worth. After the purchase, Heronswood sales began a gradual decline that continued through this year. This decline in sales made the nursery worth dramatically less than when it was originally purchased by Burpee. During the same time, the value of the nursery land has dramatically increased in value. Today, the land is worth several times what the nursery is worth. You can see why purchasing the existing site and running Heronswood as a nursery again doesn't make financial sense. What's the lesson here? If you have a favorite nursery, patronize it. Are you one of those sitting there wishing you had sent in your Heronswood order earlier? Lesson learned...if you see a special plant at a mail-order nursery, don't wait because tomorrow may be too late. So, is Plant Delights planning to go anywhere or sell out? The answer is emphatically, No. At least, the answer today is No. We are in our 16th year in mail order and we have indeed reached the typical life expectancy of our type of business. One of the things that make us a bit different is that we love the business part of running a nursery as much as we do the plants. None of us know what tomorrow will bring and one day, our time will come, but it is our sincere hope to be around for quite a while. Thanks again for your support and best wishes to Dan and Robert in their next venture. July 2006What an incredible gardening year this has been. This year's record June rainfall (thanks TS Alberto) is quite a contrast to 2005, when we already had both a drought and water restrictions. Our summer garden is as lush as I ever remember and I hope you will be able to visit for our upcoming summer open house that starts this Friday. We will be open Friday-Sunday for two consecutive weekends, July 7-9 and 14-16. The hours are 8-5 on Fridays, 8-8pm on Saturdays, and 1-5 on Sundays. If you don't get our open house flyers, click here for directions and information about attending the open houseThe number of plants in flower are simply amazing. The hemerocallis and hymenocallis are both stunning now. Buddleias should be almost at peak bloom for open house as will many of the summer phlox. If you haven't tried some of the hardy gesneriads, be sure and see the wonderful sinningias in full flower. Lest I forget the eucomis, which are really in perfect form now, along with companions such as thalictrum, and several of the great lilies. We'll even have a dasylirion in full flower for open house this year, so don't miss the blessed event. We're in full swing writing the fall catalog which goes in the mail in 4 weeks. Once we finish taking a few more photographs and proofreading the text, the formatting process begins. I can already tell you that there are some truly exciting new plants.... in fact, more new plants that we've ever offered in our fall catalog. Several of them are already available, but only if you attend our summer open house, so get a jump on your friends. In order to clear out some room for these new items, we're offering an on-line only sale on some items that are currently overstocked from the spring catalog. This sale only lasts until Thursday July 6 at midnight, so don't delay. The more overstocked items we can move, the more room we will have for new plants at the summer open house. I don't want to dwell on weather, but need to make a mention of one special weather event.... the Carolina Hurricanes. In case you missed it, our Raleigh-based ice hockey team won the Stanley Cup at the end of June. I realize that many of you may not be ice hockey fans, and I will admit to just figuring out the difference between a red line and blue line, but this is the first professional sports championship for a NC team and we think they deserve a huge congratulations. And they said hockey and sweet tea wouldn't mix. We've previously talked at length about the closure of Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, Washington, but we've also recently lost another of my favorite mail-order nurseries, Roslyn Nursery on Long Island, New York. I understand that the owner, Philip Waldman is having some health issues, but hope these can all be resolved so that he can continue gardening. Thanks to the Philip and Harriet Waldman and the entire Roslyn staff for their contributions to the plant world. Our friends at Boo-Shoot Gardens north of Seattle, WA, are looking for a Customer Service Manager. Boo-Shoot is a wholesale producer of bamboo. For more information, visit www.booshootgardens.com. This is a really great wholesale nursery with great folks, so if you are looking for a job in the Horticulture field and live in, or want to move to the beautiful Skagit Valley, check them out. You can Send resume to jheinricher@comcast.net or Boo-Shoot Gardens LLC, 5722 Campbell Lake Road, Anacortes, WA 98221 August 2006Greetings from Plant Delights. We hope all is well in your hometown. It's that time of year and the fall catalog will be on the way on Friday, August 11. If you want to get a head start on your friends, you can find the new catalog on-line at http://www.plantdelights.com. We hope you are making your plans to visit PDN this fall, either for the PDN fall open house or for the JCRA 30th Anniversary Symposium. Even though we may cringe at the idea of summer gardens, there are quite a few plants that relish the idea. The gingers and the colocasias are loving the summer heat, and I can't think of a plant that more represents summer than the wonderful hardy hibiscus, which are in full flower as we speak. August is a fun month, since this is when many of the wonderful lycoris (surprise lilies) flower. I usually don't like surprises, but I always break my rule when it's lycoris time. Another bulb that just loves summer weather is the crinum lilies with their amazing stalks of pink, red, striped, or white flowers. There are so many summer butterfly-attracting plants flowering now, from the long-flowering verbenas to the stunning eupatoriums (joe-pye-weed), to the well known buddleia (butterfly bushes). Since butterfly attracting plants are designed to flower when butterflies are in season, most of the summer flowering plants are probably good nectar sources. We hope you'll take time to journey through the pages of the new on-line catalog and see what fun plants you can't live without. On a sad note, we have lost one of our wonderful NC plantsman, Rob Gardener, to cancer. Rob retired from the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill a few years earlier, after devoting his life to gardening and in particular to the genus Sarracenia. Other than many of the sarracenia hybrids we carry, Rob will also be remembered for two of his other introductions, Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight' and Baptisia 'Purple Smoke'. We'll certainly miss a good friend and fine plantsman. For those who entered our Top 25 Contest, be sure to check how your favorite plants are selling. --tony September 2006Greetings from Plant Delights as we open for our FINAL open house weekend of the year. The first fall open weekend greeted us with near perfect weather... a welcome change from some years in the past. We've got the same great weather booked for our final open weekend of the year which starts today, Friday September 15. When the weather finally cooled after the summer heat, the garden has been ablaze with some amazing plants. click for open house informationThis is one of the best flowering years we have seen for lycoris (surprise lilies). If you haven't grown these amaryllis relatives, you haven't enjoyed the surprise when they burst out of the ground in late summer/early fall with stalks of flower that range from red to orange and from white to yellow. The foliage doesn't emerge until after the flowers have finished and remains evergreen through the winter and spring. The key to growing and flowering lycoris is to not let the soil stay excessively dry for long periods and to be sure the foliage gets plenty of light while its growing. Lycoris grow fine in deciduous shade, but we have had the best luck in bright sun plantings. All of our plants are shipped growing in pots and not as dry bulbs, which when stored too long can inhibit flowering. click here for our catalog listing of Lycoris Closely related to lycoris are zephyranthes and habranthus... both know as rain lilies. These easy-to-grow bulbs can remain dry for weeks, then within 2-3 days after a rain, they burst forth with their colorful flowers. The flower colors range form pink to orange and from yellow to white. We have assembled quite an outstanding assortment including many newly introduced hybrids from Master Breeder Fadjar Marta of Indonesia. click here for habranthus click here for zephranthes The final amaryllid that I must mention is Rhodophiala bifida. R. bifida is the easiest and most reliable of the rhodophiala clan to grow. Hailing from near Buenos Aires, Argentina, R. bifida emerges in late August to mid-September with 1' tall stalks of blood red flower. In effect, this is a dwarf hippeastrum. Just like the lycoris, the foliage emerges after the flowers. R. bifida typically is available only in blood red, but we are pleased to also have the carmine pink form available in limited quantities. click here for Rhodophiala There's plenty more, but I hope you take time to roam through the pages of our on-line catalog. In addition to cool plants, there's no telling what you will find. If you still haven't signed up for the JCRA 30th Anniversary Symposium, time is drawing to a close. This superb lineup of speakers has rarely been topped. Don't be one of those that who you had attended after the event. Click here to sign up. For those who entered our Top 25 Contest, be sure to check out how your favorite plants are selling. The only change in the top 10 is Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket' which zoomed from #12 to #7. Liriope 'Peedee Ingot' rose from #14 to #11, while Dicliptera suberecta moved from #20 to #14... that always happens when hummingbird season arrives. Aloe polyphylla makes the biggest jump from #29 all the way to #15. Only a few more months remain before we announce the winner of our Top 25 contest... we hope your picks are measuring up. If not, you'd better get your gardening friends busy! Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com Thanks and enjoy October 2006It's starting out to be a great fall at PDN. It's actually hard to believe that it's already fall...especially since we still haven't seen those major hurricanes that we've been promised! Not only has the weather been superb, but fall has brought out garden visitors en mass. We just finished the best attended fall open house in our history, followed by a wonderful visit from participants at the 30th Anniversary J.C. Raulston Arboretum Symposium. It was great to have so many folks visiting for the first time and seeing others returning for the first time in a decade. We would like to personally thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to attend either of these events.We'd also like to welcome a great new crop of PDN volunteers. Our volunteer program, which started in 2003, has swelled to 12 people, including some that have been here since our program began. Volunteers spend their time helping in either the botanic garden or research divisions. In exchange for their invaluable hard work, they not only go home with excess plants and knowledge, but know that they have contributed to making the gardens even better for the next group of visitors. It is our hope that in the next few years we'll begin laying the groundwork for a foundation and friends group to assist in the eventual transition of Juniper Level Botanic Gardens to a public garden (hopefully a long time from now). We'll keep you posted. From the nursery end, we have a couple of plant snafues to report regarding plants shipped early in the year as Hemerocallis multiflora. Due to a vendor error, the plants that we shipped are Hemerocallis fulva instead of the plant pictured in our catalog, which also turned out not to be H. multiflora. We got the original plant from China and thought we had it identified correctly...guess not. The plant we pictured is now most likely an exceptional form of H. citrina. Also, we had a few of the Echinacea 'Sunset' to flower with distorted petals. If you have Hemerocallis multiflora and your plant flowered orange, or an Echinacea 'Sunset' with distorted petals, simply contact our Customer Service Department at office@plantdelights.com for a credit or refund. Please accept our apologies for this error. We've made quite a few production changes that have helped us produce even better plants for the upcoming season. Due to our hot summers, we have very high losses on some plants that do not fare well in containers. This year, we switched many of our production houses to a new silver reflective shade cloth... the one that many open house visitors asked about. This has made a huge difference in over-summering plants such as hellebores. Where we lost virtually our entire crop in 2005, this year was the exact opposite due to the new reflective shade. I think you are going to be amazed when you attend our winter open house in February. In the jobs department, we have an opening and are looking to fill our Propagation/Production Supervisor position with a very special person. This is the person who propagates and overseas the potting of every plant that we sell, so it goes without saying that this is a very important position. If you have an interest in learning more or to forward an application, please email Heather Brameyer in our HR Department at heather@plantdelights.com. Last month, I talked about some of the plants in flower this fall, but I didn't have time to write about all the ones I wanted to mention, so here's a little follow-up. Fall is certainly the season for salvia... especially the S. greggii and S. microphylla types. These desert salvias simply love the cooler nights and begin to flower equally or better than they do in spring. The range of colors is from reds through to whites. If blue is your color, then Salvia guaranitica is your plant. S. guaranitica 'Argentina Skies' (light blue) and Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' (dark cobalt blue) are both still in full flower. Need lavender?...no problem, the range of Salvia leucantha cultivars are ready and flowering. If yellow is your color, Salvia madrensis 'Red Neck Girl' is just what the doctor ordered. The huge spikes of butter yellow will be opening shortly. If this is too tall, Salvia nipponica and Salvia koyamae are woodland groundcover salvias...very cool. One of my favorite groups of the fall garden is the hardy gesneriads (African Violet cousins). For purples, try the colorful achimenes with their pansy-like flowers. If orange is your color, the continuous-flowering Sinningia sellovii is just waiting for the hummingbirds... birds not included in the shipment. If you like your plants a little on the bright and gaudy side, the brilliantly stunning Gloxinia 'Evita' is one of those plants that you just have to see to believe - just ask anyone who has attended our fall open house. For a little more demure shade of red, Gloxinia 'Chic' is just perfect. One last favorite gesneriad is the breathtakingly beautiful Titanotrichum oldhammii with its long tubular yellow flowers highlighted by an orange-red throat. While many of the hardy hibiscus are still producing a few scattered flowers, several other mallows are still in full swing. The US native, Malvaviscus drummondii with its unusual reddish-orange turban-like flowers is a hummingbirds' delight. Another great native mallow for fall is Pavonia lasiopetala. The small but bright pink flowers are a welcome addition to the fall garden. I mentioned a bit about hummingbirds, but this is a great time to think about plants that will entertain and feed hummers as they pass through your garden. If you garden in the South and you don't grow cestrums, why not? Few plants provide the duration of color and look splendid as we head further into fall. Think big yellow and orange mounds of color! Another hummer favorite is manettia or firecracker vine. This amazing non-intrusive vine doesn't really get going until late summer and fall, when it becomes a feast for hummers and gardeners who like bright orange flowers. More hummer food... how about Cuphea micropetala? Think flowers that look like miniature cigars. Your hummers won't mind this smoking section. Finally... I promise, another hummer favorite is Bouvardia ternifolia. The brilliant tubular flowers on this Mexican native just scream for the hummers. If you plant all the aforementioned plants together, you'll need body armor to get near the bed to tend the flowers. What else is blooming now? Plenty! Lantanas are at their peak, as is one of the late Elizabeth Lawrence's favorites, Kalimeris pinnatifida ... both, virtual flowering machines. If you've got shade, we've even got fall flowers for you. The easy-to-grow hardy Cyclamen hederifolium is in full flower throughout the woodland, as is the stunning pink Begonia grandis 'Herons Pirouette'. How could we talk about fall shade gardens without mentioning the wonderful Tricyrtis ? ...many of which are currently in full flower, with flower colors from purple to yellow. I'll end with one of the least known, but most spectacular fall woodland plants that we grow, the underappreciated Rabdosia longituba ...won't you please adopt one today? There's so much more that I don't have time to mention, from solidago to aster, and from polygonum to costus. While some of you in the northern zones have already closed down your planting for the year, much of the rest of the country is still in full fall planting mode. We'll let you continue to browse and hope you're enjoying your fall garden as much as we are. While I'd love to join you in the garden, it's that time of year when the staff locks me away to begin writing the 2007 Plant Delights Nursery catalog. You'd be amazed how well solitary confinement works to stimulate the creative juices and make the imagination run wild... quite similar to too many shots of an adult beverage. Surely, you didn't think a sane person writes this catalog? As always, there are many cool new plants in the pipeline... just waiting for the 2007 catalog to hit the presses. For those who entered our Top 25 Contest, be sure to check out how your favorite plants are selling. There was some minor shuffling in the Top 25, but the only new entry was Selaginella braunii that nearly cracked The top 25, by rising to #27. Only a few more months remain before we announce the winner of our Top 25 contest... we hope your picks are measuring up. If not, you'd better get your gardening friends busy! Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com Thanks and enjoy, November 2006Greetings from Plant Delights. We hope all is well at your garden this fall. We've already dropped to 25 degrees F, which is quite early for us to have hit those temperatures. Thank goodness we aren't in Denver, where it seems to have snowed every week in October, or Buffalo, who gave a new meaning to 'October Surprise'. We're hoping for a good cold winter to allow us to get some better hardiness data after two very mild winters.Just a reminder that our 2006 shipping season ends on November 30, when our shippers head home for the holiday season and the weather becomes too cold to safely ship plants. If you've been waiting to place your order, don't wait much longer. Also, the Christmas holiday season is rapidly approaching, and if you have that special gardener who may be difficult to buy for, consider the ever-popular Plant Delights Gift Certificate. You can order yours on-line at http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/gifts.html I hope you have already made plans to attend our 2007 Winter Open House, February 23 & 24 and March 2 & 3, 2007. We've got some really special hellebores for you to pick from along with quite a few other winter goodies. Once again, we are coordinating open house days with our friends at Pine Knot Farms of Virginia, who hold their winter open house at the same time. The new catalog is in the works and will go on-line and in the mail at the end of December... only six weeks away. I'm counting down the days until I can get out of the office and back into the garden. It's painful to be stuck behind a computer writing and assembling a catalog when the weather is so wonderful. We've got lots of new plants just waiting to be planted and a lot of beds to be changed around before you visit in February. We're looking for a couple of new employees if you know of anyone that might be interested. Both positions are at the assistant level... one Research Assistant to work in our trial beds and an Inventory Control Specialist to work in our nursery division. Both are year round positions with a starting salary in the $24,000-$25,000 range. If you have an interest in learning more or to forward an application, please email Heather Brameyer in our HR Department at heather@plantdelights.com. For those who entered our Top 25 Contest, be sure to check out how your favorite plants are selling. There was some minor shuffling in the top 25, but the top 7 remained the same. The only new player in the top 25 is Muhlenbergia capillaris which moved from off the list into the 24th spot. I hope your choices are in the top 25. If not, you'd better get your friends ordering quickly. Only a few weeks away before we announce the winner of our Top 25 contest... we hope your picks are measuring up. December 2006The 2007 Plant Delights Nursery catalog is in the mail! If you just can't wait, the Plant Delights Nursery website has already been updated to the new catalog, so click away at www.plantdelights.com. With 160 new offerings as well as quite a few returning favorites, we hope you will find an array of plants that you can't live without.We'd like to thank each and everyone of you for helping to make 2006 our best year in business. As we launch into our 17th year of mail order, we are well aware that we have already exceeded the typical 15-year life expectancy of a mail order nursery. That being said, we continue full-speed ahead, while watching out for the inevitable road bumps along the way. We'd like to thank those of you who have taken time to write kind notes and especially to those who have taken time to post comments on the Garden Watchdog website. (davesgarden.com/gwd/top.php) We are honored to be ranked as one of the top 30, out of 5498 garden-related mail order companies in the US. I always look forward to meeting many of you in person as I crisscross the country on the speaking circuit. To see when I'm going to be in your area, check the upcoming "on the road" schedule at www.plantdelights.com/Tony/talks.html. I'd also like to publicly thank our wonderful staff, without whose dedication and hard work, the success that Plant Delights has enjoyed would not have been possible. We've closed out our 2006 shipping season and will start up again in mid-February. However, if you have a horticultural emergency arise before then, we might be able to help, so don't hesitate to give us a call. In the meantime, the rest of our staff are keeping the plants healthy and getting the gardens in shape for our next open house. I hope you have already made plans to attend our 2007 Winter Open House, February 23 & 24 and March 2 & 3, 2007. We've got some very special hellebores for you to pick from along with quite a few other winter goodies. Once again, we are coordinating open house days with our friends at Pine Knot Farms of Virginia (about 1hr 15 minutes north of PDN), who hold their winter open house at the same time. If you live in a large part of the US (except Colorado), you have enjoyed a warmer than normal fall. After a December cold spell, where we dropped to 15 degrees, we have rebounded nicely and have certainly enjoyed the opportunity to continue planting as we re-work older sections of the garden. Continuing the work we started two years ago, older beds are dug and raised using a sandy-clay-compost mix that we blend from on-site materials. We're now able to add more height and contouring than was possible when many of the beds were initially planted, and the array of new plants is truly exciting. There is quite a bit of flowering in the garden now, starting with the wonderful winter-blooming Iris unguicularis and the always welcome Helleborus niger. While they aren't flowering now, arums always provide winter interest in the garden. We continue to expand our arum offerings each year, although many are still available in limited quantities. Although you don't think of trillium as a winter-interest plant, T. underwoodii emerges every year in December and amazingly endures the cold that follows.... at least in our zone. Although they don't flower in the biblical sense, conifers are also a favorite part of the winter garden. Although we don't offer them through the printed catalog, we are always propagating a few of our favorites for on-line and open-house shoppers. We are continually trying new plants in the garden and are thrilled to have planted our first Wollemia nobilis (Wollemia Pine). This amazing conifer, related to Araucaria was only discovered about ten years ago near Sydney, Australia. Initial reports indicate that it may survive at least 10 degrees F, so we've got our fingers crossed. If you'd like to see the plant in person, be sure to ask when you visit during open house. Since our planting season began in earnest last March, we have added 2000 new plants to the garden. This will be our first winter to test out quite a few of those, including many new plants from Northern Vietnam, Northern Thailand, and many of the South African ferns. So far, it's been a pleasant surprise to see how many of our new agaves have fared. Agave difformis and many others still look great, while 15 degrees F turned Agave chiapensis into a pile of green slime. Oh well, that's why we try 'em. We are pleased to announce the winner of our Top 25 Contest for 2006. Congratulations to Jeanne McClay of Virginia who wins the $250 PDN gift certificate. We'd also like to recognize the rest of the top 5, who were only separated by a scant 356 points... congratulations and thanks for participating.
To enter the Top 25 Contest for 2007 and the chance to win a $250 gift certificate, simply go to www.plantdelights.com/New/contest.html, read the instructions and fill in the on-line form or if you would prefer, print it out and fax or send it along. Unlike many contests, there are no strings attached, no costs, and your name doesn't get passed along to other mailers. The final Top 25 list for 2006 is below:
Final Top 25 Best Sellers for 2006 as of December 29, 2006
In other area gardening news, the JC Raulston Arboretum is looking to fill its Assistant Director position. This is a wonderfully exciting position for the right person (PhD or Masters level). If you think you might be interested, you can find out more at: The gardens at the JC Raulston Arboretum are in the midst of a major renovation under the direction of Director Dr. Dennis Werner, who took over the reins a year ago, so drop by if you are in the area and watch the changes progress. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com Thanks and enjoy -tony
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