by Briscoe White | Apr 5, 2010 | Flowers, Growing |
Selling plants over some years, each plant develops its own unique history. Diascia is a little known plant we have grown since our beginning. Eager to please anyone willing to walk in my brand new garden center, I promised to find some Diascia for someone. In the mid- eighties, when The Growers Exchange was new, most of our potential customers wanted little more choice than geraniums in red or coral.
Finding that diascia took some looking, but we found some in Florida and added it to our houseplant order. It is strange looking back and seeing what motivated us to begin growing our own plants. What we did have was a neighborhood of gardeners ready to break with traditions and try new plants in their containers and beds. Actually container gardening had not caught on beyond two pots framing the front door, preferably with a neatly trimmed evergreen.
Twenty some years later we realize we have been riding a tidal wave of new plants. Perennials and especially flowering annual plants were bred in all shapes and sizes. That seed grown Diascia we grew years ago would look skimpy compared to the new cultivars we grow now. If you have a dry sunny spot you should try Piccadilly Baskets series Orange and Coral Red, truly beautiful colors.
Diasia ‘Piccadilly Coral Red’
by Briscoe White | Mar 19, 2010 | Exploring, Flowers, Growing, Life on the Farm |
I have been absent from the office and everyone has been asking where I might be? Some of you readers may remember my notes and pictures about collecting wildflower seeds last fall. It is a yearly ritual I look forward to, each bag of seeds are sifted and cleaned before being stored for winter.
All that is great fun in the fall, but spring is here and those seeds need to be planted now. Timing is everything when planting seeds, and you never know the exact time until it is upon you. So this week I knew all conditions were right and the wildflowers needed to be planted this week, at least before the next rain.
All there is to show are slits cut in the ground by my seed drill. But as any gardener knows, nothing holds more promise than a well planted seed bed. Soon little annual flowering plants will be sprouting all up and down the slits. Later the perennial plants will emerge. And soon, just a month and a little more, I will be showing you fields of wildflowers waving in the wind!
Spring is here, stop planning and get planting!
by Kenan White | Mar 15, 2010 | Exploring, Flowers, Growing, Herbs, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
Returning from vacation is usually not something one looks forward to. It marks the end of the trip that you have been waiting so long to take. All the months that you spent planning, preparing, and getting everything in place seems like a distant memory now. As sad as this idea is, all good things must come to an end. If you don’t finish one vacation, how can you take another? Surely you have been dreaming of the day you can jump on a private jet, that you have hired through a company like Jettly, and travel to the likes of New York, London, Paris, and lots of other different countries and cities? Taking trips like this is what life is all about, and just think about all of the memories and stories that you’ll come back with. That alone must be enough to persuade you to take another vacation as soon as possible.
In the meantime, adjusting to the normality of your life is something that you’re going to have to focus on for now. With that being said, leaving plants in the greenhouse does leave something worth returning to. Walking into the greenhouse this morning, I was stunned to see how much all of my herb plants and flowering annuals had grown. Just look at the picture and see that our plants are ready for spring.
The basil plant had grown a full inch and the leaf buds are popping on the bay leaf plants! Spring is almost here, whether herb gardening or growing flowers and veggies this year the time to get started in now! Besides the plants, the rest of my job was about like average. Start thinking about your garden and let The Growers- Exchange.com help get your spring started.
by Briscoe White | Mar 11, 2010 | Exploring, Flowers, Growing, Inspiration |
Greetings from Abaco! I have found the most beautiful garden on the whole island. Right next door to where I am staying is a tropical paradise; plants we use as houseplants or summer annual plants are used as landscape trees and shrubs here. It is so nice to see all the blooms after our long cold winter at home. Since I am still on vacation, I am out the door again soon. Next week I will be back at the greenhouse and soon we will begin shipping all of our customers their herb plants and flowering annuals so they can start their own tropical paradise.
I came to the Bahamas to escape the cold and see some color, after so many months of cold gray skies and brown earth I couldn’t wait for spring in Virginia. My neighbor Valdo is an expert tropical gardener and like all good gardeners has shared his garden with me, carefully explaining what it takes to grow lush plants on a rock island. The beach is calling, so I hope you enjoy the picture of Valdo and Marilyn’s beautiful bouganvillea. And remember, spring is just around the corner. It couldn’t possibly snow again? Could it?
by Briscoe White | Mar 5, 2010 | A Year in the Life.., Flowers, Gardening, Growing, Herbs, Indoor Gardening |
We are finally able to report actual planting in our “A Year in the Life of a Garden” cold frame. Today we began by helping ourselves first with a salad garden. We are growing all the lettuce varieties offered by The Growers- Exchange.com: Wildfire, Arugula, All Greens, and Spicy Mesculin. All these annual plants will be finished by June, the lettuces wilt in the early summer heat.
The night temperatures restrict us to cool season plants for now, but as spring progresses we will add a basil plant along with any other herb plants useful in cooking. Our small gardens will produce plenty to eat from our veggies and culinary herbs.
We plan to add lots of flowering annuals to compliment our herb plants. Annual vines such as Moonflower and Hyacinth Bean will climb trellises and frame our beds. We like to grow old fashion favorites like celosia. We have several varieties: the brain varieties ‘Cramers Burgundy’ and ‘Lemon Lime’ always draw attention in the garden and as a cut flower. The plume type celosia plant has an entirely different flower and makes a great filler in bouquets. I am getting ahead of myself, celosia planting time is at least a month away.
For now we will grow salad plants and a little collards, kale, and broccoli too! Soon we will begin planting example gardens for our herb gardening kits. We hope to have pictures of all growth stages, which we can post on here on the blog. Herb gardening can look like weed gardening so our challenge will be to add flowering annuals for color and texture.
Next week we will have photos of the baby salad plants! We encourage you to follow our garden and makes suggestions if you like…
by Briscoe White | Mar 3, 2010 | Exploring, Flowers, Gardening, Growing, Life on the Farm, Wildlife |
Last fall when I first began this gardening blog, I reported on my seed collecting endeavors. Seed collecting is just the first step towards growing plants. All those ziplock bags full of seeds were carefully stored over the winter.
And now we are at the next step, which is to plant the seeds. I had collected seeds from various flowering annuals, some perennials, and a few herb plants. The goal is to plant wildflowers in all the conservation grasslands around the farm. Annual plants such as cosmos and Gomphrena will give color this year as the perennial natives establish themselves. To create a blooming prairie effect Dames Rocket and Shasta Daisies start blooming in spring and are followed by Coreopsis, Rudbeckia, Ratibida, and Echinacea in summer. A total of thirty types of flowers were planted
This year I am planting what I call “the grand finale”. Summer into fall will find Helianthus full of yellow sunflowers intermixed with the blue haze of wild Ageratum. I will have to wait until the following fall to see how it works, perennials must have time to establish. But for now we must wait and have faith that planting these seeds in the cold ground will sprout and grow in spring.
