Jeff Rice

It’s been a second nice wet winter in a row which is always a good thing. As for my rain tracking, we are at 24″ of rain on the season here at the nursery and it’s raining as I write this so we should be looking at about average rainfall this year. Maybe we’ll get a little above depending. Looks like it will continue a bit longer as far as the long range forecast shows. It will stop soon though, and then we will be into a very nice spring. Wildflower blooms should be great this year, and water levels good from a good wet winter. Get ready to start fertilizing soon As soon as deciduous trees and shrubs have their full set of leaves, you should give them their first fertilizing of the year. A balanced fertilizer works well for most things. Use a rhododendron, camellia, azalea fertilizer for your acid loving plants. Fertilize azaleas and rhododendrons after they are done blooming. Same thing for camellias. Citrus should use a citrus fertilizer. Citrus are best fertilized monthly through the growing season. Start after the threat of frost is past and continue monthly through October. Roses should be leafing out …

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The selection of bare root fruit trees is still very good. The cool nights and cool days are ideal for the bare root trees, and now is the time to plant them. At the end of the month we pot up what has not been sold bare root and then the price goes up. Take advantage of bare root prices and selection and get your fruit trees in now.

Bare root season will begin after January 5th. We are receiving the trees on the 5th and will have them ready to go within a day or two. I will send out an email when they are in and ready to go. Blueberries, cane berries, figs, and pomegranates in pots are in.

The weather so far this fall has been excellent. Some nice rain today and nice and cool. The forecast for this winter as far as I can tell is for a normally wet winter. Time will tell but seems to be a consensus among many of the forecasts I’ve seen. FALL IS THE BEST TIME OF YEAR FOR PLANTING TREES AND SHRUBS Our BARE ROOT FRUIT TREE LIST FOR JANUARY 2024 is now available. We have copies available at the nursery or I can email you a list upon request. Fall fertilizing should be done now or very soon. If you have not done your fall fertilizing yet you should do it as soon as possible. This fertilizing is important because it gives plants a good boost and also gives them stored food for winter. Next spring they will use that stored food for growth as soon as the weather warms. A balanced fertilizer is good for almost everything in the landscape. Citrus trees would like a citrus fertilizer and this should be the last application for them for the season. Don’t feed them in the winter. Rhododendrons and azaleas should not be fertilized now unless it is with a …

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