Winter weather has returned for a bit. It’s cold and raining as I write this, with some low snow levels. As I track the rainfall, we should be looking at about average rainfall this year. Last measure I had before this rain was 26 inches. Looks like it will continue a bit longer according to the forecast. 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 here at the nursery are fully leafed out except for a couple of rugosa varieties. If you have not pruned back roses, it is still a good time to do it. If you have any that are really large cause of neglected pruning during prior seasons, prune them down now. Prune roses down to 12 to 24 inches tall with several strong canes left and an open center.
Be sure to start spraying roses with a fungicide now. We use Neem Oil every two weeks here at the nursery on the roses to prevent aphids and fungus problems.
With the rain and wet we are having, it is really important to start this as soon as there are dry periods or the fungus problems will show up soon.
It’s time to start fertilizing roses as well. Roses are heavy feeders. They should be fertilized about every 4 to 6 weeks. Use a rose food or you can use a balanced all purpose fertilizer as well. I use a combination of the two on my roses and it works very well.
Spring Vegetable Planting
We have started a lot of vegetable starts in the greenhouse which should be ready in April. We will be stocking some spring vegetable starts this weekend and will be bringing some out of the green house that are ready. We have had many requests for them for the past two weeks. We don’t like to bring them in too early. As far as the weather is concerned, it is too early, but it looks like over the next couple of weeks it will start to warm enough for putting out tomatoes, and squash, etc. I still strongly advise waiting until April. Watch the weather forecasts. We usually get a false warming period in February and early March and then a cold storm comes through to remind everyone that winter is not over. The first official day of spring is March 20th. A good rule of thumb to use for when to put out spring vegetable starts, is to wait till overnight lows are consistently 50 degrees or higher and the ground is no longer cold to the touch. You can start prepping your soil now, so it will be ready when the time is right. Add bone meal or oyster shell to the soil along with the vegetable fertilizer when you are prepping the soil. Bone meal adds phosphorous for root development and supplements calcium. Oyster shell adds calcium. Calcium will help to prevent blossom end rot. I use organic fertilizer on my vegetable garden. I use bone meal for phosphorous, and oyster shell for calcium , and tomato and vegetable fertilizer. About half way through the season I re apply fertilizer and bone meal.
AAUW GARDEN TOUR
AAUW’s 31st Anniversary Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
Recycle your used containers here at the nursery. We gladly take back all used nursery containers. We re-use them in our growing operations. Don’t send them to the land fill. They can be dropped off here anytime during our regular business hours. Let us know if you have them with you when you come in, and we can unload them for you.
A note on our hours. We are now CLOSED ON TUESDAYS
OPEN:
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY 9-5.
SUNDAY 10-4
We hope to see you soon.
Jeff
