'Tis The Season...

Autumn is Perfect For Tree Planting!

There is a misconception that spring is the only time suitable for planting... not true!

Right now, during the fall is a wonderful time for planting, trees especially!  Take advantage of these wonderful temperatures and great rainfalls to help get your garden established.

Fall plantings, while the trees are losing their leaves and going dormant can be a wonderful way to get a jump on your gardening for next spring.

The tree's energy can go into root production, not into keeping its leaves plump with water and provided you keep your tree well watered, you will be rewarded with a healthy, thriving plant come springtime.

 

Call our offices today if you'd like to come by and see what we've got on hand... we're always happy to help you find the right plant for your garden.      

432.0788

Like a Kid in a Candy Store...

... that's what it's like to be a plant lover and collector, working at a landscaping company in the Spring!  It's fabulous!

We're starting to get our plant orders in from growers all over Virginia and have amassed quite an impressive inventory so far.  Many of them are available for retail sale (by appointment, so give us a call) or, if you are in search of a plant you aren't finding locally let us know.  We can keep our eyes open as we visit nurseries and scour availabilty lists from growers!



                                                                    Silene 'Rolly's Favorite'

 Here's just a few that are in the greenhouse now!












Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy'



Veronica 'Waterperry'

Clematis buds

Dicentra spectabilis

Hosta 'June'

Dianthus 'Raspberry Surprise'

Helleborus flower after blooming

Fastigiata Boxwood in back, 'Justin Brouwer' Boxwood in front

Perhaps We Spoke Too Soon

In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours. ~ Mark Twain

 Mark Twain must have been talking about spring in the Valley...

In Like a Lamb...

It's March 1st and its 65 degrees outside.  Unreal.  Not that we're complaining, but it just feels a little...odd.    Odd in a good way, but still....  it makes me wonder if Mother Nature doesn't have a trick up her sleeve, like this past Halloween's weird snowfall, the only real snowfall we got here in the Shenandoah Valley this winter!

Signs of spring are everywhere though, there's no denying ...

As landscapers we adore days like today.  We work in all sorts of different weather conditions and being outside working on a day like today sure beats doing it when its 38 degrees with a misty, cold rain falling! 

The greenhouse smells like spring and signs of life are abundant.

see the bee??

I hope everyone can take a moment to get outside and enjoy this glorious day...

it makes us happy to be landscapers!

Why The Chickens Cross The Road...

      not exactly the birds I was hoping to attract to my feeders....

still, they are fun to have around.

                            ahhhh, now that's more like it....



Winter Gardening and Hellebores....

So it's always a mixed bag for me for the month of January.  After the rush of a busy fall landscaping season its rather nice to enjoy the slower pace of the new year, thinking ahead to my spring gardens, planning ahead for the warmer April- May weather to come.  I love looking through all the plant catalogues now, perusing the new introductions and thinking of spots in the garden where I can cram in just one or two more perennials. (there's always room for more, right?)

right???

It's been so relatively mild though this winter, with so little snow on the ground that I've found myself actually out in the garden more... usually in winters' past I've just admired it from the warmth of my living room window, cup of coffee in hand...

I tend to be a rather lazy gardener in the fall.  I tell myself that I leave the seed heads on the echinacea and black-eyed susans for the birds, but really... by October and November with the shorter days and cooler temps, I'm entering my 'winter-hibernation-mode'. 

January gets me thinking again though...



Cinnamon Snow Helleborus

 Being a landscaper avails me to all sorts of fun new plant introductions and three that are already on my order list are some of the newest Hellebores.  If you haven't paid attention to them lately the world of Hellebores is exploding with new cultivars, many of them intended to start blooming in December and continue on through February!  It would be so much more fun to stroll through the gardens on these recent mild days and see some of these looking back at me!



Pink Frost Helleborus

  

Josef  Lemper Helleborus

 

Hellebores are fabulous plants, relatively carefree once established and do well with partial sun to dappled shade.  Their foliage is evergreen and the flowers bloom in large, long lasting clusters once the plants are a year or two old... I've already grown several others under the shade of my dogwood tree, and they really are low maintenance with a great showing of flowers year after year.

I'm hoping that, by thinking ahead for next winter now (assuming I'll be just as lazy next fall!)  I'll be able to have some of these beauties in my own garden, blooming until the first bulbs start to pop their heads up in spring.... when I'm ready to get out there and join them.

Give me a call 432.0788 or drop us an email if you'd like a few of these for your own garden... I'd be happy to share the hellebore love!