A Grower Perspective

  Walk out and cut some flowers or lots of flowers and make bouquets for all over your home. By doing this you encourage more flowers on your perennials. Just cut today: lavender, white lavender, veronica, grasses, salvia.

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 We started doing something new at our weekly company meetings at Pleasant Hill Nursery.  At each meeting, someone has to bring in a plant from the nursery and educate everyone about that plant.  The goal is to help those with less knowledge to become more educated about plants.  Truth is, we all learn something. 

It was my turn this week and I chose Rosa rugosa.  It was one of my mom's many favored plants.  Dave remembers her collecting seed and starting her own Rosa rugosas.  (I'm grateful he has these memories from her days being around her in the nursery.) I researched this plant and had great fun sharing my new findings with the group.  Here's what I learned about

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 It's good to see that everyone is working hard at the nursery!

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For those of you who only shop nurseries in the spring, you are short-changing yourself. It is really ideal to visit nurseries several times throughout the year. If you make an annual pilgrimage in spring, you are only seeing the things that bloom or look their best at that time. If you don't shop nurseries in, say March, you might miss the beautiful blooms of Pieris. The same goes if you don't shop nurseries in June, July or August. Miss this summer window and you miss the color offered by Cistus, Crocosmia, daylilies and Rudbekia. And the list goes on.

Another thought - visiting a nursery like ours (Pleasant Hill Nursery) or any other commercial grower-type nursery in late spring may seem

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There are so many wonderful tree varieties - most with interesting attributes that make them worthy of planting. I certainly have my favorite trees but the Mount Fuji Cherry (Prunus serrulata ‘Mt. Fuji’) tops my list.

A very dear friend and former employer of mine, Rhoda Lomsky, had a mature Mt. Fuji cherry tree in her landscape and it was there that I first noticed what a gorgeous tree it was. Her tree, with its thick and somewhat gnarled truck and tree structure, seemed majestic and somehow wise. It was in full magnificent bloom, covered in delicate white flowers that looked so soft and pure next to the aged trunk. With the ground covered in white petals that had begun to fall, it gave the appearance of snow surrounding the tree on a warm spring day.

Not long after my discovery of this tree, I planted one in our own landscape. It was a little whip of a tree, not much to see in the beginning. My thoughts turned to other things in a busy life over the span

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