Tax Credit to buy Perennials - WOW

Home Renovation Tax Credit - a potential benefit for your business.
With the Home Renovation Tax Credit that benefits both the green industry and homeowners, you should educate your clients about the benefits they are getting when they spend money at your garden centre. Your customers are eligible for the credit that applies to expenditures in excess of $1,000, but not more than $10,000, resulting in a maximum credit of $1,350 ($9,000 x 15%), which cover permanent renovations or improvements to the land.

Examples of HRTC Eligible Expenditures include:

Building an addition, deck, fence, retaining wall or landscaping*

Resurfacing a driveway
Laying new sod
Renovating a kitchen, bathroom, or basement
New carpet or hardwood floors
A new furnace or water heater
Painting the interior or exterior of a house
*Landscaping - must be permanent renovation or improvement to the land on which the dwelling sits. Installation of trees and perennials are an example of this.

For more information please visit: www.canadanursery.com.

Welcome from Hawaii

We've been in Kona on the big island of Hawaii for a full day now and are still quite wacked out from the 5 hour time change and a 17 hour travel day. The change to 80 degree F. is very easy to get used to. We're trying to get organized and will be adding more to this blog later along with some pictures. Incidently, the new 2009 catalogue is now up on our site under "Printed items" for those of you who would like a copy in the bathroom.

Aloha from Betty and Marv

2010 Perennial Plant of the Year

2010 Perennial Plant of the Year Announced

Baptisia australis
The Perennial Plant Association has announced the 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year--Baptisia australis. Read on to learn more about this outstanding perennial and to find out which plants were the runners up.

2010 Perennial Plant Association Perennial Plant of the Year:
Baptisia australis (Blue False Indigo)

Description
This showy native species has been popular with gardeners for many years because it is easy to grow and offers four seasons of interest in the landscape. In mid to late spring, foot long spires of intense indigo blue flowers rise above the foliage, commanding attention in the spring landscape. After the flowers have faded, the trifoliate, soft blue-green foliage takes center stage, forming a sturdy, upright, shrub-like clump to 3-4 feet tall and wide at maturity. It makes a terrific backdrop for other perennials and groundcovers growing at its feet.

Taking the place of the spent flowers are 2-3 inch long, puffy seed pods which emerge green and then turn charcoal black when they ripen in late summer or early fall. They remain well into winter, providing that much sought after winter interest in the landscape.

Baptisia is a very long-lived perennial. Over time, it expands to form a large clump with a deep, extensive root system. It is best left undisturbed and tends to resent transplanting.

Landscape Uses
Because of its commanding size, this shrub-like perennial makes a beautiful specimen on its own or in small groupings. It is commonly used as a backdrop in perennial borders, but also works well in native or meadow plantings. Deer usually do not bother Baptisia, and it attracts butterflies.

Origin
Baptisia australis is a native species of North America commonly found in prairies, meadows, streambanks, and open woods. Early Americans used this plant as a substitute for true indigo from the West Indies which was used to make blue dye. It was the first agricultural crop ever to be subsidized in America.

Culture
Baptisia australis is very easy to grow and requires little maintenance if sited properly. It grows best in full sun, but will tolerate light shade. If it is planted in too much shade, it may not flower and may require staking. Average to poor soil is suitable, as long as it is well-drained. Once established, Baptisia is drought tolerant due to its tough, deep tap root. No serious pests or diseases are known to afflict this plant.

information from Perennial Resource / Walters Gardens

Notes while picking scapes

I think choosing a daylily in fall, after the blooms are gone, is a great time to assess a lot of the criteria. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, may I comment that it is a fine time to assess what the plant did, while not distracted by the bloom. Assessing the age of the scapes as well as the number of bloom scars will tell so much about what that plant contributed that year - was it "worth weeding"?
Here are just a few of my favourites - in no particular order:
1. TURN THE OTHER CHEEK - 57 buds on one scape, and it put up four scapes on four fans.
2. ANGELS LANDING - 37 buds on the second (instant rebloom) scape on three fans.
3. THE FULL MONTY - bloomed constantly for 62 days with brilliant rich pink blooms on tree-trunk-like scapes. Really good value on this plant for sure.
4. TALL DARK AND HANDSOME - instant rebloom, nearly 8 inch blooms that lasted for 22 hours each, starting mid-late afternoon, so got a good two days enjoyment out of each bloom.
5. SHINING LIKE THE SON - bloomed and bloomed and bloomed - and rebloomed.
6. GERTRUDE CONDON - kept the front of the field in Brilliant yellow all late summer into fall. just kept going and going and going and glowing.
7. GUINIVERS GIFT - also kept blooming and reblooming and reblooming.

about that rebloom - the actual definition of rebloom is when a second scape is produced by the same fans as produced the first (not a second scape on different fans in the same clump);
not everything that is registered as rebloom, reblooms. depends on your zone and climate.
not everything that is not registered as a rebloomer, doesn't rebloom. Like the Korth plants. they are not registered as rebloomers, but they do.
Actually, in my opinion, rebloom per se is over-rated. I am more interested in the total number of blooms a plant produces for me in a season. I would rather have no rebloom on a plant that gives me 30 blooms than to have rebloom on one that gives me 3 blooms on each of three rebloom scapes.

comments and discussion are welcomed.

Happy New Year

Betty and I want to thank you for your continued patronage of Floral and Hardy Gardens in 2008 and wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

We are happy to announce the launch of our new website. This project has been long awaited and has had many false starts, but finally it is a reality. It has been a huge undertaking to enter all the data, but once in, maintenance will be much easier. Adding, deleting and modifying data doesn't require a page re-write as before, and the on-line shopping cart and wish list will hopefully make browsing and selecting easier. If you haven't yet visited it, you can find it at Floral and Hardy Gardens.

This has been an exciting winter everywhere, and we are no exception. This morning, however, dawned clear and cold and cloudless. It doesn't get much better. We had a couple more inches of light fluffy snow overnight and everything looks pristine again. The photo above was taken a few minutes ago from our "Tower cam" which is mounted halfway up the tower that we use for high speed Internet connectivity. The black things that you see at the top of the picture are what remain of 150' of shade house. They collapsed during our first big snow storm before I could get out there and shore them up. Another spring project.

Betty has been working around the clock putting the finishing touches on our 2009 catalogue and it will be going to the printer tomorrow or the next day and in the mail shortly after. When completed you can download your own copy if you like by selecting Printed Items under Categories on our website.

With these projects behind us, we will be off to Hawaii and January 8th for a 3 week stay on both the big island of Hawaii and the island of Kauai. Betty's sister and her husband will be joining us and we are SOOOO looking forward to it.

We will have our trusty little laptop with us to we will continue to answer emails, perform website maintenance and hopefully contribute to this badly ignored blog.

Last day of Winter! Spring is coming!

GOOD MORNING!! Betty here. Apparently we are experiencing our last day of winter today - and as I look outside and see all this white out here, it is certainly evident that spring has yet to appear. Tomorrow that will all change, right? Actually, probably this long dragged out winter is a good thing for us. Is it possible then, that when spring actually comes, it will do so, and stay, rather than teasing us with the freeze-thaw and snow and melt cycles we have come to expect in the past few years? January gave us a big thaw, followed by HUGE winds and then massive rains and then of course the obligatory -17 temperatures immediately afterwards. Those poor plants.
Having said that, during the last -22 degree temperatures, Marv and I drove to Zeeland Michigan to pick up our new spring plants. We just had the BEST time - oh my - Walters Gardens is a great place. Acres and acres of greenhouses, and they are the largest perennial wholesale supplier in North America. And such very lovely nice people too. Well, with all the snow around, and the cold temperatures, when their president Evan took me on a tour through their greenhouses, it was just overwhelming - and yes - I admit it - I cried with joy. What a sight - all those heuchera in their glorious colours. Of course the plants were all dormant, so there were lots of wintery looking plants too - but oh my - it truly did not matter. If you get a chance - do it - go to a garden show or a greenhouse - it does your heart good. And if you cannot do that, email me, I will go out to our little greenhouse and take some photos and send them - or perhaps post them on here.
What's new this year? Marv says I buy plants "like a drunken sailor". I guess there are so few plants I don't love. In the greenhouse right now are blooming the new pulmonarias. I have photos but at the moment cannot find the link cable to download them to this site - when I find it, I can show you. OH MY - the lovely blooms and the great leaves on those spring plants. The new heucheras are pretty. And with the change in our climate, the much touted Villosa drought hardiness gene is going to be very welcome. Our new Hostas are looking very promising too. Yes, I probably should have left them dormant - but getting boxes of new plants is better than Christmas, and I just couldn't help myself. It's the whole kid-in-a-candy store idea. And my will power is not one of my strong points. There are so many plants I would love to show you that perhaps the best plan is to find that camera cable and write with photos. So I will sign off for now and get back later with more information. If you have suggestions or questions I am happy to try to work those in as well.
Thanks - and have a GREAT last day of Winter.

How to find us

Every year a number of people have trouble finding our place on Conestogo Lake. Admittedly, the map on our website is not very good, and getting here can be quite confusing for someone not familiar with the area. Recently, I discovered Google maps and so far I am very impressed with its capabilities. It seems much better than MapQuest.

To get custom directions and maps from YOUR HOME to our place just click on the link below (but read to the end of the instructions first.)

A Google Map will come up showing our location. On the left of the screen, click on the "Floral and Hardy Gardens" link. When a window pops up, click on Get directions "TO HERE". Enter your home address complete with street number, street, city and country separated by commas. Then click on "Go" to create your custom instructions. At the top right of the map you can find a PRINT button to print it out. The instructions are incredible. Enjoy the trip through our beautiful countryside. You may want to print these instructions first.


Now you can click on the link below

How to get to Floral and Hardy

GWMG Day in the Garden Sunday February 25 more added plants contest winners Fine Gardening Magazine - Indian Giver DL, Tiarella BLACK SNOWFLAKE, Heuchera Lime RIckey; DL KWANSO VARIEGATA; caramel heuchera; peach flambe heuchera; britt marie crawford Ligularia; MRS BETTY RANICAR helleborus, Hosta BLue angel; Brunnera Looking glass; twilight hosta

Last gasps of Winter 2007

Hello - there is but a very short time to write this winter - soon it will be SPRING!! So - for now, it is -12 and 21 kph winds. The sky is severe clear and there are no clouds to be seen. AND - hooray - we spotted a few areas where snow is gone, and black dirt is visible. The sidewalk beside the house still has nearly 3 feet of snow - definition of a sidewalk - a place where snow collects! We just returned yesterday from Piqua Ohio where we attended our very first HOSTA COLLEGE - what a great bunch of people! And those who know me well will hardly believe (but it is true!) that there was an auction and I bought nothing. UNBELIEVABLE but true. Have I turned a corner? With the Daylily Can Am coming up, that will be the ultimate test - can I do it? Do I want to?
Changes : we are adding more cultivars to the daylily availability - from SONGSPARROW gardens in Wisconsin. And that means they should be good and hardy and tough.
We are planning to do whatever it takes to empty out our "C" field of liliums. So if you are interested in some, let me know. At the moment they are under snow, but if you want some added to your order, we can do that. It's hard to believe we are planning to start shipping in just 20 days. It has to warm up a whole lot before that. The Gold Strike Brunnera are still under several feet of snow. Usually we can see lots of smoke from the Maple Syrup shacks this time of year, but so far, none. ACH but tomorrow is spring so it should happen soon, right? The plants in the greenhouse are certainly perking up, and it seems they certainly "know" it is time.
Hosta College was awesome - what a great bunch of people. BIGGEST thing we learned was more about Hosta VIrus X, and how to prevent the spread, and how massive the problem is now. Very cool things - like - the various hostas show symptoms at different rates. Tiaras will show symptoms in only 17 days after infection, whereas others can take up to 3 years. There IS NO CURE. Slugs do not transport the virus, and that virus can live on your weed whacker or root knife for three weeks! And it was again emphasized just how little it takes to spread this virus from one infected plant to another.
The best thing about Hosta College was all the really neat people we got to meet and visit with. Oh my- if I began to list them, someone would be forgotten. What a lovely bunch of people though.
So at this point, still in winter, I will sign off for today, and chat with you again in the next season. May your spring be a wonderful one. Hugs and blessings.

Stratford Garden Festival

March 1 thru 4 Betty and I setup and staffed a booth at the Stratford Garden Festival. We had the help of good friend Willa Wick from Harriston. Because of the terrible winter weather conditions throughout that time period, Betty opted to stay over at the Queens hotel, and I (Marv) attempted to commute from home since we have a heated greenhouse, and everything (including the house) is heated with wood.

Willa, living even farther north of us didn't even make it in until Saturday, then stayed over with Betty. I made it home Thursday night, but couldn't get out Friday.



Friday was slow, but the other 3 days had a remarkably good turnout. Great to chat with old friends, hand out catalogues, sell a whole bunch of hosta roots, but most of all just talk all weekend about gardens and spring.

We brought all our stuff home Sunday nite and then continued work on Betty's 45 minute PowerPoint talk scheduled for Thursday March 8 at Canada Blooms in the Toronto Convention Center.

...........................Willa at our booth ................ ........... Marv grabbing brekky

Day in the Garden

Betty just left the house on her way to "Day in the garden" in Guelph. This is a full day of camaraderie and gardening seminars and general good fun. Now, while the cat is gone, I have this wonderful opportunity to say what I like, and once it is published, there is no putting it back in the bottle. Right? Unfortunately, we live very boring and un-eventful lives and there just is no juicy gossip to pass along. Anybody interested in some Florida real estate?


"Get a jump on spring" held at the Toronto Botanical Gardens is now behind us. While there we were thrilled to get to meet Beryl Harris in person. Not only is she a Master Gardener and a prolific writer on garden subjects, but the daylily named after her is one of Betty's favourites. The picture to the left shows them chatting, with Gold Strike in the foreground.


In addition to our normal tasks at this time of year, we are going to be manning a booth at the Stratford Garden Festival this Friday thru Sunday. We pushed all our furniture back and are setting it up full-scale in the middle of our house. Hopefully, this will minimize any surprises when we do it for real in Stratford.

Betty is also in the throes of putting together a Power Point presentation for her talk at Canada Blooms. It is a big job and since it has become one of the foremost horticultural shows in Canada, she will be along side some incredible gardening gurus, so second best definitely will NOT do.




I just looked out the window, and there are a couple of young deer having breakfast on our cedar row. First time I have seen them up by the house this winter. I guess with the heavy snow cover we now have, the buffet table is starting to get sparse.





This is a photo of our heifers wandering around nonchalantly in a snowstorm. Conestogo lake is visible in the background. Our house is out of sight to the right.


By the way, just make sure when ordering that you check the sold outs and additions to the right side of this blog. This is the most current information. Sometimes it takes us a few days to get the inventory on the website updated.

Jump on Spring today

Good morning - and what a great day today!! Hmm - it promises to be... so far just dark and cold. BUT we are heading to Toronto for the Jump on Spring programme at the Toronto Botanical Gardens after our "Staff meeting" in the hot tub in a few moments, and after we blow out the driveway. Since I wanted to show off BRUNNERA GOLD STRIKE at the Stratford Garden Festival March 1-4, I brought it inside a few weeks ago. Well, it is blooming to beat the band right now. Our house is heated hydronically, and we neglected to put a cold area in, so it is leaping ahead perhaps a bit more than ideal for a show still 10 days from now. (I am SO thrilled - my sister is coming to visit from B.C. - so that week is going to be a very busy one - as well, I am doing a talk at our local (Maryborough) hort society that week - a dry run for the Canada Blooms talk - "Low Maintenance Gardening by a High Maintenance Woman". ) that was too much a run-on sentence.
However - as I am on a soapbox, I will add one more rant that a friend of mine sent me - and surely we can all sympathize. It follows" Well it has seriously started, Cabin Fever.
I got a call last week from someone in my garden club and she was just ranting. Why aren't there any garden shows. Why don't any of these station have gardening.... where is it...
Well in the back of my head I recognized it. Cabin Fever or lack of being in the garden. Understanding Cabin Fever and often having to restrain myself from trying to take my early morning walk with coffee in hand in the yard....because there is two feet of snow still there, I sympathized with her. I too had in previous years noted how networks have a cycle of show programming. And the fall/winter cycle is home renovations...Gardening coming in the spring and summer. What was apparent to me was that the networks simply do not have Gardeners on the programming boards. Yes there are one or two here and there but likely less that 1/2 % of all current viewing.
So being the good little action oriented person I was I sent a message to HGTV about these. Very specifically I noted to them that Gardeners as much as we like to see the garden shows in spring and summer, we are in the yard in the spring and summer. When we need garden shows is: NOW!! The underlined section below is the response I received.
""As you can imagine, planning and implementing a schedule that will please everyone is a very challenging task and one that is taken very serious here at HGTV. In order to facilitate this process, ratings and viewer feedback are what is used to make decisions when it comes to programming. These two criteria have indicated that viewers are tuning into home-improvement and home décor programming – which is why we are showing more of those kinds of programs. (the fact that these are the only showing at this time of year might be the reason for that also.)
Gardening show requests too are taken into consideration and as a result you will be pleased to know that this spring HGTV will be airing three new gardening or gardening-related programs: Digging Deep, Green Force, and Urban Outsiders and new episodes of the Canadian original series, Take It Outside, as well as encore presentations of Outer Spaces. Our spring schedule starts the first week of April. Please check our website, hgtv.ca, for additional programming information.""
Nice to know and Yippee for new shows, but I have seen Take it Outside and it is a strange show about building decks and living space outside not gardening.
So it appears that they need viewer demand to have more gardening shows. I would invite you and as many people as you can share this message with, to ask for more garden programming.
This is the HGTV contact site, but don't stop there. Go to the website of any station or network you watch and put the demand in. Gardeners need (note need, not just want) Gardening shows NOW, just looking at garden catalogues is not enough!!.. More Canadian based Garden Shows!!
http://www.hgtv.ca/hgtv/faq.aspx#contactus
Now I am going to go look at some of my old vhs tapes of last summer's garden shows."

SO - the coffee pot says it wants to go outside. See you tomorrow... :)
Have a safe and joy-filled day.
Betty

Daylilies added for sale

GOOD MORNING!!! and yes - this is Betty again. and NO I did not die or otherwise vacate this mortal coil. 'Bin busy keeping up, keeping up. So the first thing I did this morning was to add 55 cultivars to the ADDED FOR SALE items. You see them first here - they have yet to be added to the Daylily list - only here on the blog. OOPS Marv is heading out for our morning Staff meeting (Hot tub with a cuppa) so I have to run. Back soon. Contest - I will add a plant of my choosing to your order this year for every error you find on our web page. ALSO - a plant added to your Order this year - my choosing again, but it will be something I like - if you can tell me what same Name appears for sale for each of Hemerocallis (Daylily), Hosta and Heuchera. start digging!! And yes, I have finished the Ontario Daylily Newsletter. It is printed, collated, stapled and stuffed into labelled envelopes - stuffed during Grey's Anatomy last night - so I hope people like it. Gotta tell you - very few photos - and yes - 18 pages of information. SO - if you want a great daylily club to join, consider the ODS. Gotta run - my coffee is steaming out there in the -14 degree air. brrrr. Big hugs. Betty

View of our north deck this morning. Just beyond the small greenhouse is the hot tub in which we enjoy our first cup of coffee every morning.

This is proving to be a very busy time of year. Payback, I guess, for the wonderful kick-back time in Hawaii. We have continued to get lots of snow and cold weather. Just now as I look out of the window, a light fluffy blanket is descending - so heavy that I can't see 10 feet.

There are orders to fill, inventory adjustments to make, plant labels to print.
Electrical wiring, bench construction, computer and shipping areas to construct in our new "header house, installation of an new drip watering system throughout our three greenhouses, supplier shows and seminars to attend, booths to plan and prepare for shows in which we participate.
And of course, there is the website and blog to update. We are also working on an e-commerce addition to our site that will allow you to complete your order on line with a "real time" inventory.

Within a week we will be "waking up" some of our dormant plants to get early growth prior to shipping. The heated greenhouse takes very close attention this time of year. Half of the day we have to ensure that it doesn't drop below freezing, but if the sun emerges, we have to rush out and turn on the fans to keep temperatures below 60 F. so the plants don't grow on too fast.

Our greenhouse (as well as house, hot water, hot tub etc.) is heated with hot water by an outdoor wood burning furnace. First and last thing each day I go out and stoke it up with about 20, 30 to 40 lb. logs. The stove can handle pieces up to 24" D. and up to 5' long and we burn about 50 t0 60 cords per winter. I cut the logs to a convenient length, but don't have to split them. I just discovered a leak in a rubber hose connected to the bottom of the tank filled with 190 degree water. Changing this is going to be quite a challenge to do without scalding myself. I'll let you know how I do.

This is our tractor and generator on left set up and waiting for the next power failure. Below on the right is a view of our woodpile. I've already used 2/3 of it this winter. I store it in the driving shed and carry it out to the stove.

Betty passes on her regards. She is busy taking orders and doing all the paperwork, but promises to do the next installment.

Last day of January and winter sure has arrived

Surprise, surprise, this is Marv and my first attempt at writing a Blog. This is usually Betty's venue, but what the heck, I'll give it a try.

Winter has sure arrived here with a vengeance. Temperatures have been around -10 to -20 for the last week and we are expecting the same for the coming week.

In spite of this, first thing every morning we run from our bedroom across the snow to our 105 degree f. hot tub where we spend about a half hour and consume our first pot of coffee.

Following this, Betty generally heads for her desk and gets started on mail and orders and fielding phone calls.

My early morning chores include checking the heifers and cats in the barn, ensuring they are fed and watered. Frozen water lines can be a continuing irritation at this time of year. Then I check the greenhouses. We have only one heated, and presently it is kept at around 5 degrees just to keep alive the annual plantings for next year.
If it has snowed, I get out the Kubota tractor with front-mount snow blower and clear out around the house and down the driveway. If you have high speed Internet, check out out cameras. They are presently working, but we have had major problems with our camera hosting company, and they have been quite unreliable at times. We're still working on it. You can find them at

http://www.videoprotein.com/videoprotein/layouts/drivecam/listing.html
http://www.videoprotein.com/videoprotein/layouts/TowerCam/listing.html.

You need to have Java 2SE installed to view the cameras. If you don't have it, you can get it here for free. https://sdlc3d.sun.com/ECom/EComActionServlet;jsessionid=0BDB1ED2319F1C669E5951431C81D5FE

We are going to attempt to be more diligent in making regular posts here. This blog will now be used to communicate with you, and the long E-gardener newsletter tradition (started by Ron and Dianne Crawford) will sadly be dis-continued. It will make it much easier to update you more frequently. Sending out thousands of emails was not only very time consuming, but at each mailing dozens of them bounced due to address changes.

Betty says HI

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig

Finally!! we got home to Wintery Ontario early this morning. Driving through white-outs and blizzard conditions, we were in serious doubt as to the wisdom of returning. We left Kauai for THIS? oh my. But our Maine Coon cat Sammy was at the back door drumming to be admitted to the house not 3 minutes after we got back. We know at least he has a better memory than a gold fish, and certainly has perseverence. Markus had done a great job of taking care of the place in our absence - thank you, Markus - and at the office, Dr. Krista had likewise been the glue that kept the pieces together. Thank you Dr. Krista!
Our last week on Kauai was "interesting" and included a 411 and EMT experience, but all is well now. It's great having reliable phone and email service again. We have called a few people to say we are back, and started getting the fridge filled up, and getting a few pieces of mail opened. YES _ the bills first.
From what we hear, the 8 inches of white stuff was not here the whole time we were gone, and so of course a visit to the greenhouses was in order. All seems to be well. It is very cool, being able to see the various degrees as it were of dormancy of the daylilies - some are just - dirt pots. Others - well - one would not be surprised to see a scape appear. And yet - by the time they bloom, one cannot tell which was sleeping and who pulled an "all-nighter". The heucheras still look awesome. The Gold Strike Brunnera - well, I think I am going to take some into the warm greenhouse so that it gets a start and hopefully, with pure luck, might have some blooms by the time the Stratford Garden Show rolls around March 1-4 - be there if you can. Then after that it is Canada Blooms time, and then we start shipping. Oh my - time sure flies - I must be getting older. And YES - it is for sure better than the alternative. Today was a busy day putting in orders that arrived by fax and mail in my absence. We had enough internet to actually process the email orders that came in, while on Kauai. I am always surprised how some cultivars sell out so quickly. So far I am guessing about 10 are done for. So - if you are mailing in orders, please select substitutes if necessary, as we are not choosing substitutes for people this year. And that is not poorer service, but evidence that we are listening to our feedback. Remember to get your orders up over $50 so that you are paying for plants and not postage. And remember to include your garden markers and labels along with the list of plants. Tomorrow is a busy day at Landscape Ontario in Toronto, and then and end-of-year accounting day at the practice. Company all weekend - busy busy busy - life is good - we are truly blessed. Be safe, and remember to appreciate everything around you. I may sound like I am complaining but no - I am truly grateful for the opportunity to live in the best place on earth. g'nite all.

Continuing to be surprised

Hi and good day again
What a day yesterday was!! It was a banner day in many ways - I walked the whole 5 miles to Kapa'a and am SO proud of myself! After that we went to Bubba's for a burger (their logo says "we cheat tourists, drunks and attorneys" - so why were we there?) We were only hungry tourists. Then we drove to a place we have not been before - and those are becoming more rare on this island - but oh my - what a cool place!! Why never before? Because it is almost always shrouded in clouds. And we thought it was a good day to be adventurous so away we went. And lo and behold - wow - it was severe clear when we got up to the Kalalau Valley on the Napali Coast. Amazing. And even in the midst of all that new beauty, what was there on the side of the canyon road? Hardly could believe it. Huge walls of 15 foot high, basketball size Blue Hydrangeas. How awesome. The soil here is so very acidic and there is awesome drainage and almost limitless rain. The plants are SO happy. We followed this 4000 foot climb with a few hours on Poliale Beach which - oh my - has to be my FAVOURITE beach in the world. Though, admittedly, my knowledge of the world's best beaches is somewhat limited. There seems to be a pretty much limited size for our basic house plants, at about 15 feet high. That applies to Bougainvilla, Hydrangeas, Crotons, Ferns, Hibiscus, and on and on goes the list. We had just the BEST salad greens last night, grown in Kilauea. The lettuce was just the most tender, sweetest and best we have ever had. This soil here is amazing. The rain, the heat, the sun. Oh my. If I were a plant, it would be as close to heaven as possible to be.
Our catalogues have been getting to people, and so far, we need to say - unfortunately, there was a crop failure and NORTHPORT is not available.
Wishing you all well, watching after sunset. Betty

Christmas in Kaua'i

Good morning and Merry Christmas from Kaua'i!! For some reason today I cannot turn off the underline in this editor, so we are stuck with it. Thank you so very much for the wonderful emails we received and the great comments and encouragement from friends who are saying we should keep writing this blog on a regular basis.
So - what do you think - ahhh - the underline is GONE!! Hooray!!
So - isn't that amazing red dirt? it is like that so much of Kaua'i. Pretty amazing contrast really. I am not a geologist, but since this is nearly the oldest of the Hawai'ian Islands, it has undergone the most erosion. and with that, there is now wonderful rich soil. How, though, do we correlate this amazing red rich soil to the black smooth rocks that line the beaches? and the nearly white sand? Such contrast! Such beauty!! At the moment I am overlooking Kaua'i beach, watching the waves roll in on the shore, what an amazing beauty. And black swans and muscovy ducks paddling about in a tide pool, people with fishing poles stuck into the sand, and the constant rolling in of the waves. The wave faces are 8 to 10 feet, and a good rule of thumb is - if the Hawaiians are not in the water - you stay out too. And so - no one is in the water. Actually, the beach is remarkably empty. We attended an amazing Christmas Eve Candlelight service last night, it was great - and are heading out soon for a rediculously oppulent Christmas Brunch at the Hyatt - hey - it's Christmas, and since we ahve no family here to be with, who better than a bunch of Hawaiians.... We are looking forward to a great day, and hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Blessings to all -Betty and Marv

Coffee in Kaua'i

Good morning, all, Happy December 23rd!! The waves are high today again, with 15 to 20 foot faces, and some actually being twice that. The waves come in 13 seconds apart. But with the warnings out, people are not supposed to be out there playing in the waves. Riptides and such. A few years ago, my sister-in-law's sister got taken quite a way out with one - we are very fortunate she survived - many have not. We are moving resorts today, and so the next post will be when I have internet again. Until then, Merry Christmas, and Mele Kalikimaka.
Yesterday a trip out to the local coffee plantation was very very interesting. Kaua'i coffee is not as famous as Kona coffee, but wow - we are sure impressed with this operation here! I thought that coffee was grown in the mountains - you know - Juan Valdez with his mule and all. It turns out the reason for that is the amount of rainfall in the mountains. This coffee plantation is on the driest coast of Kaua'i. So - what gives? Well, coffee trees are not elevation sensitive, but very thirsty. This plantation has irrigation drip watering hoses to each and every tree on their 3400 acres. OH MY. Over 2000 miles of hose. Marv - that is a LOT of hose to maintain. The trees are pruned down to less than four feet in height just now in December, begin to grow again and bloom in February, and are ready to harvest by machine at their 10 foot height by September to November next year. By harvesting by machine, this plantation uses 57 people instead of a comparable labour force of over 3000. The processing of the cherries and beans and everything is so automated and so precise that they are able to get a very consistent result on their coffees. We were both very impressed. We even subscribed to their "coffee of the month" club, where they will send us Kaua'i coffee each month for the whole year. When you visit us, ask me for a cup of it and I will be THRILLED to oblige.
What do we grow at home - hemerocallis (daylilies), hostas and heucheras. What do we see here? NO Hostas or heucheras - they need the cold hibernation period. Daylilies are grown on the Big Island in a few places - we visited them other years. And of course, they were not blooming when we were there, which may be another reason they are not in favour here. After all, if the other plants bloom constantly, why grow something that doesn't?
I check the weather channel every morning to see what is happening at home and note there is lots of chance of a green Christmas. Then, while the screen is up, I also check the various places where I have family and friends. It's my way of connecting with each of them. While their weather is loading, I say a little prayer for them. Some people need me to have real slow dial-up and some are ok with high speed.
Tonight we are planning on the Waimea Lighted parade, which is always a lot of fun, and one of the best, happiest and most community-minded Christmas parades we have ever seen. So after sunset tonight, that is where we will be. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and we plan to go to a service here, and then well - hopefully - we will all have a WONDERFUL AMAZING CHRISTMAS DAY!
Mele Kalikimaka from us to you -
May your day be filled with joy.
Betty

Pause in Poipu

Hi and good afternoon - our morning was very relaxing, a walk along the beach, high tide and big waves, surfers out there, and lots of people on vacation. But everyone is SO nice - the spirit of ALOHA is actually enshrined in law here. It is MANDATED that you are wonderful and friendly and nice to everyone - malama - helping people is important. Every time we come,we are amazed at how many people read on vacation. It is an excellent escape when you are escaping physically as well. Construction here is advancing as quickly as if it were mainland. too bad.
Are you familiar with this word - Vespiary - From word a day from Wordsmith. This week's theme: blend words. vespiary (VES-pee-er-ee) noun; A nest or colony of wasps. [Blend of Latin vespa (wasp) and apiary (a place where bees are kept).] I'm sure many of us have had to deal with a vespiary. New words are so cool. and knowing how to pronounce them - a REAL bonus.
Overwintering geraniums was a topic on the Master Gardener forum a bit ago. The conversation went to the simplest method of keeping them over. The suggestions were:
1.)I dug up all my geraniums, shook the dirt off and placed them in paper bags and put the paper bags in a cold room. In late Feb, I soaked the roots for a few days, and potted them up. After a few weeks, I took cuttings from the new growth. It worked pretty well.
2.)I have also potted up a couple of plants and put in sunny windows and let them bloom. In late Feb/early March, I have taken cuttings. Some of the smaller parent plants continued to grow and I put them out in spring. Using this method, I have had blooms all winter.
what about using old carpet -

1. we use strips of carpeting in the field paths in some areas. in our blue mucky wet clay, it h on when trying to get through the field rows. however, we have only about 5 % or so of the rows done this way. This coming spring we are planning to pull up those rows of carpeting when we redo those fields.
2. one of the master gardeners reports that in the community garden she is in, carpet is used in the paths between the plots; they are taken up every fall and put back down every spring, and they last for many seasons. the thoughtis that they would think in a home garden they would work better between plantings, rather than trying to cover an entire bed and planting through it. It does a fabulous job of suppressing weeds, by the way.
3. another master gardener wrote - 10 years ago, when the liner for our swimming pool had to be replaced, the installer decided to "carpet" the bottom of the hole before putting the new liner in. He did this because the grouted surface had some rough spots and carpeting was a cheaper solution than trying to regrout. As I recall, bright green indoor-ourdoor carpeting was laid down and then the liner was put in and the pool was filled. It gave the bottom of the pool a "cushy" feel that it had not had with just the grouted surface underneath. I am sure the expectation was that this carpet would not break down, at least not quickly - and I can tell you for sure that, 10 years later, the bottom still feels as if the carpet is there.
4. Lasagna gardening - Perhaps carpets of natural fibres and with no backing might be biodegradeable - but I expect that, even if it was, it would take considerably longer to break down than does newspaper - which takes long enough as it is. I have used layers of newspaper too, knowing that I can cut through it with my spade to make planting holes. I think that, if carpet was used in a bed,it would be a difficult job to cut holes in it. But perhaps it could be fitted around the plants after they are planted. It could also be useful under pond liners or in an area where you wanted to make a grade change - put it down and cover it with topsoil. It would probably also be good between the rows in a vegetable garden.
5. I have heard of old carpet being used to protect roses over winter in very cold places such as Calgary.
6. I am an avid lasagna gardener and an even greater carpet enthusiast. I use carpet in many many ways ... under paths with wood chip on top to slow the break down of the wood chip in pathways, outside a garden shed to slow down mud tracking, underneath the branches of almost every shrub I own to retain moisture , as pathways in garden rows to increase moisture retention, on top of weedy sections of various gardens to create next year's beds...( by the way nothing works better than throwing a few bags of leaves underneath with some birdseed esp. cracked corn that won't germinate) ( this brings all the garden mice and they work wonders for you over a winter. ). I have become a connoisseur of discarded carpets... pure wool burlap backed being the most sought after and continuous filament nylon being the disaster option.... (it runs for miles and never breaks down) ... but I would never use it in lasagne gardening as I want the layers to eventually create a divine soilbed... Cardboard yes newspapers and almost every other carbon based fibre product... but not unfortunately carpet... Still don't pass by a good used rug on clean up week.

Lots of frangipani/plumeria being pruned severely this week. And - the pruning pieces are then sold as starts for plants overseas - which is everywhere from here - tee hee. The 12 foot trees are cut nearly back to their trunks at about 4 feet and all the 1 inch branches will be made into 8 inch long pieces to be sold. what a great way to have beautiful plants, and also create a harvest and recycle plant material.

wishing you all ALOHA and all good things. Blessings -
Betty