Love your Plants
Spring is a time we all get antsy. After a winter not being able to get into the gardens, then having to deal with the temperature ups and downs, and 30” of snow in late March that set every gardener’s dreams back two to three weeks. Living here gives us the understanding that it’s something we have to deal with and warming weather is coming. Yesterday we had snow at the nursery. Just a reminder to not get too cocky, remember spring doesn’t end until June 21.
This is also the time that nurseries are getting ramped up and start receiving new plants. Most of the plant material is coming from warmer climates and in some cases from Oregon. These wholesale nurseries we purchase from are really anxious to get their orders out so they can start filling empty spaces with new plants to sell. However, we are still experiencing cold night, freezing temperatures and getting this material early is a plant’s worst enemy unless the retail nurseries have a way to protect.
We received a shipment of beautiful plants from Oregon in mid-April and they went immediately into our polyhouse. We bring them out when we know the night time temps are above 36 degrees…that’s kind of our minimum temp for these plants in full leaf. This particular wholesale nursery only ships in early spring so we either take the material or they sell it to other retail nurseries. We are fortunate to have a warm place to store and the workforce to bring in and out of the polyhouse as weather permits. This early order fills up our polyhouse. Seeing this material in our warm and cozy space is like being in a candy store…if you like candy. All the plants are flushed with new growth. We allow customers to walk through and tag plants they want, but none of it leaves our nursery until we know frosty nights are behind us.
When you walk through our nursery today it seems kind of half empty. Well, it is. All the plants you’ll see are ones we’ve over-wintered; they will look much like the plants in your home landscape. We ask our major suppliers, mostly from Ohio where there are major growers, to hold off shipping. Unfortunately, this ‘holding off on shipping up here becomes an issue. These nurseries are selling throughout the Midwest where no frost nights are not an issue. Our orders that Jeri put in last August get truncated because the wholesale nursery can sell those plants to a nursery not having an issue with late frost.
There is much anxiety in our staff working around these impediments. Many customers don’t know of the peril of this material forced in a warm environment and then shipped north. An example of this was a customer that came to pick up plants from our nursery last week, all grown by us and on the same seasonal leafing our schedule as the trees in your yard. This customer came in with other plants from another nursery and the trees were in full leaf. This happened to be a morning where I knew the night time temps. were going to be below freezing. I mentioned this leafed out material will be damaged with low temperatures expected over the next few nights. This same customer stopped by to pick a few other items this week and showed me pictures of how the trees survived the cold nights….all the leaves we shriveled, as expected. Does this kill the tree? No, but it’s a big setback that a plant will struggle with. And, it was all preventable. Keep your plants safe!
Just visited a garden center today finding Hydrangea with 18” of new growth kept outside last night and it was all limp, meaning all of that new growth needs to be cut off. The plants will have to start all over again.
Please love your plants, they will bring you so much joy. When purchased in full leaf this time of year be extra careful when considering planting. If they are plants purchased from the south, most are, or grown in a greenhouse, they need protection until frost isn’t a problem, usually around Memorial Weekend. Keeping in the garage will be enough…don’t forget to water them in the garage. If you read or hear that temps. are 36 degrees or lower, I suggest you keep them protected. It will warm up but it might be a couple weeks.
