Sorry for the crummy pictures. I was in a hurry to water/takepictures/rollin racks and fold up the computer. Plus, direct staff for tomorrow morning and make sure we were all loked up and ready to go!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Seminar: Saturday April 18th 2:00pm
It's that time of the year for us where we do seminars and show customers the secret tricks of the trade! Come one, come all! It's very informative and I promise you'll enjoy! If you can't make it, you can always come by later on and ask us a million questions.
Ivy, Greenhouse and herb planter!
This is a little bit out of order but you can see the greenhouse set up and then some planters!
We get two types of hanging basket ivy. One is Baltic, your traditional ivy for the perennial garden and some of the runners on these baskets are six feet because we scoop up old propagation stock before its sold off. It's hardy to the cold, drought tolerant and generally an easy no brainer for ivy. Though I had to add, it IS slow growing, which is why it's nice to have the propagation stock.
Montgomery ivy is our lovely second choice. We've been around the block for selecting nice ivy and we find this one is the nicest. It's more of a tropical than an container plant but when you split it and place one half on one side of your planter, and the other half on theother side, it's a nice filler for immediate BANG for your buck!
The annual side
Annual Racking
Herb planter!
Bird house!
We get two types of hanging basket ivy. One is Baltic, your traditional ivy for the perennial garden and some of the runners on these baskets are six feet because we scoop up old propagation stock before its sold off. It's hardy to the cold, drought tolerant and generally an easy no brainer for ivy. Though I had to add, it IS slow growing, which is why it's nice to have the propagation stock.
Montgomery ivy is our lovely second choice. We've been around the block for selecting nice ivy and we find this one is the nicest. It's more of a tropical than an container plant but when you split it and place one half on one side of your planter, and the other half on theother side, it's a nice filler for immediate BANG for your buck!
The annual side
Annual Racking
Herb planter!
Bird house!
Attack of the gerniums - but Specialty!
If you don't know these by now, you should. They're geraniums. Martha Washingtons. They come in a few varieties and they're really something. Just like regular geraniums, they bloom all summer, enjoy full sun, a bit of cold tolerance, drought tolerant and the really nice thing about them, they don't look like a geranium at all. One of our best sellers still, though we only carry them in spring. The rest of the year, it's the normal geraniums your grandmother buys!
TGIF
When disaster strikes.
My grower came by this morning to bring us nice new product for our seminar. These are new varieties, ones where we had sat down in november and hammered out together as to what to put what in a hanging basket, 6", 4", etc. Whats terrible about the fact that he brought us plants is not that he brought them, but that Andrea accidently dumped them clean over the rank and dropped them, top first. What happened was I was pulling the rack up the ramp and these certain carts we get from another grower unhing themselves, so when I pulled, the top shelf did a flip, dumping the lot on the ground.
And then everyone stood there in shock and then we all had a good laugh at the irony of it. There is always a rack that flips, dumps, whatever, and it's usually product that we need the most. A lot of the times, fate has it that it is usually White Impatients that are in high demand.
Anyways! I have a few catch up posts to do since I've been accumulating pictures and posts in my head and since I'm sitting on my porch, husband off to his astronomy meeting, baby asleep, its a really good time to clump them all together. Little moments like these help.
Cordyline 'Red Star' (Red Star Dracaena - above picture). Fantastic plant, drought tolerant. We covered this last year and now, I've had this plant for roughly two years and I can see that everyone in the greenhouse industry is finally coming out with it. I assume that next year, the market will be flooded with it (but by then, we'll have moved onto something else). Though I have to say, it doesn't seem to be a plant that lacks demand. People want this plant and for us, we only get about 800 pots in shipment and we're trying out the gallon pots this year (bigger plant - not bad in size). These are quarts and they're much cheaper to the gallon and the nice thing about it is it's incredibly drought tolerant.(like I said above, repeating myself because Im listening to the birds rather than paying attention to what im writing). I've dried these babies out to the point of death and they STILL look good. I've never thrown one out to date and desease just doesnt' seem to be a problem. Slow grower but nice with rigid leaves, much like the regular dracaena itself (green spike).
This is what we've done to our office with our spare grapevine from Angelo's garden last year. We're going to grown things on it, possibly morning glory or something similar.
This was what we started with, plus the raspberry pots for planting.
And this little guy is my son, Ian, Peacing out.
My grower came by this morning to bring us nice new product for our seminar. These are new varieties, ones where we had sat down in november and hammered out together as to what to put what in a hanging basket, 6", 4", etc. Whats terrible about the fact that he brought us plants is not that he brought them, but that Andrea accidently dumped them clean over the rank and dropped them, top first. What happened was I was pulling the rack up the ramp and these certain carts we get from another grower unhing themselves, so when I pulled, the top shelf did a flip, dumping the lot on the ground.
And then everyone stood there in shock and then we all had a good laugh at the irony of it. There is always a rack that flips, dumps, whatever, and it's usually product that we need the most. A lot of the times, fate has it that it is usually White Impatients that are in high demand.
Anyways! I have a few catch up posts to do since I've been accumulating pictures and posts in my head and since I'm sitting on my porch, husband off to his astronomy meeting, baby asleep, its a really good time to clump them all together. Little moments like these help.
Cordyline 'Red Star' (Red Star Dracaena - above picture). Fantastic plant, drought tolerant. We covered this last year and now, I've had this plant for roughly two years and I can see that everyone in the greenhouse industry is finally coming out with it. I assume that next year, the market will be flooded with it (but by then, we'll have moved onto something else). Though I have to say, it doesn't seem to be a plant that lacks demand. People want this plant and for us, we only get about 800 pots in shipment and we're trying out the gallon pots this year (bigger plant - not bad in size). These are quarts and they're much cheaper to the gallon and the nice thing about it is it's incredibly drought tolerant.(like I said above, repeating myself because Im listening to the birds rather than paying attention to what im writing). I've dried these babies out to the point of death and they STILL look good. I've never thrown one out to date and desease just doesnt' seem to be a problem. Slow grower but nice with rigid leaves, much like the regular dracaena itself (green spike).
This is what we've done to our office with our spare grapevine from Angelo's garden last year. We're going to grown things on it, possibly morning glory or something similar.
This was what we started with, plus the raspberry pots for planting.
And this little guy is my son, Ian, Peacing out.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
And We're BACK!
So how was winter for everyone? Because lets just say that 20 extra pounds of fat just became my bestfriend over what looked like a single night (whoa! hey! where did YOU come from? And why can't I fit my jeans now.....) and if anyone again tells me that I'm not chunky and a littel overweight, we're going to have some serious words (if there is anything about this greenhouse worker you should know, its false pleasantries is a big no no. Honesty is much better, all the way home. Less confusion in the end).
Insaying that, I have not been without my workouts either, going to the gym, mercilessly trying to take off that 20 lbs that I've put on and squeezing my size 12 butt into a size 9 pair of jeans (okay honey.. it just isn't happening. time to go shopping!). My Chiropractor has recently been having a field day with me due to an old back injury that just refuses to just get over it. With that being said, there's a lot of working out that I've been doing, not to lose weight (though it would be nice) but maintain and fix the broken parts of me. Like all old people of older generations (okay... lets be honest here, 30+ is when you start 'feeling it' ) , the aches and pains have become far more frequent to the point where they just can't be ignored anymore. Through warm ups, stretches, weights and the swimming at six o'clock in the morning, I have to say, I'm jumping and in some wicked sort of mood improvement by the time I have to go to work. Suggestions? Work out in the morning. No word of a lie, i've never been happier (more in pain but happier). It's done some significant amount of work on my back though I'm sad to report, nothing for the waistline. They're at the back of the line.
Onto plants..... (because I'm slowly starting to nod off here).
The Calla Lily of some sort. I'm not a big fan (of above picture). They're pretty, not exciting. And the picture turned out kind of lousy on a cloudy day and Andrea was still recovering from polishing off a bottle of Merlot the day before. Note of awesomeness; it is fabulous whenyou come home and your husband has cooked a beautiful itallian dinner, cracking open a bottle of wine. The craptastic part; finishing that bottle off and THEN realizing that you're A) Drunk B)Not quite able to hold your liquor like you thought you could and C) take poor pictures when Hungover.
Dicentra 'Burning Hearts'. I think this is the plant of 2009. I'm not a hundred percent on that but I didn't see it last year. It's cousin is 'King of hearts'. Basically, its a dwarf variety of Bleeding hearts - the never dying plant. Shade plant, spring bloomer. A really nice colour compared to the other ones.
Helleborus 'Double queen mix'. This is about as exciting as this variety gets. Nice, but I almost missed the flower when shooting the picture. Oh, I beat on this plant. Its so unfair. I love the other varieties, though I hope 'London Fog Strain' (black variety) doesn't come up green. It would be most disappointing to pay a whopping $25 smack-a-roos for a new variety that reverts to green.
(above). That would make me too awesome if I remembered the name of this variety. I know its a new one. The name escapes me. Again, it could be the tired thing. It does happen.
Helleborus 'Honey HillJoy'. I want to say Honey Killjoy for the lack of light I got from shot. But as an aside, I found the colour of this plant rewarding. Helleborus is a shade variety and its evergreen (so you don't have to cut it back). Another thing to recall is that while it'll bloom in the spring, it also blooms in the fall/winter, hence the name, Christmas Rose.
Insaying that, I have not been without my workouts either, going to the gym, mercilessly trying to take off that 20 lbs that I've put on and squeezing my size 12 butt into a size 9 pair of jeans (okay honey.. it just isn't happening. time to go shopping!). My Chiropractor has recently been having a field day with me due to an old back injury that just refuses to just get over it. With that being said, there's a lot of working out that I've been doing, not to lose weight (though it would be nice) but maintain and fix the broken parts of me. Like all old people of older generations (okay... lets be honest here, 30+ is when you start 'feeling it' ) , the aches and pains have become far more frequent to the point where they just can't be ignored anymore. Through warm ups, stretches, weights and the swimming at six o'clock in the morning, I have to say, I'm jumping and in some wicked sort of mood improvement by the time I have to go to work. Suggestions? Work out in the morning. No word of a lie, i've never been happier (more in pain but happier). It's done some significant amount of work on my back though I'm sad to report, nothing for the waistline. They're at the back of the line.
Onto plants..... (because I'm slowly starting to nod off here).
The Calla Lily of some sort. I'm not a big fan (of above picture). They're pretty, not exciting. And the picture turned out kind of lousy on a cloudy day and Andrea was still recovering from polishing off a bottle of Merlot the day before. Note of awesomeness; it is fabulous whenyou come home and your husband has cooked a beautiful itallian dinner, cracking open a bottle of wine. The craptastic part; finishing that bottle off and THEN realizing that you're A) Drunk B)Not quite able to hold your liquor like you thought you could and C) take poor pictures when Hungover.
Dicentra 'Burning Hearts'. I think this is the plant of 2009. I'm not a hundred percent on that but I didn't see it last year. It's cousin is 'King of hearts'. Basically, its a dwarf variety of Bleeding hearts - the never dying plant. Shade plant, spring bloomer. A really nice colour compared to the other ones.
Helleborus 'Double queen mix'. This is about as exciting as this variety gets. Nice, but I almost missed the flower when shooting the picture. Oh, I beat on this plant. Its so unfair. I love the other varieties, though I hope 'London Fog Strain' (black variety) doesn't come up green. It would be most disappointing to pay a whopping $25 smack-a-roos for a new variety that reverts to green.
(above). That would make me too awesome if I remembered the name of this variety. I know its a new one. The name escapes me. Again, it could be the tired thing. It does happen.
Helleborus 'Honey HillJoy'. I want to say Honey Killjoy for the lack of light I got from shot. But as an aside, I found the colour of this plant rewarding. Helleborus is a shade variety and its evergreen (so you don't have to cut it back). Another thing to recall is that while it'll bloom in the spring, it also blooms in the fall/winter, hence the name, Christmas Rose.
More to come when I am focused and varieties are popping in!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Gro op and new additions!
Well this is my beautiful White double helleborus of an unknown variety from a greenhouse in New Zealand, who just lost their greenhouses due to a mega fire (I'm not sure how much is accurate there but I've heard it down the grapevine of greenhouses). At first, like a brainer I am, I shoved it in the full blazing sun, in the hottest room of my house and of course, it starts to yellow..... burnnn.... And I'm like duh! FULL SHADE PLANT ANDREA> WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
See what happens in the off season? The brain shuts down and full scale stay-at-home mom breaks out. Forget about the plants and focus on the baby. Go me.
Needless to say, its in the kitchen now, in the shade and watered very little until it warms up and I can throw it outside.
See what happens in the off season? The brain shuts down and full scale stay-at-home mom breaks out. Forget about the plants and focus on the baby. Go me.
Needless to say, its in the kitchen now, in the shade and watered very little until it warms up and I can throw it outside.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The 29th birthday gifts
So for my birthday, my husband bought me seeds for growing a vegetable garden. it's march, its a little late but I think if I get them going now, I can have them up and ready by the begining of may (which is too cold to plant anyways).
We're going out for a shelf today and i'm going to errect my growing seeds next to the sliding door.
FUN? Lots of fun... Hazardous to little grabby hands of a 17 month old? Very.
The entire gift collection included:
1 Smutty book + A large Black Cock (C'mon people. A rooster!) + Seeds = a very happy birthday indeed!
We're going out for a shelf today and i'm going to errect my growing seeds next to the sliding door.
FUN? Lots of fun... Hazardous to little grabby hands of a 17 month old? Very.
The entire gift collection included:
1 Smutty book + A large Black Cock (C'mon people. A rooster!) + Seeds = a very happy birthday indeed!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Melanie Hicks
Melanie Karleen Hicks
It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our dear Melanie on Sunday, February 15, 2009 in her fortieth year. She was the beloved wife of Hugh Alexander MacKay of Woodbridge, ON, treasured daughter of Thomas and Karleen Hicks of Parham, ON and much adored daughter-in-law of Hugh and Margaret MacKay of Strathroy, ON. She will be sadly missed and was loved by her siblings Heather Jordan (Clayton) of Bath, ON, Thomas Hicks Jr. (the late Alayne) of Parham, ON, Edward Hicks (Christina) of Yarker, ON, Erin Hickey (Stephen) of Odessa, ON, and Alison Hicks (Clayton Shorrock) of Kingston, ON and sisters-in-law Marilyn MacKay (Scott Geddes) of Windsor, NS and Heather MacKay (Duncan Graham) of Toronto, ON. Melanie will be forever remembered by six nephews, eight nieces, one great nephew and two great nieces. The funeral will be held at Goodfellows Funeral Home in Parham, ON on February 28th, 2009 at 1 pm. Visitation will start at 12 pm. Donations to Epilepsy Canada are encouraged.
[all information/pictures credit to http://www.goodfellowsfuneralhome.com/]
Further information will be posted about the memorial.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Death in the family
In Ontario, we've lost one of our own. Melanie Hicks. She died of a seizure on Sunday, feb. 15th.
I don't know the details. She worked with me at the greenhouse, very knowledgeable, smart, funny, quirky and extremely original. She knew a lot about plants, more than any of us and she had just gotten married last year, turning forty this year. She was huge in the plant world, networked everywhere. I don't believe there isn't a person she didn't know.
I can't say piles right now because the loss for me is huge.
I don't know the details. She worked with me at the greenhouse, very knowledgeable, smart, funny, quirky and extremely original. She knew a lot about plants, more than any of us and she had just gotten married last year, turning forty this year. She was huge in the plant world, networked everywhere. I don't believe there isn't a person she didn't know.
I can't say piles right now because the loss for me is huge.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)