Greenhouse Season, the most wonderful time of the year, is finally here! In Zone 5 anyway. Those of you in Zones 6-7 or higher are already planted and maybe even harvesting. Those of you who got snowed on this week - you have my sympathies. We have had one of those Mays where people are having to put off planting. We've only had two light frosts, but the ground has been wet, and the sun hasn't shone and overall it was hard to get into the spirit. Also, the plants are behind schedule. There just hasn't been any sun and things are not growing well. Up until this past week, things have looked pretty lack-luster. But now it's Game On!
Last weekend the Home Depot garden center was a mad-house. People were buying mulch and potting mix and hanging baskets by the truckload. I slipped in quietly to get a few supplies while hubby bought some bolts at the other end of the store. I retreated to the car parked in the lot which was even more frightening. I prefer to do my shopping during quieter times. In fact, I have a very well thought out, tried and true method for surviving greenhouse season. Each year I spend about $200 on annuals and some replacement perennials. I frequent six greenhouses, and check out three or four more. Even WalMart and KMart can have some unique, hard to find items. But they might kill them before you get there.
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| Me at four years old in our geranium house |
Since I was practically born in a greenhouse and spent many hours behind the counter as well as shopping I consider myself to be a bit of an expert. So here is my advice:
- Make a List
- Conduct Reconnaissance Missions
- Bring Appropriate Footwear
- Get a Cheap Tarp
- Bring a Box
- Read the Tag
- Buy a Spare
- Take Notes
#1. Make a List: how are you supposed to navigate this field of choices without a detailed plan? Everyone has their own method of keeping track and mine might be a little excessive. I keep a spreadsheet with a tab for each year so I can refer to last year's list and make changes as I go. It is important to keep your numbers in individual plants, not in packs because if you need 24 marigolds and you mark down four packs because last year you bought four 6-packs, you may be surprised when you come home with 4-packs and only have 16 marigolds. This is the voice of experience speaking.....
#2. Conduct Reconnaissance Missions: Each year I am frustrated by the ever changing national gardening trends as well as the individual grower's reactions to the market. One of my favorite greenhouses used to have two large houses full of individually potted Calibrochoa, Wave petunias and Supertunias. This year they potted them all up in their own combination pots or baskets leaving only a few dozen flats of leftover singles to choose from. Combination pots do me no good. Even if I could get the monsters home easily and transplant the plants without damage, I'd soon have a huge inventory of unwanted large containers. But that doesn't mean you can't find what you want at another greenhouse. That's why I like to make the rounds first and rework my list before I start back at the beginning and start buying.
#3. Bring Appropriate Footwear: I conduct most of my buying and reconnaissance during my lunch hours. Greenhouses deal in soil and water. When you mix soil and water you get mud. Some greenhouses have nice wide concrete paths, but even those can have low spots. I keep a pair of garden clogs in the trunk of my car so I can slip them on instead of having to clean mud out of the treads of my good office shoes.
#4. Get a Cheap Tarp: A trunk load of plants can make a real mess. Dropped soil, petals, leaves and water don't have to be cleaned out if you just keep a cheap plastic tarp handy. Line your trunk before you load it, then just pull the tarp out and shake it when you unload. Voila'! Clean car.
#5. Bring a Box: We used to always provide boxes to our customers. In the evenings Dad would take the truck to one of the local convenience stores and load up all of the boxes that soda shipped in. They were the perfect size. When we ran out of those, we did have custom boxes that we purchased flat and stapled together as needed. This was less expensive than letting our customers run off with all of our plastic trays. Modern growers don't seem to care. And that, my friends, is why our oceans are full of floating plastic. We also used to plant in peat pots and terracotta, but I digress. Sure, if you are buying three full flats of marigolds, take the trays. You may be able to use them at home if they're any good. I have even let the containers influence my buying if I, for instance, need a couple more really good gallon pots to fill out my inventory at home... But if you are picking up two packs of this and a few pots of that, it's more convenient to walk around with your own box. The tops of copy paper boxes are perfect for this. I always have one or two in my car.
And finally, #8. Take Notes: If you potted up a beautiful combination pot that you would like to duplicate in the future, write down how many of what went into it. Take notes of which greenhouse had the exact mix of marigolds you prefer so you won't have to go searching or miss out on what you want. Keep track of your costs so you can budget the right amount next year. Add all of this to your list (See #1) and you are all ready to start again next year.
#6. Read the Tag: You can probably skip this step if you are buying the same variety year after year. But my neighbors get caught out now and then because they can't remember there are more than one kind of yellow marigold. Janie, Safari, and Inca are very different critters. Janie gets 6-8" high, Safari 10-12" high (fact: that's potentially twice as tall as the other one :/ ) and the old style Incas would be 18" or more. And it doesn't hurt for an old pro to freshen up on the facts now and then either.
#7. Buy a Spare: I've always said that if you want to be bold, plant a pair of something but if you are a real risk taker, plant a whole row. Nature laughs at symmetry. One or more plant will either be eaten by wildlife or lack the will to live. Also, no matter how closely you scrutinize a flat of annuals, you cannot guarantee that every cell has a plant in it or that every plant will be vigorous and healthy. I usually buy a spare of everything and pot them up for use later. If nothing else, you can use them to fill in bare spots late in the season when early plants are beginning to die back or lose color.
For instance, these three spare plants later went to fill a bare spot near our front steps, and due to their special care in the spares area, they far out preformed all of the similar plants I put in during the earlier planting season
HAPPY PLANTING!
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