More of the Latest

With Spring being our busiest time down at Garden Supply, it seems impossible to walk the nursery without seeing more new plant arrivals, more goodies in the Greenhouse, and more beautiful blossoms in bloom.  And although the weather has turned a bit cold on us again, there are lots of options for planting right now, including cold-hardy choices and plant protection products.  Come see what we have available, and as always, our experts are on hand with the answers to all your gardening questions. Here are a few of our latest and greatest that caught my eye this week.

Take a look at this very beautiful Lilac Daphne.  It has gorgeous lavander flowers which are not fragrant but make up for it on a bright spring day. This lovely plant would be very showy in your perennial bed.

More choices for the shade garden are arriving, too.  These ferns would be beautiful in your woodland landscape, or in hanging pots from your porch.

And a true gardener's favorite, the tomato plant, is starting to arrive.

These little guys are still going to benefit from a bit of cold-weather protection.  We have just what you need.

These Dalene season starters have been around for years, and owner Keith Ramsey swears by them.  Fill the outer chambers with water and you are set to go.  They protect the plants when overnight temperatures drop below freezing.  Ideal for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons and other vining plants.

We also recomment giving your tomato plants a dose of self-release fertilizer.  You will grow bigger and juicier tomatoes with just one feeding of Dynamite Organic Mater Magic Premium Plant Food.  As always, we have everything you need to get started.

Thanks for stopping by everyone!  I'll see you back here soon for more snippets from the garden.

Pink Sale

Good morning everyone!  Anyone ready for another sale???  We have a few great last minute deals for you which you will find throughout the nursery....just look for the pink flamingoes. (Harken back to your childhood, it's just like an Easter Egg Hunt!)

-Blooming now...huge (15gal.) yellow Forsythia, buy 3 or more and get free planting!

-Pussy Willows, upright shrubs or the weeping, ornamental tree form, 50% off.

-Fabulously fragrant Winter Honeysuckles in all sizes, 50%off.

-Stylish and functional terra cotta colored Rainbarrels, reg.$149.00, now $99.00.

-"Yoshino" Cryptomeria, makes a great specimen or living border! 50% off  (7gal. and 15 gal. sizes only).

-"Allison's Pick" Cart Sale, assorted shrubs and perennials past the peak of perfection but perfect for planting.

And finally, alot of you have been asking for the Butterfly Bushes, they're in! (Not every variety, like "blue chip" is here yet but there's enough of the others to get you started.)  The warm days have made us all want to get out there in the garden and change things up... we'll ease in some warm season veggies and herbs, (like tomatoes and basil), and some warm season annuals (like geraniums, and such),but just reminder, the last official frost date for our zone is April 15th. So be careful, just under 50 degrees at night is enough to knock them back, so carry inside or cover.  Expect to see some early deliveries from us but the full complement of all that the growers have to offer will be closer to that date.  Last year we had frost on the 15th.....

So plan, prep, and be patient on the summer stuff. There's plenty of other beauties to put in your garden now!

P.S. Just like eggs at an Easter Egg hunt, the sale will last until all the flamingoes are found!

Beautiful Bloomers

Hello everyone!  Take just one small stroll through the Garden Supply grounds and you will fully believe that spring has truly arrived.  Everywhere you look you'll see flowering annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees.  If it's blooming, we're sure to have it.  You need to come on over and take a little peek.  We will have you itching to get outside in your gardens and get dirty in no time flat! One perennial already blooming is the Lenten Rose, a mainstay of many shady gardens.

This wonderful plant bears some of the longest-lasting flowers of the year.  If you already have some of these in your garden, now is the time to trim off last year's foliage that may be hiding under the new leaves that emerged this winter.  Removing any leaves that look shabby will make the new foliage and blooms look even better.

Pansies, another bright favorite in the landscape, are still going strong. We just got in a new shipment this week.

If you have pansies that have overwintered with you, they would benefit from a dose of fertilizer right about now.  These spring-like temperatures will encourage new growth from their winter slump.  Pinching off any spent flowers will help, too.  This will give your old pansies a fresh new start.  They should look good until mid-May.

Look at some of our other blooming beauties.

Wouldn't this stunning Camilla be a showpiece in your home landscape?  Come check out all the gorgeous varieties we have for you.

And if you're looking for a real Southern Beauty, take a gander at these amazing forsythia in bloom.  I would guess these plants are at least 8 feet tall already, and bursting with bright yellow color.

Just gorgeous!  But then, everything is gorgeous these days at the garden center.  Hope you'll stop by and visit soon!

Feed the Lawn & Kill the Weeds

Hello everyone!  Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the burst of wonderful weather we've had to officially welcome in spring.  We've had a great time this weekend at Garden Supply as we wrapped up our big week-long Spring Garden Party yesterday.  Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who stopped by and helped make our annual party a huge success!  We couldn't have done it without you! Now that spring is truly here, it's time to turn your thoughts to a bit of yard prep and lawn care.  If you haven't yet done so, now is the time for fertilizing fescue grass.  Some lawn fertilizers contain pre-emergent crabgrass killers, which should go down within the next 10 days.  We recommend  you use Fertilome Crabgrass Preventer Plus Lawn Food.  Use Fertilome Classic Lawn Food if you have already applied crabgrass preventer.  We've got everything you need down at the garden center.

While over-seeding should wait until mid-September, you could work on seeding small, bare spots now.  This will require careful attention to watering in dry weeks, especially as we get into summer.

Cool weather weeds, especially chickweed, which blooms with a small white daisy, are gaining maturity now.  It's easy to get them by pulling the clumps by hand or by hoe.  It is blooming already, so it's a good time to get out as much as you can before the seeds go flying.  Come talk to our gardening experts for solutions.

With Easter being two weeks from today, now is the time to stop by the Greenhouse and check out our adorable holiday decor.  We have a huge selection of beautiful and unique items to spruce up your homes and decorate your tables for the season.

And look what else I discovered while strolling the Greenhouse yesterday afternoon.  A sale!  Always love a sale!

This lovely selection of pottery is now 30% off!  Just think of all the plant arrangements you could make for your decks and front porches with these.  Or thinking ahead, what wonderful Mother's Day presents these would make filled with flowering blossoms.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  We'll see you back here soon for more snippets from the garden!

Root Vegetables and Bare Roots

Hello everyone!  This is such an exciting time of year at Garden Supply.  Although Winter hasn't quite relinquished its hold on us yet, Spring is arriving on a daily basis at the garden center.  Every time I pop by, I am wowed by the new plants and decor items that have appeared since my last visit. I am SO in the mood to plant! Just in to the Greenhouse is a new shipment of bare root fruits and root vegetables.

In bare-root, we've got black raspberries, red raspberries, blueberries, and 3 types of grapes- Concord variety, Caco variety, and Niagara variety.  Also in are both Ever-Bearing and June Bearing strawberries plants. With 10 plants per bag, you are going to love the value of these strawberry packages.

We've also received a huge variety of root vegetables that is sure to please even the most discerning of gardeners.

There are  rhubarb roots, horseradish roots, shallots, red onions, yellow onions, white onions, sweet onions, garlic, and elephant garlic. Many are available in either convenient packages or bulk so you can mix and match.  Phew.............

And there's more!  How about some potatoes?  We have packaged seed potatoes in Red Norland, Kennebec, Russets, and Red Pontiac varieties.  Asparagus in Purple Passion and M. Washington varieties as well as our handy-dandy bundles with a whopping 12 plants per bundle.

And don't forget our other cold-loving vegetable plants already in, like carrots, Chinese cabbage, spinach, and mix-leaf lettuces.  They are moving out fast, but we still have some left.

Although all today's plants and vegetables thrive planted directly in the ground, many also do very well in the container garden for those with little or no yards.  Even potatoes!  We have the perfect above-ground potato planter for the home gardener, that was featured in this month's Cary Living Magazine.

With the Bosmere Potato Planter Bag, there's no need for a garden.  No digging required.  You can plant between 3 to 5 seed potatoes per bag.  There's a flap at the bottom that allows you to check your potatoes.  When the vegetables are ready, simply empty out the bag and enjoy the real taste of home-grown potatoes.  Garden Supply owner, Keith Ramsey, recommends planting potatoes, parsley, and chives all in one bag for an instant potato-bar garden.  That's just brilliant, in my book!

We have lots more new items arriving every day!  Stop by and pay us a visit.  Our gardening experts are on hand to answer all your questions.  And I'll see you back here tomorrow for more snippets from the garden.

Garden Supply Co. is Making It's Own Honey!

gsco22

The fresh buzz at Garden Supply Co. is our brand new honey made right here by our bees at the Cary location. Talk about buying local, it is bottled and now available for purchase at $10.99 for 16oz. or $6.99 for 8oz.

Getting Ahead

FEED ME!!!

This is what all of your plants are screaming right now! If you are not on a regular fertilizing schedule, now is an opportune time to start. As we approach the warm weather plants are begging for food because they are about to take off.

WHAT IS N-P-K? you say...

-Nitrogen

 or Nitrates are essential components neccessary to produce the protein in plants. As a result, plants grown with nitrogen added to the soil are stronger, healthier and bigger.

-Phosphorus

 functions as one of the major players in the process of photosynthesis, nutrient transport, and energy transfer. It supports robust and brightly colored blooms.

-Potassium

 in most fertilizers is water soluble otherwise can't be absorbed by the plant roots. Potassium controls the plant cells that use water. Without enough potassium, the cells don't efficiently use water and the plant is unhealthy. It then becomes vulnerable to disease and heat stress. Potassium also aids the enzymes promoting plant life. Without potassium, the plant cannot cycle the nutrients to feed roots, leaves and fruits.

Fresh From the Farm, Flower Power Perennials

Fresh from the farm is a great group of power house perennials.  heat tolerant and sun loving, deer resistant with blooms from late spring through fall.

yarrow pink grapefruit

yarrow

Grandmother was a gifted master gardener and her yard was full of Yarrow outling the peremiter of the vegetable beds around by her prized Tea roses and sprinkled throughout.  This was not because it was her favorite cutflower, but because it is a work horse of a companion plant.  Naturally it repels some insects and attracts many of the ones you desire like Lady bugs, which love to snack on pesky aphids and other predatory insects as well as butterflies.   Placing dried yarrow under door mats is another trick to keep the bugs at bay.  We have several different varieties including 'Pink Grapefruit,' 'Strawberry Seduction'  and 'Pastel Series.'

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, is considered an especially useful companion plant, repelling some insect pests while attracting good, predatory ones. It attracts predatory wasps, which drink the nectar and then use insect pests as food for their larvae. Similarly, it attracts ladybugs and hoverflies.[17] Yarrow is a must have companion plant for every garden, I just planted my vegtable garden and rig

salvia suncrest orchid glow

agastache orange nectar

agastache grapefruit nectar

salvia lyrata purple knock out

nepeta little titch

agastache apricot nectar

penstemon

yarrow pinkgrapefruit

salvia suncrest golden girl

agastache grape nectar

agastache golden jubilee

agastache blue fortune

guara

gsco ready set grow picture

Many different fruits can be used as substitutes with this recipe. Use firm fleshed fruits such as apples, pears, nashi, peaches or nectarines. Berries such as blueberries, blackberries and strawberries can also be used.

 Once you’ve finished cooking your main meal, with your oven still hot – baking your dessert makes great sense. It is also convenient to have your desserts cooking outdoors when you are entertaining outdoors – this way you can stay with your guests and won’t be missing out by having to return to the kitchen to check on the dishes.

For more great recipes in the Fornetto wood fired oven and smoker, visit the website