One of the challenges many gardeners face is how to add texture and interest to the landscape. One of the best ways to do this is by adding ornamental grasses to your garden. They have a natural fountainous growing habit and many produce beautiful flower blooms that will light up any garden.

Ornamental grasses are incredibly low maintenance, grow quickly, and are naturally disease and insect resistant. Add to that, their natural swaying movement in even the slightest of breezes and you have plants that add unparalleled beauty to any garden setting.

Another great feature of ornamental grasses is the fact that they come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and color. There are many grasses that are perfect for creating borders and others that provide a nice backdrop to other plants or look perfect as individual featured specimens. The colors range from gold, green, silver and blue to shades of purple, burgundy, red and orange.

While most ornamental grasses prefer moist soil conditions, most become quite drought tolerant once established. They require very little fertilization and can get by with a single feeding of plant food per year. Most shorter varieties require no pruning at all (short of removing any spent flowers) and the only maintenance taller varieties require is a crew cut in late winter (down to 4-6" inches above ground level) to encourage new growth in spring.

We have a great selection of ornamental grasses just waiting for an opportunity to add interest and beauty to your garden.

We invite you to click on the links below for to see some varieties we stock. Then stop by and one of our nursery professionals will be happy to help you select the perfect ornamental grasses for your garden!
Dwarf Ornamental Grasses (2' and shorter)
Taller Ornamental Grasses (over 2')

Fall-blooming crocus are reliable and sure to thrive in any Garden. Crocus Bulbs are normally planted Fall, and most Saffron Crocus will begin to flower sometime in Mid Spring.

The saffron crocus blooms mid to late September and is the most familiar due to its history of culinary, dye, and medicinal uses. It's also the most commonly available species. The broad, six- to twelve-inch long leaves grow briefly in the spring and then die by midsummer. In the fall, leafless flower stalks rise to produce clusters of flaring, four-inch purple flowers. A white variety is also available.


Also try The Giant Colchicum, these bloom earlier and produce even a greater show. Hurry and plant them or they might just bloom on your counter at home.

How to Plant Crocus Bulbs?

To plant Crocus Bulbs the bulbs should be planted with the nose of the bulb upward (or the roots facing downwards) and the Saffron Crocus should be planted roughly 2-3" deep and 3-4" apart from one another.

By Tamara Galbraith

Nowadays, Americans are eating five times more fresh spinach than we did in the 1970s. And forget about the canned, slimy stuff Popeye downed in one shot back in the old days; we now prefer our spinach fresh.

And what could be fresher than growing it yourself? The cool temperatures of autumn are perfect for optimum spinach production. Those of us gardening in warmer regions can grow spinach through the winter, as long as temps stay above 25 degrees. A light frost will not hurt it.

There are generally two types of spinach: smooth or savoyed. Smooth types are more tender and are best for salads, while the crinkly leaves of savoy spinach can be rubbery and are better for cooking. Some spinach cultivars walk the line between smooth and savoyed and are pretty yummy either raw or cooked.

Place transplants about six inches apart, and make sure the soil stays moist and cool. The biggest enemy of spinach is heat, so use shade cloth if temperatures rise dramatically during the day. Mulch is also a good addition for keeping the soil cool. Spinach, like lettuce, does well in containers, with the advantage that you can move them into shadier areas when there's a warm spell.

You can harvest spinach by individual leaves or by cropping off the entire plant at the base. As long as temperatures remain cool, the plant will continue to produce leaves...and keep those delicious spinach salads coming.

• A blend of composted fir bark and forest humus fortified with 15% chicken manure, worm castings, bat guano and kelp meal.

• pH balanced with dolomite and oyster shell lime.

• An all-purpose pre-fertilized planting and garden soil amendment.

• Excels as a nutrient-rich top dressing and mulch.

• Organics with planting and the added benefit of mycorizies.

Smooth Sumac, so named because its first-year stems are smooth, is present in all of the contiguous 48 states of the United States, into southern Canada and northern Mexico.

This is the classic large shrub or small tree that forms a colony by three methods: suckers from the base and roots, seeds from female shrubs, and the spreading and sprawling lateral trunks of this strongly multitrunked plant. In terms of hardiness, Smooth Sumac can take cold winters and hot, dry summers.

For ornamental appeal, its sympodial branching, summer flowers, fall foliage colors, and ripened fruits on bare twigs in winter are first class. It provides food for wildlife, and its quick establishment on embankments and areas with a thin layer of soil above bedrock assists greatly in erosion control.

Planting Requirements - Smooth Sumac is geographically ubiquitous, and is best described as a shrub or tree that will invade any neglected site, irrespective of moisture, soil, and pH conditions, so long as it does not have wet soil and provided that it is in full sun to partial sun. As it is frequently seen along roadsides, it obviously tolerates salt spray in winter, as well as air pollutants.
It can be found in zones 3 to 9.

Will ants hurt my plants?

Answer:
Not directly. If ants are living in the soil around a plant, they can make the plant dry out and need water more frequently. This is because their ant tunnels create air pockets which dry out the soil faster. On the other hand, those same tunnels help to aerate the soil, which is a good thing. If ants are on the foliage of a plant, that's usually a sign that harmful sucking insects such as aphids or whiteflies are feeding and damaging your plant.

These sucking insects emit a residue called honeydew that is sweet and very attractive to ants. The ants will roam your plant and feed on the sweet honeydew.

Unfortunately, they will do nothing to control the damaging insect. In fact, ants sometimes will move predator insects to fresh parts of the plant to help them create fresh honeydew. At this point, they become partners in crime and should be destroyed. Their criminal status may be determined by interviewing a sampling of suspected ants or catching them red-handed in the act of predator insect transport.

There are several effective methods to control ants, including aerosol sprays and ant baits containing boric acid. You can also place a sticky barrier around the trunks of trees or bushes that are vulnerable to attack. As always, do not use sprays on edible plants unless the sprays are marked for use on edibles.