If you are looking for the perfect flower to bridge the gap between winter and summer, consider the primrose. Like a ray of sunshine on a damp and gloomy day, primroses (primula) provide early spring blooms in almost every color of the rainbow.

They prefer cool temperatures and moist, rich, well-draining soil (with lots of compost). Primroses can tolerate full sun in spring but definitely prefer afternoon shade once temperatures get warmer. They can easily be grown indoors during winter, provided that you maintain cool night temperatures in your home (below 65 degrees), filtered sun and moist soil.

The most popular types of primroses include English primroses (Primula vulgaris/polyanthus), Fairy primroses (Primula malacoides) and German primroses (Primula obconica). All are heavy bloomers and well suited for garden planting or in containers.

Originally from England, most English primroses now are grown along the Pacific Coast. They produce large clusters of flowers above the foliage, with dwarf varieties just a few inches above the foliage and taller hybrids growing up to one foot above the foliage. They are available in almost every color shade.

German primroses are often called perennial primroses, since they can often come back to re-bloom the following season. They have larger rounded leaves, and grow up to 12 inches high, with taller flower stalks. The flowers come mostly in shades of red, rose and salmon.

Fairy primroses have a more delicate look, with smaller leaves and flower clusters on 6-12" stalks above the foliage. They generally are available in color shades of pink, lavender and white.

So if the winter blues are getting you down, chase them away with some perfect primroses!

If you are a berry lover, you can't possibly have a garden without dedicating a space to grow delicious homegrown strawberries. Some people even go as far as saying they are the best of all the berries. What is unique about the strawberry (actually a member of the rose family) is that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside.

The delicate but great-tasting heart-shaped berry has always been associated with love, passion, purity, and healing. Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will fall in love with each other.

And speaking of legends and folklore, locals in some parts of Bavaria still practice the annual rite--each spring--of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to the elves. They believe that the elves, (who are known to be passionately fond of strawberries--what good taste they have), will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.

Strawberries are also prized for their medicinal purposes and health attributes. Ounce for ounce, strawberries have more Vitamin C than citrus fruit and have been associated with lowering cholesterol, easing symptoms of gout and digestion problems and lowering the risk of certain types of cancer.

Strawberries are generally divided into three groups: spring bearing, everbearing, and day-neutral. The fruits of day-neutral plants and everbearers are usually smaller than the fruits of the spring-bearers. Spring bearing strawberries generally produce a crop during a 2-4 week period in the spring. Ever-bearing strawberries produce three periods of flowers and fruit during the spring, summer, and fall--while day neutral strawberries will produce fruit throughout the growing season.

Strawberries prefer the sun but do tolerate some shade. Their major requirement is good drainage, so they'll benefit from being planted in mounded soil, terraced beds, barrels or other types of containers. They can also be used as an edging plant or a groundcover.

We invite you to discover the sensational flavor of homegrown strawberries!

Strawberry Planting and Care Instructions
Be sure to plant strawberry starts with their crown just above the soil level. Use a good soil amendment, such as Harvest Supreme, to help them get going well. We recommend spacing plants 12" apart. Remove all flowers the first two months to help with rooting and then remove runners so that the plant can put its energy into producing fruit.

Placing plastic sheeting underneath the foliage will help keep the soil warm and weed-free. It also deters slugs, snails and other crawling insects from feeding on foliage and berries. Water your plants using drip irrigation or by flooding trenches between the mounds or terraces. Keep them healthy by feeding fish emulsion, which is low in nitrogen and will promote more bud growth and fruit.

Nothing enhances cooking more than fresh herbs. Once you have incorporated a herb garden into your landscape, and experienced the simple joy of picking the flavors that will bring compliments showering upon you for your culinary expertise, there is no going back.

Ah, but what about winter? Hopefully you have frozen some of your summer crop, but it still is not quite the same as freshly picked herbs. If you have a south-facing window, you're equipped with most of what you need in order to grow an indoor herb garden. Begin with indoor-friendly herbs such as sage, mint, rosemary, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, chives, garlic and oregano. Basil, dill and coriander should be started from seeds, and mint, rosemary and bay leaf should be rooted from cuttings.

If you're starting with seedlings which you have purchased from the nursery, they will need to be acclimated to lower light conditions. New leaves that are accustomed to the lower light must be produced in order for the plant to survive. Most herbs require an absolute minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight, which a window with southern exposure should provide. Assist with the addition of grow lights, placed about 6 to 9 inches above the tops of the plants. Generally speaking, your herbs will prefer temperatures between 55 and 70 degrees F. However, basil is such a sun and heat lover, it will thrive if given 16 hours of artificial light. I guarantee that the pesto and spaghetti sauce that is seasoned with the fresh basil from your indoor herb garden will make the effort well worth it. Place the plants that need the greatest amount of light in the center of the window, directly beneath the grow lights. Your mint, parsley and rosemary will require less light, therefore they should be placed at the sides, farther away from the strongest point of light.

Use separate pots for each plant; this allows for each plant to have air flow, and if a problem occurs with one plant, it is easily removed from the mix. Unglazed terra cotta is the preferred pot as it is porous, thus allowing moisture and air to pass through. Roots need air; if gasses in the root zone are not able to move, and watering prevents the roots from breathing, root rot will set in. So, be sure that there are drainage holes in the bottom of your pots to allow excess water to drain. When first prepping the pots, DO NOT use soil from your garden, no matter how gloriously your outdoor plants grow in it. Instead, use a high-quality potting soil with organic fertilizer mixed in, and add some perlite. Fertilize with a liquid fish emulsion at half strength or a 20-20-20 chemical formulation about once a month. Mist on occasion, particularly rosemary. The conditions inside your house will affect the frequency of watering. Using your finger, check the soil. If it feels dry to the touch, water thoroughly until the water comes out of the drainage holes in the bottom. Herbs such as bay leaf, thyme, oregano and sage should dry out completely between watering while mint and rosemary prefer a little more moisture.

When harvesting from an indoor herb garden, a certain delicacy is called for; because indoor herbs tend to reach for the light and become leggy, it is best to pinch them at the growing tips, thereby forcing a bushier growth form.

Experiment with a light-hearted sense of fun; fresh herbs are by nature givers of a unique flavoring to our cooking. Add to salads and omelettes; toss a few fresh mint leaves in a pot of hot tea. Gardening and cooking are two sublime pleasures that anyone may enjoy. Nothing enhances cooking more than fresh herbs.

Gloxinia (Sinningia Speciosa) can make a colorful addition to your garden during the dreary days of winter. Their massive, deep-throated flowers come in many color combinations and put on quite a show.

Gloxinias, native to Brazil, are related to African violets. Their luxuriant, quilted, velvety leaves can grow up to six inches long, and they produce ruffled bell-shaped flowers in shades of white, pink, red, blue, and purple with contrasting edges.

With a small amount of attention and care, you'll be able to get this tuberous plant to re-bloom several times before it goes dormant until the following growing season. Gloxinias do best in consistent indoor temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees. They bloom best in a bright but indirect light location. Growing in low light will cause the flowers to be small and pale.

Gloxinias prefer moderately moist soil--but take care not to overwater, as this can prevent buds from developing. Try to lift the leaves before watering and allow the water to enter directly to the soil. Splashing water on the leaves can cause yellow spots.

Water thoroughly when the soil surface feels dry to the touch. Do not allow your plants to stand in water. If using bowls underneath your pots, make sure to empty the water from the bowl after each watering.

It is important to feed your plants regularly (every two weeks) while your plant is growing strongly and blooming. We recommend Shultz's African Violet Fertilizer.

Most plants will bloom for 6 to 8 weeks and then take a short break before producing a new set of blooms. Discontinue feeding once the plants start dying back before entering dormancy. Gently remove the spent blooms after each flowering cycle.

It is best to repot gloxinias when they go dormant, so the plants can produce new growth in a larger pot with fresh soil. Then sit back and wait for new growth to appear for the following season and enjoy all over again!

Outside of the easily-identified blueberries and strawberries, the world of berries can be very confusing. You have blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and yellow raspberries. And don't forget boysenberries, loganberries and marionberries, which are all closely related. How do you tell them apart? Berries whose core stays intact are blackberries. Berries that lose the core and resemble a thimble are raspberries. But then...a few berries are a cross between the two!

The similarities don't stop there. All bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about blackberry and raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line.

Now here's the good news, blackberries, raspberries and any other favorites will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties. Just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. As far as cold-hardiness goes, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures better than blackberries.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit food such as Cotton Seed Meal. They prefer staying moist, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient.

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

In mild climates berries can be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

We have berry plants that grow well in our local area. The bottom line is that all berries are easy to grow and they taste great. So don't stress about all your different choices. Just plant some berries and enjoy!

How do I know if I have poor drainage?

Answer:

First, your plants won't look happy. (Surprise!) The foliage will look dull and lack the luster and intense color of a healthy plant. If it is a blooming plant, it may produce few blooms or none at all. When the condition becomes severe, the plant will drop its leaves from the interior first, eventually working its way to the leaf tips.

The second sure sign is if you are not watering much but the ground stays continually wet, or even has moss or algae growing on it. The soil may also have an odor. What is important to remember is that every time plants are watered, the soil temperature is lowered by up to twenty degrees. Most plants are stimulated to grow as the soil temperature warms up. If the soil is always wet, the soil temperature will be cooler than the plant desires and it won't grow much.

Poorly draining soil also attracts bad bacteria that can attack the root system, in addition to providing less oxygen for the plant. If you think you have bad drainage, gently lift the plant out of the ground with a shovel--being careful not to damage roots.

If the soil is wet at the bottom of the hole, dig it deeper and back-fill with at least six inches of gravel. Then build a mound that will raise the plant 3-6 inches higher than the surrounding soil level and re-plant so that the top of the root ball is level with the top of the mound. If that doesn't work, you may need to find a different location for the plant.