"That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"

William Shakespeare

The presence of roses in gardens transcends time. Roses have always been, are today, and will forever be, not only a plant member of our gardens but most often the featured plant in our gardens. And this happens simply by default, because nothing has as great a floral color impact in your garden as a rose.

Humans have an ongoing love affair with roses. And to that end, we have created many different garden designs, most of which leave space for the rose. Whatever your garden style, a rose is a welcome addition.

Roses in English gardens are tucked in with lavender, foxglove, daisies, and delphinium. They appear in wildflower gardens with poppies, forget-me-not, love-in-a-mist and clarkias; they stand in rows in formal rose gardens and gather in circles in the informal rose garden, and please believe us, they are in vegetable gardens too. Roses are planted en masse as a flowering hedge, roses are planted in commercial settings, roses are in our cemeteries, and roses are growing in the wild. We think you may be getting the picture.

There are thousands of different roses, wild or species, hybrids, old roses and modern roses. There are China roses, Gallica roses, Damask roses, moss roses, Bourbon roses, hybrid perpetual roses, rugosa roses, macranth roses, ramblers, and polyanthas. And we haven't even begun to talk about the roses in our garden center!

We welcome you to join us in the garden center for a stroll through the roses. Don’t forget to leave a few spaces in your garden for your favorite ones.

We all have been thrilled by the Queen of the Garden this spring. Don't you agree? The first rose bloom has been absolutely fabulous. If you haven't been by the garden center and wandered through the rows of hybrid teas, floribundas, English, Romantica, tree roses and climbers, we invite you to do so. The color palette and fragrant bouquet are out of this world.

Roses perform best in bright sunny areas. Choose a location where access for pruning and maintenance is easy and where the plant is not likely to be exposed too much overhead watering, (such as lawn sprinklers) which could result in continual mildew problems. Although bare root planting was in early spring, you can plant roses now before it gets into our summer hot weather.

Here are the basic care tips for growing this Queen of the Garden.

Planting: Once you have chosen a location, plant your rose carefully to ensure a healthy start. Use a quality soil mix to blend 50/50 with your existing soil. Dig a hole 1.5 times as big as the container size you are planting. Use your soil blend in the bottom and handle the root ball carefully, using two hands to place it inside the hole. Next, using your soil blend, fill in around the sides of the root ball. Water the root ball thoroughly and let the soil settle naturally. Remember to water daily as the rose gets established. You can begin fertilizing in 2-3 weeks.

Once the first blooms fade, what is your next step? Deadhead, water, fertilize and mulch. Pretty darn simple.

Deadhead: This encourages your rose to grow more secondary canes that will give you the next bloom cycle. So, unless you like to grow rose hips, then cut off these blooms. Make your cuts just above (1/4") an outward facing 5-leaflet. How far down the cane? That is your choice. During the bud/bloom time, some cut long stems to take into the house. Others cut back to shape and maintain a certain size to the rose bush throughout the season. Cut off cross canes and any canes coming up from below the graft union (those are suckers from the root stock).

Water: Roses love water. Keep the soil moist but not with standing water.

Fertilize: Roses love to eat—wouldn't you after all the work of these blooms! Just a quick product note—If you use a systemic food with pesticides, it is not directed at solely the rose pests, but beneficial insects such as ladybugs will also be killed.

Mulch: Cover the soil with ~2-3 inches of mulch (cocoa mulch, small or shredded bark) surrounding the rose bush. Keep mulch away from the main stem/graft area. Mulch will keep weeds down, hold moisture in the soil, and increase the health of your soil.
We look forward to strolling with you through the rose section of our garden center and helping you with the best selection of roses for your 2007 garden.

“In the summertime when the weather is hot,
you can stretch right up and touch the sky,
when the weather is fine.”

This phrase could be the Summer Vegetable Theme Song. And it is time to plant your summer vegetables!

Most of our favorite vegetables are grown this time of year. What vegetables do we grow in summertime? Try planting beans, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leeks, onions, peppers, squash, tomatoes and zucchini, just to name a few. Beets (red and golden), potatoes, carrots and radishes are root vegetables, and they are simple to grow.

Perhaps you look at our list of vegetables and think to yourself  “Right, I can grow all of that, if I lived on a farm!” Of course you can grow all of them, but the real issue might be a question of space. So pick your favorites and go from there. Root vegetables can grow underneath just about any of the other vegetables listed. That means the onions, beets, potatoes, carrots, and radishes can be planted very near to the beans, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant.

Cucumbers, squash and zucchini (also a squash) all grow as a vine and have large leaves. They will need much more growing space and need to spread out. Plant these on a small mound of your amended soil in clusters of three plants. You could even make that 3-5 plants, one of each that you love the most.

If you have not been a vegetable gardener in the past, here are a few tips for you to follow.

1. Pick a sunny location, free of grass (or "free it" from the grass!).
2. Soil preparation. Determine whether or not your soil is predominantly sand or clay. Supplement your native soil with composting products, such as Harvest Supreme together with Pumice. Dr. Earth Planting Mix is an organic soil amendment with mychorrizea. Black Forest or Soil Building Compost is an organic compost fortified with nitrogen and iron. Roto-till or good old-fashion shovel-mix in these amendments and level out the soil.
3. Fertilize. You have choices here: Dr. Earth #5 Tomato, Vegetable and Herb organic fertilizer (5-7-3) or Seaweed Extract Tomato, Vegetable Fertilizer (5-10-10),to name just a couple. Remember when choosing fertilizers, you are ultimately planning to eat these vegetables.

We also have all the necessary products that you will need to become a great vegetable gardener: Tomato cages, trellises for the tomatoes or beans, bird netting, stakes for the peppers and eggplant. And don’t forget our soil amendments, fertilizers, and of course, our excellent advice and encouragement.

We are here for you, the future vegetable grower. Maybe you’ll even share your vegetable wealth with us at harvest time!