It seems like only yesterday that we closed down for the season and were ready to settle down for a long winter’s nap!  That’s a joke!  Instead it seems like we were busier than ever this winter.  Steve started building him a new tool shed and got it dried in enough for Lindy and Suzanne to move all his “junk” out of their potting shed and get their stuff organized before they started seeding in December.  I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised when they see the inside of our sales building.  We have covered the foam board with OSB and painted it and it’s still no mansion but it is definitely an improvement.

            Lindy has been busy making some pretty grapevine wreaths using our own dried flowers and grasses.  Hopefully we will be expanding that area of our business as the year progresses.  We are planning on planting a wide variety of flowers, etc. that are suitable for drying and using in wreaths and arrangements.  We are always looking at different items we can offer our customers that are unique, grown or produced by us and not mass-produced in some foreign country. 

            We are planning on opening on March 9th this year.  We are hoping for an early spring so we won’t be freezing our buns off at the farm.  Our hours will once again be Tuesday-Saturday from 9-5.  Our greenhouses are about to burst at the seams with plants and we hope we can soon move some out.  It is pretty crowded right now and is starting to look like a jungle.

            Included in those items that we consider unique only to Beans to Blossoms are our new planters that Lindy and Suzanne made this winter called hypertufa.  We are not sure if that is pronounced ‘toofa’ or ‘tougha’ but we will let you know if we find out.  Hypertufa planters look just like the moss-covered horse-watering troughs hollowed from the porous stone called tufa in England.  The original troughs were collected by gardeners to use in their gardens and have now become very expensive.  Our planters have the look of old with less burden or cost.  It is much lighter than stone and unlike ceramic or terra cotta, won’t crack in freezing temperatures.  Hypertufa planters usually last 7 to 10 years without cracking or splitting, although there are some that are still going strong after 25 years.  Most of the troughs that we made are only suitable for succulents, as you have to have a root zone of at least 5 inches for other flowers. 

            We are going to hold a workshop the first Saturday in May to teach people how to make their own hypertufa troughs.  The cost will be $25.00 and will be open to the first 10 people to sign up.  A $10.00 deposit is required to hold your spot, which you can mail to us along with your name, address and phone number.  The cost of the workshop includes all materials you will need and at the end of the workshop you will take home a hypertufa planter filled with succulents.  The workshop will take about an hour so plan to join us for a little fun.  If you can’t make this one, we will hold 2 other workshops this summer, in July and again in September.    

             In order to better serve you, we will be offering “Gardening After Hours” every Friday night during the months of April and May.  You will be able to shop until 7:00 p.m. and take advantage of what we call “Green Thumb” specials.  Select items will be marked down 20% with a storewide discount of 10% from 4-7 p.m.  What a great way to wind down after a long week!  Take a nice drive out in the country, pick out some great plants from our selection and then you have all day Saturday to plant! 

            On the subject of driving, the new Highway 80 is now partially open.  Thank goodness it was our end they opened first!  It is really a nice highway and will make us even more accessible for you.  After you turn on Highway 80 from 641 we are the first road on the right.  No more driving through the bottoms and over the railroad tracks!

            One small note from the American Horticultural Society.  We have been rezoned to Zone 7.  This means that plants we previously thought were not hardy to us are now considered hardy.  I have been told that at one time we were Zone 7 and then changed to Zone 6 and now back to 7, so use your own judgment! 

            We hesitate to even mention any new flowers or vegetables we are going to offer this year.  It seems if we really advertise a certain plant or vegetable it puts a jinx on it and it ends up we fail in some way to produce it.  But keeping our fingers crossed, we will mention a few new items we are planning on having this year.  Lindy is once again designing some really pretty color bowls and mixed pots.  We have concentrated a lot of efforts on choosing varieties that work well in mixed containers and baskets.  She seems to have a knack for that so if you have planters or window boxes that need filling this spring be sure and ask for her to help you choose some neat plants.  A few of our new offerings this year are Dichondra, Gypsy Rose Baby’s Breath, Laura Bush Petunia, Helichrysum, Alternanthera, Geum ‘Cooky’, and Lavatera. 

We are also going to offer a new Native Plant section this year.  More people are becoming familiar with the advantages of using Native plants in their gardening themes.  How much hardier can you get than a plant that grows in the wild in your own home state?  We are still learning the ropes on getting these plants to germinate in a controlled environment because we are just not like Mother Nature!  A few of the plants we have been fairly successful with are Showy Primrose, Evening Primrose, Black-Eyed Susan, Sweet Rocket, Hawkweed, Sand Phlox, Mistflower, and New England Aster.  Our continuing association with LBL prompted us to expand into this area.  Most of you know we participate in their annual Harvest Celebration in September.  They have asked us to participate in their Wildflower Weekend in April and to grow some native plants to offer their visitors.  It is hard to keep up with what direction we will go in this business!

            We have expanded our Antique Rose selection to include about 50 varieties.  They are not completely leafed out yet but they should be about right to plant by the time we open and Spring Fever hits.  When you purchase one of our roses be sure and ask for our info sheets on our roses we carry.  It has a lot of neat information on each particular rose.

We are offering over 20 varieties of 2-year old field-grown daylilies this year.  Choose from early, mid or late bloomers in a variety of colors.  The clumps are large and we will be selling those for $4.00 a clump.

We have 100% worm castings for sale this year.  If you want an organic fertilizer that will really help your plants and not harm the environment, give it a try.  We have had some really good results by mixing them in with our potting mix. 

We haven’t completed our list of produce we will offer this year but we do know a few new tomato varieties we are planning on growing.    They are Abe Lincoln, Sioux, Aker’s West Virginia, and Mexico.  Don’t they sound interesting? 

Speaking of tomatoes, this last season we planted some late tomatoes and kept promising you we would soon have some ripe ones.  Some of our customers that came out last fall actually saw those vines loaded down with nice green ones.  Well, we kept waiting and waiting and the tomatoes would not ripen!  Finally, when it came for the first hard frost, we picked all the green ones and took them home and laid them out.  Gradually they started ripening and before we knew it we had the best homegrown tomatoes to eat.  They lasted through November and then Thanksgiving and even through Christmas.  We ate our last tomato on New Year’s Day.  The moral to the story is, grow late tomatoes but they have to be picked to ripen that late in the season.  Now we know!!!

            We have added some really unusual herbs this year to our collection for those who like to venture on the wild side.  Some of those herbs include Skullcap, Betony, Costmary and Comfrey.  We will finally be having Bay Laurel this year for those who we kept promising it to.  We will be offering 49 different herbs this year with many of those having several different varieties.  If Spring Fever hits you early, most of our herbs will be ready by the middle of March so come out and see what is growing!