Nancy's Blog

So much is going on now & we are so busy, but I need to catch you up on some of the happenings at Hasting Plants.

The fountains arrived this week. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten in concrete fountains, but they came out with some really neat new styles that I couldn’t resisit getting. If you look back at my first or second post, you’ll see pictures I took at a trade show this winter. We have  really special ‘Hurricane’s Eye” spiraling fountains, and  great bird and frog themed fountains that will be great bird attractions as well as fountains. We also have a few larger fountains that I couldn’t resist. Come check them out!

The first week of May is when we try to get the shade cloth on the greenhouse. We pulled it on on Monday and what a difference it makes in the greenhouses. The temperature drops about 10 degrees as soon as we get them on!It is easier on the plants to get them out of the extreme heat and sun. We also don’t have to water  as often.

My new word for beautiful flowers is “Glorious!” Several of my Peonies are blooming in the display gardens and the colors are Glorious! I LOVE peonies because they are one of the first really showy flowers to bloom in the perennial garden. Every year that I get different ones in I plant one, so I have quite a collection of different varieties. Here is the one blooming now:

Another of my “favorite” plants(you know they are all my favorite), is the Gas Plant (Dictamnus). It has lovely spike blooms that are great all by themselves, but it is also a fun plant because you can “light” the gas it emits. I have the best luck with the seed pods after the petals fall off. You need to find a time when the wind is fairly still and strike a match close to the plant…..it poofs with a quick sizzle of flame. Here are the blooms in front of some foliage of an Oriental Lily.

Gas Plant Blooms in front of Lily foliage.

We do have some gas plants for sale. They are always small plants since they don’t move well when they are larger, so you have to give them a year or so to get to blooming size. Mine self seed in my beds…not invasively…just right!

Another plant that is small when you plant it is the Perennial Plant of the Year – Baptisia/ False Blue Indigo. It is well worth the wait though because it has “glorious” blue spikes of bloom  in the spring. Here is a photo of a more Purple variety called ‘Purple Smoke’. I love the pea-like blossoms. After it finishes blooming, the seed pods add an extra season of interest.

'Purple Smoke' False Blue Indigo

And, finally another plant in full bloom is Blue Star Amsonia. This feather foliaged plant has light blue clusters of flowers in the spring and nice green foliage through the summer which turns bright yellow in the fall….three seasons of interest!

Amsonia hubrectii / Blue Star

Don’t forget to come see us Friday night, May 7th! We’ll be open for Late Night from 8 p.m. until 12 midnight. It looks like the rain is going to miss us this year. This is our 3rd year to have Late Night and there were dire predictions of storms both the 1st and 2nd years which never materialized. They started predicting rain for Friday, but now it looks like it will be over early afternoon if we get any at all! YEAH!

Here are some photos of some flowers that are blooming now. I just wanted to share these photos.

'Bonfire' Begonia. These Begonias thrive in full sun and heat. They bear beautiful orange bell shaped flowers all summer long. They are great for containers or planted in the ground. The color just grabs you!

Cat Whiskers. This plant gets about 3 ft. tall and bears these pure white blooms with long "whisker - like" stamens. We've grown this in past years, but it's been a while since we could find a source for it again.

'Mystic Spires' Salvia. These blooms are just glorious! You can't beat blue flowers, and these spikes get over a foot long. The plants grow about 3 ft. tall in the ground...a little less in a pot. They are real showstoppers.

I wanted to show a picture of our Globba (Dancing Ladies) plants, but as soon as they bloom, someone buys them! They are a great little plant in the ginger family. I’ll keep trying for the photo!

You know I could just keep taking pictures and raving about all the plants. It is so fun when things really start growing and blooming. You have to come see them all!

We have some really neat Elephant Ears in this year. Some came from a mistake on an order that gave me a few extra varieties I didn’t plan on having. The others came in on an order today. If you like tropical plants, you’ll have to check these out. We have Black Magic, Illustrus, Jurassic Dark, Coal Miner, Jack’s Giant, and Nancy’s Revenge(guess why I ordered that variety:-)) that we’ve potted up and grown. Today we got several Alocasias – one is Amazonica which has such neat leaves I had to take a photo to share with you.

These leaves are so different, they almost look like plastic! The back side of the leaf is purple!

We also have Tea Cups – a tall variety with cupped leaves; A. lauterbaachiana which has long narrow serrated leaves – a great variety to use as the center of a mixed pot;  and A. plumbea ‘Nigra’ – which has dark colored leaves.

Other tropicals that arrived today are a decorative Banana Tree, Variegated Shell Ginger and Caladiums.

Caladium make bright spots in a shade garden. They can't take temperatures in the 40's, so wait a bit before setting these out.

Here are the red variegated leaves of the Banana Trees.

The Variegated Shell Ginger will just be a foliage plant in our zone unless you overwinter it as a houseplant. It has attractive yellow variegated leaves.

We had a neighbor bring us some really neat spider lily bulbs that they have been growing for years in their yard. They had dug them up 20 years ago in the woods. I thought it must have been from an old homestead, but on doing some research found that they are native to this area. Here is a photo:

Spider Lily - Hymenocallis occidentalis

They grow in either sun or shade, and bloom in the summer. Supply of the bulbs is limited. When they are gone, they are gone.

Here is the picture of the geraniums from this week. They are starting to get to the full bloom stage.

Geraniums in Greenhouse #3

Mike keeps working on the kids playground at the greenhouse. He found this climbing structure the other day and just got it constructed and installed this morning. I think it is pretty cool.

It got a good workout today with our first Sunday of being open.

Finally, you can expect your newsletter starting Friday. I promise to do better in getting it out next year. I like for it to be in the mail just a little earlier than this(maybe around the 10th), but this early spring has made it seem really late. If I send it out too early, you start coming to the greenhouse wanting plants before they are ready, before they can safely be planted outside, and we are still busy transplanting. I also like to have the plants at the greenhouse before I start writing about them. If I write it too early, some of the plants I’ve ordered may not come and then you are left wanting what isn’t here. The editing and printing times just take a little longer than I want sometimes. I’ve told Sheila & Brenda to force me over to write the newsletter in early March next spring – whether I’m ready or not!

We love how the greenhouse look just before the real shopping frenzy begins. All of the plants are filling out, and blooms are starting to form on almost everything. We have plants stuffed in every nook and cranny we can find. The aisles are narrow since flats are hanging out over the edges of the benches and we are ready to start selling plants!Here are the current views of the greenhouses:That is greenhouse #1 and a close up view of the gerbera daisies in there. They are a riot of colors right now!

Greenhouse #2 has the gorgeous Solenia Begonias in full bloom. There are lots of impatiens and begonias of all sorts as well.

Greenhouse 3 will explode next week when all of the buds on those geraniums down the center bench open! Hopefully I'll remember to get a photo for the blog then too! The hanging baskets in here are really looking nice now.

Greenhouse #4 is filled with tomato and pepper plants as well as Wave Petunias and lots of annual flower flats.

The tomato plants are just perfect size right now. Some years they are ready too early, some years they are ready too late, but this year they hit just right! We grew a whole lot of extra plants this year since we ran out last year!

That is the greenhouse as it looks right now. The newsletters should be in the mail this afternoon, and we hope you’ll come see us soon!

Another milestone that lets me breathe easier,  the newsletter is at the printer’s. I’m hoping it is in the mail by the middle of next week. That is just about when I like to get it out. Right about the time you can start going crazy planting everything. Can’t wait for you to read about all the new plants this year. Maybe we can even get the newsletter posted on the web-site!

Most of the transplanting is done, we are getting signs out & things are just about ready for spring to hit!

See you soon!

Whew! I’m sorry I haven’t blogged for a while. I keep forgetting to take my camera over to the greenhouse for pictures, and we’ve been super busy getting all the plants transplanted. Two major groups of plants are now finished. Lydia got all the impatiens transplanted yesterday. I teased her that I wasn’t letting her out of  greenhouse #2  each day as she worked her way through 15 trays of 500 plants each….7500 plants. Brenda and JoAnn finished potting up the Wave Petunias – another monumental task We are slowly but surely getting everything potted. Susan worked in the building Thursday, so it is beginning to look a little less like a disaster zone. Sheila is back from visiting in North Dakota, and finished up some odds and ends in the perennials that needed to be potted.

Here is what Greenhouse #1 looks like now.

Greenhouse #1 April 3, 2010

Here is Greenhouse #2:

And Greenhouse #3:

This center bench is all geraniums. When they start blooming it is a sight to behold!

And finally Greenhouse #4:

Even this house is overflowing with plants. All of the tomatoes and peppers as well as the wave petunias and lots of flower packs fill every inch of space.

This warm weather gets everyone in the mood to start gardening, but be careful, we can still get some cold weather in here. I try to caution everone who buys plants that it’s a little early to be planting much out yet. The cold loving vegetables, pansies, snapdragons, dianthus and perennials are really all I’d recommend planting right now. About the middle of April, which is still rushing the season a bit, you can start planting. I know how hard it is to wait though. When the sun shines, you want to get outside and see things growing!

Here is one of my Hellebores (Lenten Rose) blooming in my flower bed. I have Royal Heritage Mix and Black Diamond plants for sale this year.

The standard green leaved Heuchera/ Coral Bells are blooming very nicely now.

And the Bleeding Heart just came out today.

It’s always great when we get the perennials out on the benches. The place really starts to look alive and ready. Here is what they look like now.

And finally for all you tomato lovers, we have Tumbler, a cherry tomato that tumbles out of a pot. We like to put them in hanging baskets like the one below.

Tumbler Cherry Tomato in a hanging basket.

A close up shot of the tomatoes already set on the Tumbler Tomatoes.

I hope you enjoyed the mini tour of the greenhouse today! Before long, I hope you come see them in person!!!!!

We are currently transplanting tomatoes. This is a huge job when you consider we have 12 to 15 trays of seedlings. Each tray of seedlings has 20 rows and each row will fill about one flat of 48 plants. It’s a job that we are always glad to have finished. One new variety we have this year is Cherokee Purple…..a Heirloom Variety. We also can’t get Santa seeds any more(my supply finally ran out), but I contacted a Florida grower and came up with 2 new grape tomato varieties to replace Santa. One is Sweet Hearts, the other is Smarty. Lots of other plants are waiting to be transplanted now, too.