Tuning up plants

It’s well past the 4th of July which is the date we target as the end of annuals. This year we continued to sell them into the middle of the month especially to summer residents who are looking to fill a spot. As a matter of fact we will stagger some of the marigolds and zinnias as well as some of the potted vegetables just for the people who come up late.

Anyway by this time of the year the herbs in-the small pots are choked up and trying to blossom. SO today we went around and trimmed everything back as well as dead headed what is left of the geraniums, essentially tuning up the plants. They also suffer from being stuffed into small pots so we intend to put some of them in larger pots and if nothing else we can keep them over for propagation starts next spring.

Strange though the zinnias in the ground around the herb garden are doing very poorly while the ones we potted up are doing fine. The only difference is the potted versions get more attention and are watered consistently while those in the ground are more or less left to fend for themselves. A smattering of water now and again is no enough. They really need a deep soaker, which we had the past weekend so we will see how they fare.

The perennials continue to sell at a marginal rate. The weather was so good this weekend that we only sold a few and Jenessa who works in the outdoor plants at Lowes said they were very slow the past 2 days so we don’t feel too bad.

The one thing that does make us feel bad though is the fact that the big box stores are getting the mums in already. Here is is almost the middle of summer and they are getting ready for fall. They will not let us forget for a minute that the warm weather will only be with us for a while before the snow flys.

Nobody is forcing us to live here but we sometimes like to gripe.