Every day seems to be getting a little warmer and a little sunnier. And we need it.
We are getting lots of calls about next week’s availability. It sounds like the garden centers are getting ready to pull the trigger on both barrels next week. If you are looking for some ideas on how to get folks into your stores, you need to check out Bill Calkin’s Flourish blog post about getting all those people who have been cooped up this winter because of all the bad weather to come out to your place. Bill even has some ideas to help you out. You can read his post here – http://flourishigcs.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/your-task-for-the-next-week-encourage-spring-fever/.
If you are on Twitter you can follow Bill’s tweets too @BillCalkins.
Like the weather, all of our plants keep looking better each day. Although I will admit that the weather has us behind on quite a few items. A lot of what you will see on our availability is listed as Buds/Light Color or Light Color and even just Buds in a few instances. I think we will have more color than that showing by Tuesday or Wednesday so make sure you have the latest availability when you order so that you won’t miss out on any updates or last minute additions to the availability like maybe #6 Wave Petunias that I am going to look at first thing Monday morning.
I have quite a few pictures for you so let’s get on to the flowers…
J6’s are looking good. We will have petunias available next week too. Be sure to look at the Future Availability that shows what we will have available starting Monday.
Our 1204’s are about on schedule. We don’t usually have many of them ready until later in March. These will have at least twice as much color showing in 4-5 days.
1801’s – we are a little behind on these, but the zinnias are coming on fast for those of you down south. Once they bud out they are usually in color in 5-7 days. We have quite a few of our 1801 Deluxe items ready like ajuga and sprengri ferns.
We are a little behind on some of our #4.5 Premium items but we are gaining ground. Next week we will have some calibrachoas to add to our other items.
#6 Confetti Gardens and Marigolds. The Confetti seem to be putting a lot of energy into plant growth instead of blooming. We are making some adjustments and hope to have more color out next week. About half of the #6 Marigolds should have some Light Color by the middle of next week.
1 gallon Clematis is filling out and I saw a couple of blooms too. Some of our Quart perennials are blooming.
Here are some close ups of the Delosperma.
#4 Herbs and Veggies. We have #4 Tomatoes and Vegetables available too but I didn’t get a picture of them.
1204 Vegetables, Tomatoes, Peppers and Cole Crops
We have a pretty limited basket list. They are one of the lines that we are running behind on. You might take a look at the Potunia Papaya baskets. They add a unique petunia color to our selections. The Wave baskets are getting big. If we don’t sell them all next week, we will probably have to take the off the list and cut them back.
The Spring Confetti Garden (blue and yellow petunia mix) is ready.
1801 Stepables – I like these. I wish I had time to do a lot of landscaping that used them.
Our Qt Proven Winners should be ready in about another 7-14 days.