Horsford’s Welcomes Gardeners to
Another Season of Playing in the Dirt.

Winter disappeared and Spring was so brief I cannot even remember when it happened.  It seems we are heading straight into summer a fact which I find deeply disturbing since such warm temperatures will have a negative effect on my plot of tulips.  Each autumn I suffer through the chilly temperatures, hands stiff and cold, planting hundreds of tulip bulbs.  The vision of masses of blooming tulips gets me through the gray of February.  My collection of vases sits ready to be filled with every color, shape and style of tulip that I have buried in the ground.  I stagger the blooms so they will last longer into the season.  But the warm weather speeds everything up and all the tulips are in full bloom, all at once, right now!  It is spectacular.  My vases are full. 

Other tasks happened faster than usual at the nursery this spring.  Trees and shrubs were dug from the fields in record time.  We have some beautiful specimen Crabapples with blooms in white, dark pink and soft, pale pink.  All of our varieties bear fruit that tends to stay on the branch until the cedar wax-wings return in the spring and eat them all.

For homeowners challenged by their heavy clay soils we have grown some stately Swamp White Oaks and Green Ash. Both are dug and ready for planting and both will easily adapt to clay soil.
  
Our lilacs are loaded with buds and will hopefully be in their full glory on Lilac Sunday which this year is on May 18th.
  
Field growing Elms was a success story for us.  We sold over 35 Princeton Elms just this past week.  We still have some large Valley Forge Elms for sale and we do have some smaller Princeton Elms. These stand at about 10 to 12ft. right now.  Once established, the elm is considered a fast growing tree.  For cultural information about these two trees please refer to our catalogue.  If you are after immediate gratification stop in and look at our collection of REALLY big trees.  These start at 4 inch caliper and go up.  Included in this group are: Oaks, Maples, Honeylocust, Ash, Japanese Tree Lilacs and River Birch.  Our landscaping department would handle the delivery and planting of these trees.
   
Horsford’s has made the choice to focus on growing and selling native plants.  Look for the article in this newsletter written by Horsford’s employee, Dave Berg, which further discusses this topic.
   
Perennials seemed to have faired well this winter.  Both our display gardens and our production field look great.  No mouse damage to speak of.  Peonies are already a foot tall and early blooming varieties have flower buds.  All the primrose we propagated survived and is blooming. Last year we experimented with a different species of delphinium.  Delphinium elatum seems to be less prone to disease and live longer than other species we had been growing.  The delphinium grandiflorum is still in our inventory and we still consider it a great selection for a short, compact delphinium.  Horsford’s daylily collection is changing and growing.  We now carry more bold colors than we did in the late 80’s and early 90’s when pastels were so popular.  It may be time to introduce a ‘Bold Tiger’, some ‘Night Embers’ or a little ‘Wineberry Candy’ into your garden.
  
When you visit the nursery you will most likely notice a huge change...  although most people can’t quite figure out what looks different!  Over the winter we took down our quirky, leaky garden center building.  In its’ place is a new, handsome, dry building with a real foundation (something the other one lacked).  It is about the same size but is a bit taller.  In order to demolish the old and erect the new we had to remove the plants growing by the entrance and up over the roof.  The spectacular climbing hydrangea vine that we had become famous for had to go.  But a new one has been planted and before you know it the building will be covered in green again.  The hedge row along the fence also experienced some shifting but it has already been replanted and the split rail fence is back up.
 
Finally, when you stop in look off to the west of the parking lot and you will notice our wind turbine.  It stands at a height of 100 feet and on windy days is spinning our electric meter backwards.  This is a small step towards energy efficiency but one we are proud of.