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Every year we spend a great deal of time selecting fine and unusual plant varieties suitable for this area. In our constant search for quality, we developed a unique procedure to protect all of our plants during their stay at thenursery in order to provide you with healthy, viable plants: These containerized or B&B (balled and burlaped) plants are sunk into leaves. This heeling-in method has several important advantages: First, even during the cold of winter these decomposing leaves release sufficient heat to keep the ground from freezing solid. Second, long after the plants have leafed out we can still move them safely since the crumbly leaf-compost forms a protective collar around the expanding roots. The new roots are not damaged during digging; the plant is simply lifted out with the new roots intact. Thirdly, plants dug and stored above ground suffer from drying heat and wind, perhaps the plants' worst enemy. New roots are forced to stay inside their ball or container with its limited moisture. This organic approach to hardening plants maintains high quality. Since it is important to select the right plant for the right location, this catalog provides a brief description of each plant we offer, along with cultural information to permit you to familiarize yourself with the plant's needs. You have read it perhaps many times before, but it won't hurt to repeat some general planting instructions. Dig a hole three times the size of the ball or container. A plant 'drilled' into a hole barely large enough doesn't have much chance to survive. If you were to watch a professional at this all-important planting process, you'd observe the following: A generous hole is dug. The excavated soil is placed in a ring immediately around the hole. Stones or other coarse material are removed. The dug out soil is covered with one-third its volume in organic additives along with BioTone Plus, an organic fertilizer. The soil in the bottom of the hole is loosened and similarly enriched. The plant is placed in the hole with the top of the ball even with or slightly higher than the ground level. (Lay a rake across the hole to see where this level is). The plant is then planted by collapsing the side of the hole with a spade. In the process, the ring of good soil is mixed with the surrounding soil and the hole grows even larger. The soil is firmed down around the plant with your foot in order to eliminate air pockets. (Roots do not grow through the air to reach the opposite side of a cavity.)The end result is a firmly set plant, generously encircled by a broad band of loosened, enriched soil. Leave a depression around the base of the plant (a saucer). Water well for the first five days and check weekly thereafter. Watering well means filling the saucer with water and letting it drain, refilling it and repeating if the water drains away still too rapidly. Stop, when during the wait for the water to drain, your thoughts begin to wander. If the water is sluggish in the first place you probably didn't loosen the soil enough or didn't use enough organic additives. A word of caution about container plants. Frequently, roots will encircle the ball. Peel these roots away and spread them out in your planting hole. Hard balls, packed with roots, require vertical slicing with a knife. The outside of such a ball must be made rough and uneven. The surrounding soil must get in between the roots of the plant. Provide special care for the first three years, especially the first. Conserve moisture by mulching your new plants. Use bark chips. Different mulches require different handling - inquire about their use. Do not use peatmoss as a mulch. Peatmoss is a soil conditioner; best mixed with the soil. By itself it cakes when dry, preventing moisture from reaching the soil below. It sheds water the way water rolls off the feathers of a duck. We provide several important services: Landscape Design: We will design your landscape for the use you require or desire. You may want to ask for someone to come to your home to consult with you and answer kny of your horticultural questions. Inquire at the nursery for details. We install plants. The charge for this is 67% of the cost of the plants and materials used to properly plant them. Difficult planting situations necessitate commensurate charges. When we install plants they are guaranteed according to the terms on the quotation. There are no guarantees on transplants or plants installed by the customer. We pay the sales tax on capital improvement projects.
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