When “right plant right place” goes wrong…

Last Minute Budget Changes for 2019

The last thing any property manager wants to hear is that something they need isn't in the budget. There are several components that go into your yearly costs, and it can be easy to let some things fall between the cracks if you’re not careful. 

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Santa’s Immaculate Conception and his Food for Thought

Best Garden-Adjacent Books of 2018?

Happy Holidays

Let there be light

How to Do Social Media – and Not Just for Garden Centers

Jane Perrone, “Plantfluencer” and Brit, Joins GGVideos

The Sower

Do You Have An Inclement Weather Response Plan In Place?

Every commercial property is subject to inclement weather which calls for a careful response plan. Through the years we have experienced events when mother nature caused perilous challenges during the snow and ice season. 

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Holiday Decorating for the Irreligious and Talentless

I recently searched on YouTube for “Christmas decorations with natural materials” and found a bunch of crafty people in the U.S. and England. This confirmed my assessment that I’m not one of them.

The photo above is as “Christmasy” as my front door will get this season. And honestly, my goal is decorating for the winter, so I use colors that don’t look like they need to go away on New Year’s Day, like red always does. I prefer blue, with a bit of silver. I leave it all in place until March.

In these pots next to my front door, where my favorite Iresines once dazzled, I use Juniper clippings with bits of possibly tacky extras from a craft store.

On my front patio, where ginormous Coleuses wow visitors in season, I used more Juniper clippings, this time paired with fake holly berries, on sale for a buck each. The trailing Sedum overwinters there just fine. (It’s S. sarmentosum, which grows around here like a weed.)

In my back yard, where the pots hold a different color of Iresine all summer, I’ve used blue ornaments and some natural stalks of something or other that have been sprayed silver. I’m not thrilled with this combo.

Indoors, I do even less decorating. Above this quilt in my dining room I hang a Christmas doodad I paid 3 bucks for at a church sale. Above the TV in the living room I hang a wreath, which could use a little more color, I think. I do like the way it looks with the birch tree stencil.

By now you see why I welcome your easy decorating ideas – as long as they don’t require actual floral design talents.

Holiday Decorating for the Irreligious and Talentless originally appeared on GardenRant on December 7, 2018.

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Help a garden center get through the winter: buy a kokedama. Or an orchid. Or something.

The next issue of the magazine I edit features heritage businesses in Western New York—the ones that have lasted more than 100 years. Amazingly, two we’re covering are garden centers (and there are more gardening-related companies we couldn’t fit in). I say amazingly because there are built-in problems with maintaining independent gardening businesses in cold climates. Not to mention the big box chains (we have several) that pretend to have everything the home gardener needs.

How do these long-running garden centers do it? A lot of it just has to do with standards of service and degrees of alertness to important trends. A lot of it has to do with basic sound business practice. Much of it has to do with customer loyalty that has endured over generations.

Still, around here, all nurseries and a couple garden centers take at least part of the winter months off. One 100-plus-year-old garden center thrives through the winter—much as landscapers do—thanks to a huge snow removal department. But not all of them are equipped to do this. And I was discouraged when, last year, one of the biggest year-round independents closed down for good.

I try to do my part, especially at this time of year. A small city-based garden center is now my first stop for gift-shopping. They carry lots of items that don’t need to go into the frozen ground, starting with houseplants (of course), and moving on to bird-feeding supplies, terrariums, wall planters, and—a new item—clear window planters that are perfect for culinary herbs. Last year, we got everybody big kokedamas (plants growing out of compact moss/soil balls, no pot needed). I was thrilled to see that most of these have survived through the year. The year before we got attractive, squirrel-proof suet feeders for everyone, and this year—oops, some of them might be reading!

I am a big offseason shopper, probably one of the few in my area who’s stocking up on small pots and potting soil in late fall (for bulb forcing). And if I was a seed-type, I’d probably be shopping in February and March as well.

I want them all to be 100-year-plus businesses.

Help a garden center get through the winter: buy a kokedama. Or an orchid. Or something. originally appeared on GardenRant on December 4, 2018.

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GardenRanters in Print

I was happy to discover a Plant in the Spotlight article in this month’s American Gardener Magazine by fellow Ranter Carol Reese. She’s described as a horticulture specialist with the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. No doubt “GardenRant blogger” was omitted for space.

Then in yesterday’s New York Times I spied a book review by GardenRant co-founder Amy Stewart. We’re following Amy’s success with her Kopp Sisters novels, which are being turned into a series on Amazon Prime!

GardenRanters in Print originally appeared on GardenRant on December 3, 2018.

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