Bring your own boxes

Is it safe to plant now? It sure felt like summer yesterday and again today, and with the trees in full bloom, the freshly mowed lawn, it even smells like summer. But what about that old rule of thumb: wait until the May 24th weekend before it is safe to plant? That's three weeks away! Hmmm. Now I'm not going to stick my head out and say it is safe to plant, but the 14 day 'forecast' looks mighty good :-)

• And we're off...
  It's official, we're open for another season! We're now opening at 9:00 in the morning (actually 8:53, when Alexander gets on the school bus). We're open every day, even Mondays until the second Monday in August (guess what day I'm looking forward to). Wendy and I were wondering if there would be any interest in us staying open late for flower sales. We were thinking just a couple of Friday evenings. Let us know, and if there is sufficient interest we can stay open, and as I said to Wendy, "I'm bribable!"
  
  
• And the winner is... Remember our speculations in the last newsletter concerning the first flower to sell out? Would it be Pretty Much Picasso? Calliope Dark Red? Or my guess of Raspberry Blast? Well, it was a geranium called 'Rocky Mountain Orange'. Not my pick, in fact none of us picked it to be the first one to go. Lots of Raspberry Blast Supertunias still available, btw.
  
  
• Farmers Market... Just a quick reminder, Wed May 5th is the first day of the Burlington Mall Farmers' Market. Gillian and Mike will have our truck filled to bursting with our flowers, so please drop by and say hello. Be gentle with Mike, he's still recovering from his first year at U of T.
  
  
• Flower Trays  In our last newsletter I talked about the surprisingly high cost of empty flower trays, and you had a chance to vote on our blog poll: Should we hide the cost of our flower trays, or price them separately? The results were overwhelming, you want the trays priced separately. So, the price for our 4½" pots (geraniums and everything else) will be $38/doz.
  I have good news and bad news. The good news: this price includes $4.37 in taxes. The bad news: this price does not include the price of our trays (they're $2.00 each). I have more good news: you don't have to buy our trays, in fact we don't want you to. Please bring your own boxes, bins, etc, or skip the boxes altogether, and gently lay your plants down in your car. Extra boxes? Leave them here, they'll get used!
  

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the greenhouses, and I can't believe I actually found the time to write this, but this newsletter is done! Hope to see you up at our greenhouses soon, they are bursting with colour, and the selection is outstanding (except for Rocky Mountain Orange). You'll probably find me at the end of a hose.

Bye for now,
David


P.S. The photo, taken this afternoon, features our 12" mixed hanging baskets: Bordeaux Supertunias, Gulliver White Bacopa, and Deep Purple Lanai Verbena. A beautiful combo we call 'Grape Expectations'.