Peach with Melon center - Daylily

I bought this one a number of years ago at a Master Gardener sale - all the plants were donated and most of them were unmarked, so a grab bag bargin turned into a wonderful surprise.  I have never been able to find a picture of this variety so I don't know the correct name, I just call it Peach with Melon center.

GTOTM (Garden Tip Of The Month) Having a plant sale at your home

Here a just a few things to consider before you have a plant sale at your home.

One should decide what the purpose of the sale is. To get rid of excess plants, dabble in the commercial aspects of plant sales, or to make a little money to reinvest in new plants.

Take inventory of your plants and decide what plants should be thinned out and offerred for sale.   Hostas make a great first choice.  A large plant can be separated into anywhere from 6 to 12 new plants.  Just take a large knife and have at it.

Next you will need some pots and potting soil, along with a type of plant tag (cut up miniblinds make great plant markers).

When I had my first plant sales at the house I would co-ordinate it with the city wide garage sale weekend and pick up a ton of customers that were out and about looking for bargins.  You can use flyers and signs at your descretion and never under estimate word of mouth.

It is a good idea to have a second person help you with the sale, that way one person is always taking the money and bagging plants while the other is answering plant questions for browsing customers. Customers love to see the plants growing in your gardens, another good reason to have a second person to serve as a tour guide.

I use plastic bags (yeah the ones that your groceries come home in, do the words 'recycle' and 'free' come to mind) to bag up potted plants for my customers.  One bag holds 2 one gallon potted plants comfortably and the handles make it easy to carry.

Remember the saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words'?  Unless you are selling a plant like a hosta you are going to need a picture of the plant in bloom.  People definately want to see what it looks like when it is blooming and since different perennials bloom at different times through out the growing season, you are never going to have them all blooming at sale time.  I take my digital camera and get pictures during the season as they are blooming;  then transfer them to my computer,  upload them to an oline photo developer (usually as cheap as .06 a print) and then laminate them and use them over and over again.  The laminating helps protect the picture from a rainy sale date.  These pictures are place in front of each group of a specific plant where they are the first thing a customer sees.  One more tip on pictures - they don't have to be professional, as you can see from some of my pictures there is occasionally a hand or boot or onion patch in the picture.  To an experienced gardener this will give them warm fuzzies - it will tell them that this is an actual picture of the plant growing and thriving (hardy) in this plant zone.

Ice Carnival - Daylily

Probably the closest thing you will get to a pure white daylily.

Ice Carnival

Height - 28 inches
Zones 3-10
Booms - mid to late July
Fragrant 6 inch near white Blooms

Black Eye Stella - Daylily

BLACK EYED STELLA

14"-18" HEIGHT

3"-3.25" BLOOM

ZONES 3-10

EARLY BLOOMER

REBLOOMER

GTOTM (Garden Tip of the Month) Composting Leaves

In an earlier blog regarding the division of irises, soil amendment was mentioned.  This is a perfect segue to the tip of the month; What does one do with all the leaves left behind by mother nature every fall?  The answer is simple!!!  The recycling and composting of leaves is an excellent thing to do for your garden soil, plants and the environment  in general.  Consider the benefits of mulching and composting the leaves each fall back into your gardens and around plantings:

1. They will help conserve moisture.
2. Controls soil erosion.
3. Regulates soil temperatures in summer and winter.
4. Reduces weeds.
5. Reduces stress of drought.
6. Insulates the soil.
7. Helps winter survival of plants
8. Adds a variety of nutrients back into the soil.
9. Improves soil structure.
10 Promote an environment for earth worms, natures natural soil aerators!
11. Prevents leaves from entering the water ways, or landfills.

After raking all those leaves simply put them somewhere in a big pile and cover with a tarp and let them decompose over winter and add them in the spring at the depth of  3" or more as mulch around plantings and in your garden beds.  I choose to shred them in the fall and apply after the gardens are somewhat cleaned out.  Leaves do not change the PH of your soil.

****A word of caution is in order. If your leaves are from black walnut trees, be sure there are no nuts in your leaves as they will have ill effects on your soil and plants.

Shasta Daisy

I love this plant - very hardy and seeds itself like crazy.

GTOTM (Garden Tip Of The Month) - Potting Soil

I have found that it is best to get a good grade of potting soil.  A good grade will give your potted plants a jump start and make them look great.  A good grade will be pourous - absorbing water but letting excess water filter through.

I usually select one that has slow release ferterlizer that will feed the potted plants for up to 4 - 6 months.  All the plants that I don't sell at the market are not store in pots over the winter (they get planted back in the ground)  so 4 - 6 months is a good time frame.

I always buy the 2 -3 cubic feet bags - you get the best price.

GTOTM (Garden Tip Of The Month) - Nursery Pots

When I started out I asked friends and family to save all their pots from plants they had purchased.  As you can imagine the first year or so I had quite an assortment of pots - different shapes, sizes and colors.  I even asked my customers if they were not going to reuse the pots if I could have them back - explaining that it would help me keep my expenses down.  That in turned allowed me to do the following:

A.  reuse the pot and cut my expenses (helping out the small guy - me)
B.  continue to offer a showy high quality plant at a bargin price (big plus for the customer - them)
C.  recycle a none biodegradable item and decrease the refuge in our landfills. (the world - everyone)

As I expanded from a couple plant sales at the house to the Farmers Market - presentation became very important.  I was now competing against established nurseries so not only my plants but my pots needed to have a unified and professional look about them.  I went online to look for a source of nursery pots and found by ordering in bulk you can get pots for as inexpensive as 12 to 16 cents a piece.
Just go online and do a search on Nursery Containers, and find the supplier that best meets your needs.

GTOTM (Garden Tip Of The Month) - Plant Tags (stakes)

For many years the only plant tags I used - were cut up mini blinds.  Don't laugh - no expense involved!

Again I had friends and relatives saving their old mini blinds for me.  You can make them look professional if you take a siscors and round the tops off (no sharp corners) and then cut the bottom into a V shape that will be inserted into the pot to identify the plant.  They are a little wider than most of the standard ones you can buy so you have more space to identify the plant.  I typically use a Sharpie market to print the plant name on the tag so more space is better.

If you do buy tags at a nursery or farm/home center you should be able to get a pack of 50 6inch tag stakes for between $1.49 - $1.69, that's a good price.

Daylily - Happy Returns (a stella variety)

14"-18" HEIGHT

3"-3.25" BLOOM

ZONES 3-10

EARLY BLOOMER

REBLOOMER

 

Bearded Iris - Tall White

Daylily - Burning Ember

A stunning red with a deep yellow throat.  The leaves are curled back like they are burning.

Daylily - Yellow Ruffel

A star shaped yellow ruffel.