Garden News and Notes, February 2001

The best and biggest news I have for us today is this - Spring is coming! It's hard to tell here in my northeast Pennsylvania garden, which is still buried under snow. But I have reliable reports from others around the country that crocuses are blooming and the daffodils are pushing their little noses up through the soil.

So If you haven't done it yet, this is a great time to get started with your seed starting. And make sure that your tools are all clean and sharpened and ready to get to work.

IN THE NEWS

Whatever happened to garden.com? Meanwhile, in gardening news around the world - if you've wondered what happened to all the merchandise that was being sold on the now defunct garden.com, wonder no more. Burpee has bought the inventory and so you can do your one-stop shopping there - Between this new acquisition and the purchase of Heronswood, the fabulous Pacific Northwest nursery formerly owned and operated by Dan Hinckley, it looks like Burpee is out to become the Microsoft of the gardening world.

If you missed the details of that acquisition, read about it here.

I had the opportunity to tour the Burpee trial gardens in September and let me tell you - they have some absolutely awesome morning glories coming up - a single vine can have flowers in several shades of blue streaked with white. They left many of us speechless with awe. Look "Flying Saucers", pictured here - which is only a hint of the glory of the ones I saw.

And here is one more product line from under the Burpee umbrella - a new line of pots that look exactly like carved stone - but are so light that they can be carted easily by the neighborhood toddlers - at least before you will them with dirt and plants. Called Petra-Stone, they come in an array of sizes and patterns - all of which would be quite welcome in my garden - and make great good sense for anyone who likes to move their containers around.

REWARD OFFERED: Reward for missing plant. Contact Lucy Bottoms of Pine Valley Nursery if you know the whereabouts of her missing PVN II Variegated Luseane Ivory. This patented plant was last seen at the New Products Display at the TPIE show in mid-January. (407) 889-8775; arbbie@aol.com

GREAT GARDENING RESOURCES A Site for Sore Muscles - the thing all of us graying gardeners need. Garden Forever is a site especially for those of us who are getting stiffer and stiffer as we go. The idea behind the site is to help us all to find ways to create gardens that we can manage from now until we decide we don't want to garden anymore.

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