Ellen and I are eagerly looking forward to traveling to Portland OR next week for the Perennial Plant Association’s annual symposium. This is one of the best educational events we attend each year. Besides listening to interesting and timely programs presented by top authorities in perennial plant production, landscaping, and care, we get to see amazing botanical and private gardens as well as retail and wholesale nurseries that specialize in perennials. And of course, we have delicious meals, enjoy wonderful comradery, and have other fun adventures (like partying on a boat on July 4th anchored in the East River of NYC as fireworks exploded overhead, and then passing by the Statue of Liberty on the way back to port).

In the last few years, El and I have been to fantastic PPA meetings in St. Louis MO, Philadelphia PA, and New York City. St. Louis was memorable for tours of the Arch, Busch Brewery, and Missouri Botanical Garden, walks in the public gardens downtown, a river boat dining/dancing cruise on the Mississippi, and eating Ted Drewes frozen custard.  The Philadelphia trip had us at Swarthmore’s Arboretum in the morning, Chanticleer’s quirky garden at mid-day, and eating dinner at the conservatory of Longwood Garden that night. They really keep you hopping on PPA tours! In New York, we were surprised by the many perennial gardens at Battery Park, Central Park and scattered in pockets around the city, and the New York Botanical Garden blew our socks off.

On this year’s schedule are trips to Monrovia’s Oregon location and Terra Nova. We can’t wait to see what Heuchera-breeder Extraordinaire Dan Heims and our hosts at Monrovia have in store for us! Wouldn’t be surprised by an elegant dinner followed by a concert with a rock band and Dan playing the harmonica.

If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time.

(Longwood Gardens Water Lily Pond)

Because we carry about 2300 varieties of plants in multiple pot sizes, ordering from Grandiflora can be a long and involved task. Our Availability Sheet runs 10 pages with three columns of tiny print. The situation eased a bit a year ago when we started e-mailing the Availability. Receiving the file by e-mail rather than fax has saved many customers paper as well as their eyesight (since the document can be blown up to many times its size on their computer screens).

But then there’s the issue of placing the order. Some folks just mark up the already crowded Availability Sheet, fax it back and hope we can decipher it. Others create a separate list and fax or e-mail it back. Some prefer to give the order by phone directly to a salesperson. Those conversations often run over an hour, tying up the customer’s valuable time as well as that of our staff.

A New Way of Ordering

Now we have a new way to order that we think will speed up the process and eliminate errors. Instead of receiving our old Availability Sheet, we can now e-mail you an Excel version listing all of our highest grade material, the number in stock, and even comments about size and grade. There is an empty box next to each listing where you type in the number needed. When you e-mail this sheet back to us as an attachment, it automatically uploads into an invoice without having to re-key the data. Then our salespeople will call you back to discuss any shortages and possible substitutions.

To download the XL spreadsheet directly from our web site, after you have logged on, click on “Products”, then “Prices and Availability”, and then scroll down to the bottom of the list and click “Excel Availability and Order Form”. When it opens, just fill in the quantity column (Qty) marked with the red arrow. Save the document on your computer with your company name and the date and put it somewhere you can easily find it. It might be best to create a folder “Grandiflora Orders” to store these in. Last step is to send an e-mail to your favorite salesperson and attach the spreadsheet.

Open. Fill in. Save. Attach. Send. It’s just that easy. Give it a try.

We registered 12 degrees at the nursery Monday morning at 6 a.m. The nursery was covered with frost blanket for two solid weeks. We finally uncovered yesterday.

For the first time in a number of years, cold protection techniques were not adequate, and we suffered defoliation and damage to tops of many normally hardy plants. There’s nothing more disheartening than seeing a bunch of wilty plants on a frosty morning. We’ll be spending a lot of time cutting back damaged crops come spring. This will delay their saleability in a year when it would be nice to have everything looking good earlier.

My home garden, filled with hardy perennials, faired better. I expect plants to freeze down there, and I am used to the routine of hacking everything back to the ground each winter, using either gas-powered shears or a small chain saw. Gotta love the power tools - I have too much to cut to do it any other way. The St. Augustine grass in my yard has turned brown in spite of the canopy of pine shade that normally protects it.. One of the pleasures of living in Gainesville is watching all the dormant plants spring into bloom come March. And, despite the brownness of much of the landscape, we still have camellias flowering their little heads off.

The strangest effect of all this cold was seeing frozen sap exuded from the split bark at the base of salvias on the earliest cold mornings. Looked and felt exactly like snow. Who said it never snows here?

Red Drift Rose flower cluster

If you liked Knockouts, but were looking for something that stays more compact and lower-growing, you’ll love Drift Roses.

Rarely growing over 2′ tall, Drifts will spread 2-3′ across, constantly blooming on the new growth with numerous clusters of small flowers in red, coral, peach, or pink. These are tough, vigorous, disease-resistant plants that need no dead-heading or other special care. Of course, like all roses they will do best in full sun with good air circulation, but Drifts will also tolerate less than a full day’s sun and even a partially shaded environment. Expect shaded plants to be much lankier and not bloom as heavily.

Trimming plants can be done with hand pruners or even hedge shears. No need to worry about cutting above an outward-facing five or seven-leaflet. Just prune to shape, and flower buds will quickly re-appear on the tips of the new growth.

Alan espaliered

Welcome to Alan’s Blog at Grandiflora. From here, we will explore beautiful gardens, unusual plants and nursery happenings. Hope to hear from y’all.