In July's issue of the Scenic Newsletter you will find information about hydrangea care, organic hot weather planting tips, and Jim's commentary on the success of our 60th anniversary celebration. Also, check out the very delicious dirt cake recipe, kid approved.

http://scenicnurserynews.com/news/9/26/

In the winter of 1949 Sid and Mary Rogers moved to Modesto and founded Scenic Nursery at the extreme eastern edge of Modesto.  This month over the June 19th -21st weekend Sid & Mary’s son Jim is celebrating 60 years of success and growth as a small family business in Modesto.
  Most people are familiar with the tall shade tents that are a landmark at the corner of Scenic Drive and Coffee Road.  They’re also familiar with the things that make Scenic Nursery stand out from it’s competitors; wide selection, old fashioned customer service, seminars and children’s activities as well as Jim’s literal life long knowledge of plants.

Even in the recent economic downturn the Nursery has been doing brisk business as people reinvest in their homes, begin growing their own food or switch to organic gardening.  Many homeowners are also trying to decrease water usage in anticipation of water meters and call on The Garden Crew to redesign their yards into more economic areas.  The Garden Crew has come to fill a unique niche left open by regular lawn service providers by specializing in periodic maintenance such as natural pruning on trees and shrubs, and other seasonal needs like fertilizing lawns, trees and shrubs or weed control.  

“We just want our customers to know that without them we would never have gotten to 60.  We’re always striving to provide the best products and services and we really enjoy the friendly relationship we have with our customers.  They’re the reason we’re still growing.” Says April Sutis, the Nursery’s General Manager,

At the lead of it all is second generation owner Jim Rogers,  AKA ‘Jungle Jim’ who can be seen briskly marching across the Nursery with his black cap on.   He still enjoys his job and is grateful for his loyal customers that travel from as far away as the bay area or the mountains.  Over the weekend of the 19th he’s decided to show his customers how much he appreciates them by offering the employee discount to everyone who walks in the doors that weekend. In usual Scenic style there are also activities scheduled for children and a BBQ on Saturday.  

The weekend’s sale and events are a fitting memorial of the success and customer gratitude passed down from the founders of the nursery for whom it wasn’t just a business, but a family. “My parents enjoyed the long friendships they had with their customers” Jim says “Even now I enjoy talking to people who remember Sid and Mary.” 
 

When our customers are used to a variety of plant for over fifty years it is unnerving to have to change. Last fall the problem happened with onions. We have sold Stockton Red Onions since 1950 and people love them. We had to replace them with Red Burger Onions.

 The large sweet onions that are so popular around here, were a hallmark of the onion grower from Sacramento to Merced. Unfortunately, everything must end eventually. Our grower of onions is primarily a grower for the farmers to put out in the fields and over the last several years they have been switching to Red Burger Onion. I know a lot of our customers were worried about the change we were forced to make last fall.

Tammi, who is our Garden Crew office person, is one of them. I know she was worried that the new variety wouldn't be as good as the old standard. A few days ago she caught a call from a customer that was concerned that the onions he was growing weren't as big as he was used to.  Even though she didn’t think the onions were finished, she decided to dig a few and see what they looked like.

I think she was reassured that her onion crop would be as good as before. I will do an additional post when the final growing is over, but here are some early pictures.

This is a picture that I took in front of the office yesterday morning. What do you think. 

Now that we have had our second bout with 100 F I think it is time to make some additional comments about water wise irrigation. If you have been following theis blog you will remember that it is a subject I have talked about before.

Yes, you have to increase the water you use. The problem is, if you increase the water for the lawn and that also increases the water you use for established shrub \, you can use a lot of extra water. If you have a few shrubs like a hydrangea that dries out and you increase the water for the entire garden you use a lot of extra water. Using a drip system to suppliment the main watering system is often the best way to adapt to extra hot weather.

Other tips include mulching with humus or mini bark 2" deep, thinning the foliage on well established shrubs to reduce the leaf surface, and avoid heavy fertilizing on well established shrubs and trees in the hot weather that increases soft succulent growth. Remember that the plants are key and pay attention to what they tell you.

If you have plants that wilt and you are SURE they have enough water don't water the whole garden. Often a misting or suringe with water will cool the plant off and allow the roots to catch up. Getting water on the foliage does NOT cause burn. If you visit us on hot days you will see us with overhead sprinklers going to cool the plants off.

We have officially launched our new digital newsletter! It has been sent to over 700 email addresses and if you would like to receive it as well stop by and sign up or drop us an email and we'll add you to the list.  To view the newsletter directly just follow this link:
http://scenicnurserynews.com/news/9/19/

I have wanted to include some pictures of our maintenance work . However, it is often difficult to show in pictures about what we accomplish. With pruning it is easier, but we have to remember to get good before pictures as well as after pictures. Recently I did a pruning project on a contorted Filbert that was 6' tall and never pruned artistically. Unfortunately, again, I forgot the before pictures. 

 When I did some pruning on a lace leaf maple I did get some before pictures as well as after pictures. This was one I have pruned a few times before, but with lace leaf maples to keep them open so you can see the structure, it is a yearly affair. 

This is the before picture. As you can see the lower structure is visible but the upper structure is completely hidden. I went through the entire tree thinning excess branches removing excess larger branches and lifting the layering to emphasize the layer effect and allow the structure to come out.

I think you can see the difference a critical eye can make.

I filled a green dumpster almost full with the prunings and yet I don't think you can think the tree was butchered!

St. Paul, Minn. (Spring 2009) – Choosing a Mother’s Day gift from the Endless Summer® Collection could make Mom’s day even brighter. This spring, purchase any Endless Summer hydrangea as a Mother’s Day gift and you could be sending Mom on a trip to the spa! Two lucky winners in the Endless Summer® Spa-Tacular Sweepstakes will receive a $500 Luxury Spa Day package, 15 will win a $100 Spa treatment gift certificate.

Endless Summer Hydrangeas are the official plant of Mother’s Day. Each plant even comes with it’s own Mother’s Day gift tag! Whether mom is an avid gardener or just wants to have a great looking outdoor space, a plant from the Endless Summer Collection is a gift she’ll enjoy for years to come.

With the busy spring season upon us, it's been hard for me to find the time to post a blog. However, I felt I needed to make the time to share with you a new line we are carrying in the store if you haven't visited us lately.

We are proud to introduce Give-A-Tree Cards from the Arbor Day Foundation. They are bright and beautiful cards that help bring America's National Forests back to life by planting a tree in honor of the recipient. By purchasing a card for a friend or loved one, you'll do more than send a wish. You'll give a gift to the Earth...a gift that lasts a lifetime!!! Come in and check out our lovely card display by the registers.

For the last few years I have been blogging about Donna’s and my fight against that scourge of the garden, nut grass. For those of you that haven’t been keeping up Donna and I have been developing a fairly large front yard. As we get an area planted and start regular watering one of the things that comes up is nutgrass that has been dormant for probably 20 years or more.

The first area we developed is an area near out drive. Obviously, this is an area that I see as I get home in the evening, and my main line of attack has been hand pulling.  As I started weeding the amount of nutgrass dropped quickly and dramatically. Last year after two years of pulling it was coming back very sparsely and with out a lot of vigor. This spring I have seen a couple of sprigs and that is all.

Because of the amount of ground cover, flowers, flowers and perennials there. I couldn’t use things like Round-up or Remuda. I couldn’t use a hula hoe or regular hoe. It was a limited area and as I started the nutgrass re-growth reduced dramatically and quickly to just a few sprigs every few days.

This allowed me to keep up and ahead of it.

In the nursery where I have done hand weeding I have noticed the same result. There, unfortunately, I lost focus after a couple of months, and by the end of summer it was back just like it was before.

The key then is persistence.

You can use Remuda, Nutgrass-Nihalator or a garden hoe or Hula-Hoe to kill it. but the key is to keep after each sprig until it quits. If you leave one sprig eventually you will end up where you started. If it is just everywhere you have to start some where, use bulk controls until if gets down where hand weeding is not overwhelming and then stay after until is is gone and then don’t quit looking. Give it al least a year with out any  regrowth before you can relax.Good luck and keep gardening

PS: One of the tricks we used is a thick mulch over the soil. This doesn't stop nutgrass, but it does make getting the entire plant with hand weeding easier. In addition it does reduce seedling weeds, keep the soil moist and cool which  then lets the plants you want to grow do better.

If you are looking for pottery for container gardening, now is the time to come in and see what we have to offer.  A large selection of pottery just arrived and with our regular selection of flowers, perennials, grasses you can make a unique container just your own.

Or you can look over our selectiion of premade containers. In any case Scenic is the place to come for container gardening.

Just as the aphid show up is the time to get ladybugs and other insect predators established. to put out Lady bugs there are a few directions for success.

 1) Put them out in the cool of the evening.

2) sprinkle your plants with water before putting them out.

3) put them out at the base of plants with aphid

These directions give you the best chance that they will stay around long enough to lay eggs and start a long lasting supply of ladybugs.

After the new eggs hatch you will see stripped tiny alligator looking critters that art the lady bug larvae. These are the most voracious eaters around.

 Allthough they aren't as cute I find encarsia wasps do the best job keeping aphid under control. we sell cards that you send in and get them shipped fresh to you. These are tiny, fine ground pepper sized, wasps. Don't be afraid, they aren't the size of yellowjackets!

These little critters can eradicate aphid in just a week or so.

Here it is April and spring is in full swing at the nursery and at home. Although, everyone in business expects this year to be tough because of the economic climate, it seems that people still want to get into the garden. Certainly the fruit tree interest is up and so is the vegetable interest. People seem to be swarming in to plant tomatoes, peppers, squash and other vegetables. We don’t seem to be able to reorder vegetable seeds quick enough. 

At home, Donna and I have noticed that our four-year fruit bush orchard seems to be ready to keep us in fruit this year. Our cherry had a lot of flowers for the first time and our persimmon seems to have a lot of buds, though I don’t know how many will set. Our peaches and nectarines bloomed well and the pluots were in heavy bloom. That leaves the apricot, and it had a good number of flowers, though it seems to be lagging behind the other fruit trees so far, and the pomegranate that is not supposed to be blooming yet.

Our Geranium incanum is just coming into bloom. No, these aren’t the geraniums your grandmother grew, but rather, a fine textured ground cover or spilling plant with lavender pink blooms. If you haven’t seen them, you can come in and see them spilling out of our bedding table blocks.

Our narcissus are mostly finished blooming, but our species tulips are just coming into bloom. Especially satisfying are the plantings of the small flowered Tulip clusiana which seems to be naturalizing and increasing nicely. 

Our landscape roses are budded and getting ready to bloom. We have Starry Night, Pink Drift, White Drift and Day Dream growing plus a couple of Ballerina growing as climbers spilling over our courtyard fence. These are going to be spectacular.

We are planting the inside of our courtyard now and have added several additional maples to make a total of thirteen so far. (That’s plus the two that I have as bonsai.) We are developing the inside as more of a collector garden, as opposed to the outside area that is being developed as a viewing garden from the street. 

As we find new interesting things we will be testing them in our garden. As I have mentioned before, we get regular shipments from Annie’s Annuals. We go over them to see what we want to try and get in the ground to see how it performs. We’ve just added some different poppies, including some california poppies as opposed to CALIFORNIA POPPIES. The common name for these poppies is “frying pans”. Yes, we do have some real California Poppies in the ground, but these Frying Pans were irresistible.

In any case as we get them in the ground I will report on our successes. Our failures will be “shipped to sea” in the dead of night. 

We are constantly looking for interesting plants to add to our selection. A few years ago we carried a line of small ground covers called the Steppables. It is a selection of small ground cover type plants that accept being walked on. Some of these are plants that we have available from other growers , but a lot of them are unique and interesting.

We just received our second shipments and I immediately noticed several interesting plants. I had to plant a couple of Armeria in my own garden. These are small clumping plants with a grassy texture with pinb ball like blooms in the spring. look for our display near the childrens garden when you come in.

I recently ran into an article that was interesting. There is research on getting plants to send you a message when they get dry. Can you picture being on a vacation in Greece and having to call you houseplant sitter and telling them your Pothos is too dry?

 check it out here.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0101-thirsty_plants_text_for_help.htm

  cut and paste in your browser

This is a difficult time for us at Scenic Nursery . The weather is starting to turn to spring like conditions but often there is still cold weather ahead. What to do. Bring in the tender summer flowers and vegetables? People want them, but if it gets cold...

We are bringing in our spring flowers like petunias, alyssum, impatiens, begonias  and marigolds. We are bringing in tomatoes and peppers for those that want a early start on the season. If you want the early start, you need to be ready to protect them at a moments notice. We can get a cold spell up through early April.

We carry Row Cover, a plastic film, that we use to protect out plants during cold weather and if you hear about temps below 32F you want to come n and get some. My  spring flowers afe still doing well, so Donna and I won't be planting much now. I probably will plant some impatiens in our back yard where I didn't plant any winter spring flowers.  because it is protected thy will be safe.  My exposed beds won't be changed until the weather changes. If I had an area that I didn't plant cool season flowers,  I would get prepared to protect them.

In any case there are lots of fun things to see now. spring flowering shrubs and trees, perennials and Annie's Annuals  shipments weekly.

Come on in!!

There are lots of interesting gardens in modesto. Some of them because of an interesting tree or focal point. some because of the different use of plants.Others because of the interesting use of hardscaping materials.

Here is a garden that is interesting use of the lawn. Few people would think that planting bulbs in a lawn would make any scense. In fact I would include myself in that group. Several years ago I saw a front lawn on Rumble Ave. that was interesting. Just a few days ago I drove down Rumble and saw it again.

If you have not been by take a drive between McHenry and College Ave. You can't miss it.

 It is in a hybrid bermuda lawn that goes dormant in the winter so it does not need to be mowed during the winter and early spring. Hybrid bermuda grows thick enough I would gues they do not need to use Ween n' Feed type products and I looks like they come back year after year.

It looks like wild flowers in a dormant medow.

What makes it a flower is obvious when you see the show going on now. It is tough, likes the shade and comes back reliably forever.

What makes it a weed is that it is tough, likes the shade and comes back reliably for years. In addition it spreads if you ever move soil form an infested area to a clean area. In addition in addition it is very difficult to get rid of.  In many older gardens it has taken over. You see it especially in gardens that date back to the 20's and the 30's. It is common in the downtown area in the number and letter streets on both sides of the freeway. You also see it in the Graceda park area over to the old John Muir school site.I also see a lot of it at the old farmsteads out in the country.

As a kid, I remember sucking on the flower stocks for the sour taste.  I still can appreciate the early spring show in other people's yards. Is it a weed? Is it a flower? The answer is YES!

Just the other day before a storm came in I was looking out from a second story window and noticed Sprinklers running. 

Oops!

One of the things i have noticed over the years as people moved from watering lawns and shrubs with hoses and hand sprinklers to sprinkler systems to automatic systems is the massive increase in over watering.

Back in the good old days the problem was getting people to put enough water on the ground to get the entire plant root system moist. Now days it is getting people to give the roots time to breath between waterings. 

Most of us know about rain switches on our timers. Many of don't use them. I am constantly going out to peoples gardens and seeing that they are still watering once or twice a week. I installed a new sod lawn in the fall. I have needed to water it ONCE since. 

I watered the complete system once this winter. The only exception to this is those plants that are protected from the rains. This includes plants under eaves and under evergreen trees often. Those you need to keep an eye on occasionall. As the plants start to show new growth I will start watering weekly and progress from there. Established shrubs and trees generally do not need water more than weekly. Lawns two to three times a week in hot weather. 

People talk about reducing water use in our gardens. The easiest thing to do is to only water when your garden needs water.

I think that the automatic systems have made us all unaware of what is actually going on in the garden. I encourage everyone to get out and just look around your garden and keep in touch with your plants. 

This is the time snails and Slugs start becoming active in our climate. In my visits to clients gardens I am seeing them starting to attack pansies, violas, primroses and bulbs like daffodils and tulips. Soon they will be out in full force. One of the prices we pay for our mild climate is the early spring snail wars.

You want to start getting them under control now before they start laying eggs and new ones hatch. I use Sluggo which is a safer snail control than the regular baits. Even though it is not COMPLETLY safe You have a lot less to worry about. The worst problem with metaldehyde baits is the lack of an antidote if a pet gets some.

Sluggo and Sluggo Plus contains Iron Phosphate which is approved by OMRI listed as an organic pest control product. The difference is Sluggo Plus contains Iron Phosphate and Spinosad a new organic insect control for earwigs and other insects. 

It takes just takes a lightl sprinkling around plants you want to protect and in areas where they hide. This cool and wet weather is what they love.and they can destroy your flower! Sluggo has become our Number One selling snail control.

Now you can control snails and slugs and feel good about it.

Perennials are a wonderful addition to most gardens. They allow you to get seasonal color without having to plant each season.

Perennial means they come back more than one year. Annuals germinate, grow, bloom and die in one year. By the official definition, perennials include things like maple trees, redwoods, roses as well as what we as gardeners think of as perennials.

As gardeners we consider perennials things that do not have a permanent woody structure.

Yarrow, cone flower, black eyed Susan, brachyscome, Tapien verbena and mission bells are some of the perennials I use at home and I see in my visits to our Garden Crew clients. The problem I see is that people hear perennial and think permanent. They keep them in even when it is obvious they are not performing for you.

Wrong!

Because perennials do not develop a woody structure they are more susceptible to various diseases after a few years. When they start struggling it’s time to make a change. You are not a bad person or even a bad gardener when perennials start to go bad. If you want your garden to look it’s best don’t be afraid to replace your perennials.

Usually I replace them with something different.  If I am replacing verbena I will replace with mission bells or bidens. If I am replacing cone flower I replace with a tall yarrow. I also look to see if conditions have changed and replace with something I think might do better with the new conditions.

In any case perennials are a great addition to the garden.

This is the time people get out into the garden and would like to see something besides green foliage and brown dirt. The Gardener that is on top of thing has already planted bulbs and annuals like pansies, Snaps and Iceland Poppies. If you happen to be one of those that forgot or just didn't get around to i, you can still catch up. 

We carry potted daffodils and tulips and Ranunculus for you to pop-in for some early spring color and you can still get the annuals in. Yes, if you put them in in the fall they would be well established and already blooming, but if you plant now you can still get a great show.

This picture if from my garden last spring. It contains Iceland Poppies with a few patches of Snaps at the back against the rocks with some pansies up out of sight on the fill.

To get the best results you need to do it right. That means getting the soil in condition with Masters PaydirtMaster Start before you plant at the rate of one bag per flat of flowers and an early start with at planting and Rose and Flower Food every two weeks three or four times. You don't have time to waste so do it right the first time.