Where has the year gone? It’s May already and so many garden chores remain to be done. The gardens here at Juniper Level have been spectacular this spring. The cold spring has worked to compress the season, so that combinations that we have never seen before are emerging this year. This is of course after an April that included temperatures in the 90’s and then back to below freezing. You can imagine what it was like for the staff that spent the better part of a day covering hostas, arisaemas, and other tender foliage. Fortunately, major damage was averted.
We have completed the first weekend of our spring open house with near perfect weather in the 70’s, resulting in thousands of visitors. Let’s hope we get as lucky for the second weekend. After the first open house weekend, we are out of several more items, but are potting as fast as possible to get stock built back by mid-June. We still have over 90% of the spring catalog items in stock and some really gigantic hostas remaining.
Shipping is still at a fever pitch with record shipping volume being set virtually every week. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to those of you who have taken time to order this spring, and especially those of you that have taken time to write nice letters or send chocolates.
Our top selling plants for the season as of May 1, 2001
1 Colocasia ‘Black Magic’
2 Athyrium filix-femina ‘Frizelliae’
3 Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ PPAF
4 Gaura ‘Pink Cloud’
5 Lobelia ‘Cotton Candy’
6 Salvia leucantha ‘Santa Barbara’ PPAF
7 Muhlenbergia capillaris
8 Colocasia antiquorum ‘Illustris’
9 Tanacetum vulgare ‘Isla Gold’
10 Dryopteris celsa
11 Lilium formosanum
12 Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’
13 Vinca minor ‘Illumination’
14 Lamium maculatum ‘Anne Greenway’
15 Salvia chamaedryoides
16 Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ PPAF
17 Ligularia tussilaginea Gigantea’
18 Syneilesis aconitifolia
19 Athyrium ‘Ghost’
20 Physostegia virginiana ‘Miss Manners’ PPAF
21 Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘White Giant’
22 Dicliptera suberecta
23 Acanthus ‘Summer Beauty’
24 Hippeastrum x johnsonii
-tony