It’s hard to believe, but the year is coming to a close…and without a hurricane to hit the US! Fall has been beautiful and consequently lots of folks have been planting in their gardens. Frankly, with all that’s gone on in the world this fall, the garden is truly the place to be. I can easily remember back to the “good old days” when we didn’t know a Taliban from a telephone.
The change in consumer purchasing habits due to the terrorist disaster has had tremendous effects on our industry with many small nurseries folding up shop, while major players such as Burpee went in to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I cannot emphasize enough…patronize your favorite nurseries, be they local or mail order. Many small and some larger nurseries simply cannot endure income slow downs, particularly in the fall and winter.
We are already looking forward to a big spring, and our greenhouses are nearly fully stocked. Stocked that is with a dizzying array of wonderful new plants. We are working nearly round-the-clock on the 2002 catalog as we finish writing the descriptions and begin the tedious process of selecting photographs.
Several of our staff has just returned from the wonderful Southern Plant Conference in Athens, GA. With seventeen of the top plantsmen in the country as speakers, this was one of the most intense and fun conferences that I’ve ever attended. Held every two years, the next SPC will be held in Charleston in fall 2003.
This has also has been a great fall for chocolate! The specialty chocolate as well as the home-made chocolate chip cookies have been superb…keep ’em coming! Okay, it’s time to get back to the catalog and for you to get back to your garden. See you soon.
Our top selling plants for the season as of October 15, 2001
1 ‘Colocasia Black Magic’
2 Colocasia antiquorum ‘Illustris’
3 Muhlenbergia capillaris
4 Salvia leucantha ‘Santa Barbara’ PPAF
5 Lobelia ‘Cotton Candy’
6 Gaura ‘Pink Cloud’
7 Tanacetum vulgare ‘Isla Gold’
8 Athyrium filix-femina ‘Frizelliae’
9 Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ PPAF
10 Athyrium ‘Ghost’
11 Lantana ‘Miss Huff’
12 Dicliptera suberecta
13 Lilium formosanum
14 Vinca minor ‘Illumination’
15 Verbena ‘Snowflurry’
16 Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’
17 Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’
18 Physostegia virginiana ‘Miss Manners’ PPAF
19 Lamium maculatum ‘Anne Greenway’
20 Veronica prostrata ‘Buttercup’ PPAF
21 Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ PPAF
22 Salvia chamaedryoides
23 Hosta plantaginea
24 Alstroemeria ‘Freedom’ PP 9,393
-tony