It is time to spray your Fruit Trees, Roses, and other or other deciduous shrubs with a dormant spray!

The dormant spray kit contains Lime Sulphur and Horticultural Oil. The Lime sulphur helps to prevent the spread of fungal spores while the horticultural oil helps to kill the eggs of insects. The sulphur and oil can be combined and sprayed at the same time. You can use any type of sprayer including trigger sprayers, pressure sprayer, or tank sprayers.

Your Fruit Trees, Roses, and other ornamental shrubs can be sprayed on a clear day when the temperatures are above zero celcius.

Come in today to pick up your kit and have it ready for the next clear day.

Add colour to your winter garden with Primula!

If you are looking to add a little colour to your winter garden a fresh delivery of Primula have arrived. Also known as Primrose these hardy plants are great for adding colour to your pots, containers, and gardens. With a range of colours from Pink, Purple, Red, Yellow and White you can be sure to find the right colour for your garden. They make a great planting over your spring bulbs as they will not get in the way when your crocus, tulips, or daffodils grow through them. Be sure to stop by and check out the colours we have available for you.

Winter is a quiet time for your lawn. There is very little you need to do to a lawn in winter.

Starting a New Lawn

Once we start to receive frost at night it is too late to start a new lawn or over-seed your existing lawn. It is best to wait until warmer weather in the spring to apply lawn seed. Nigh time temperatures should be above freezing for 4 to 6 weeks continuously for the seed to successfully germinate.

Watering your Lawn

The cool wet weather means that you do not have to water your lawn again until the spring. However it is important to watch the lawn in the winter to determine if there are any low spots where water is collecting. Make note of these areas as you will need to aerate and add sand in the spring to improve drainage.

If you apply lime and/or fertilizer to your lawn it is best to water them in thoroughly. Usually an hour is enough to work the lime or fertilizer into the soil. Leaving the lime or fertilizer on the surface of the grass burns the tops of the blades.

Mowing your Lawn

Cold winter temperatures slow the growth of your lawn. This reduces the need to cut it at regular intervals. You likely do not need to cut your lawn at all during the winter. So one final cut in October or November should be all you need to do.

Applying Moss Control

Winter is not the best time to apply Moss Control to your lawn. The Moss has gone dormant and has probably already spread the spores that will grow next year. You can rake out the moss by hand or use/rent a power rake to do it more effectively. The best time to apply Moss Control is in the spring between March and April.

Fertilizing your Lawn

Winter is a time when the lawn does not need to be given any fertilizer. You will not need to fertilize your lawn again until the spring when it starts to grow again.

Lime should not be applied during winter either. An exces of lime too late in the season can cause diseases on your lawn.

Heavenly Helleborus!

Helleborus, or Christmas Rose, are an easy to grow perennial that bloom continuously for many months. Some varieties start in early December and can bloom until March. They grow best in a dry shady location. They are fairly disease resistent, drought tolerant, and deer resistent. For more infomation about growing Helleborus click here.

For 2011 you can choose from a number of the “Helleborus Gold Collection” (HGC) varieties as well as several varieties that have proven their worth over the years:

• Cinnamon Snow (HGC) – pink buds open creamy white
• Double Queen Mix – double flowers
• Ivory Prince - an excellent cream colour that blooms profusely
• Jacob (HGC) – pure white blooms, slightly fragrant
• Josef Lemper (HGC) – upward facing cup shaped pure white flowers
• Pink Frost (HGC) – burgundy and white blooms
• Silver Dollar - Corsican type with silver foliage
• Winter Bliss (HGC) – creamy white flowers with pink centres

Choose from a fresh selection of Seeds

Our seed suppliers have started to ship us their new seeds for 2012. These fresh new seeds are ready to grow. Now is a great time to to start many of them in your home to be ready to plant in your garden when the warmer weather arrives in April and May. Most seeds can now be started indoors in a sunny window.

You can choose from the following seed companies:

• Pacific Northwest Seeds
• Renee’s Garden Seeds
• West Coast Seeds

Click here for our Seed Starting Brochure

Click here for the list of our 2012 West Coast Seeds

Click here for the list of our 2012 Renee’s Garden Seeds

Winter is a time where very little needs to be done to your water garden. If you have a nice day and you want to get out in the garden the best thing to do is to clean out the debris that has built up in the bottom of your pond.

If tempreatures get too cold and the surface of you pond begins to freeze you should melt a hole in the surface of the ice to ensure that any fish in your pond continue to get oxygen.

Your shrubs will benefit if you take the time to prune them. Pruning should focus on enhancing the shape of the shrubs as well as removing any dead branches. You should be careful not to prune early spring blooming shrubs like Forsythia as pruning them too early might reduce the amount of blooms you see in the spring. When you come by the store pickup our Practical Pruning brochure and ask one of our staff about what you should be pruning now.

You can also spray your deciduous shrubs, like your roses, with the Lime Sulphur and Dormant Oil combination spray. This spray will help to reduce the fungal and insect infections that you may get during the season.

Field Grown Winter Pansies have Arrived!

Don’t miss out on the best pansies you can grow. When these pansies are grown in the field they develop greater tolerance to the cold temperatures that winter brings. Their extra strength ensures that they produce the biggest and best blooms that any Pansy produce. Their cold hardiness ensures that they bloom all winter long and well into the spring. They may even continue to bloom through the following summer.

Plant you spring bulbs underneath them and the bulbs grow through them in the spring. Colour coordinating your bulbs with the pansies ensures a strong impact in your garden next spring. Try Purple Pansies with Yellow Daffodils, or Yellow Pansies with purple crocus, or white pansies with red tulips. There are many great combinations to try.

Bigger Bulbs Produce Better Flowers!

When it comes to bulbs size matters. Bigger bulbs produce more flowers and at David Hunter Garden Centers you can find the largest Allium, Tulip, and Daffodil bulbs. Our selection of bulbs for 2011 include the Jumbo Allium ‘Large and Purple’, three varieties of Jumbo Tulips; Red Impression, Maureen, and Big Smile and the Jumbo King Alfred Daffodils.

For the Tulips Red Impression is a deep red, Maureen is a clean white, and Big Smile is a bright yellow. The flowers on these Tulips are produced on a strong sturdy stem and will be the size of a large hand. These bulbs will bloom in May and June and each flower can last for weeks. Be sure to add Evergro Bulb Food (3-15-8) to the soil when you plant and again in the spring when the bulbs begin to emerge.

Planting Bulbs is as easy as “Dig, Drop, Done”!

If you have avoided growing spring flowering bulbs in the past because you thought they were to much work you might be surprised to fin out just how easy they are to grow. All you have to do is Dig a small hole, Drop the bulb into the hole, and you’re Done! Your bulbs will grow a root system during the winter and sprout next spring. Different bulbs bloom at different times and if you plant a variety of bulbs you can have colourful blooms from February right through June. Some of the most popular varieties include Snowdrops, Crocus, Daffodils, and Tulips. But you can also choose from Alliums, Anemone, Chionodoxa, Hyacinths, Iris, Muscari, and Scilla.

The best time to plant the spring flowering bulbs is during September and October. Although it is not recommended you can plant your bulbs here on the west coast as late as January and still have them flower the following spring. 

For more information about planting bulbs visit www.digdropdone.com. Here you will find handy tips and videos to help you.