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By Miles Hunter, May 13, 2013

May 13th, 2013

Grow the Sweetest Tastiest Tomato – Tomaccio

If you enjoy growing Tomatoes and are looking for something unique and different try growing the Tomato ‘Tomaccio’. This grape sized Tomato have an intense, sugary flavor when picked fresh or dried at home. Tomato aficionados love them as a sweet snack or a gourmet ingredient in pastas, pizzas, salads and other dishes.

For more information about this great variety visit the website at www.tomaccio.com.

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By Miles Hunter,

May 13th, 2013

Mighty Mato Grafted Tomatoes – Have Arrived!

One of the easiest and most rewarding vegetable crops to grow on your own are Tomatoes. Now they are even easier with the new Mighty Mato grafted Tomatoes. Mighty Mato Tomatoes are like superheroes they are stronger, faster, more able to fend off pests and diseases than regular tomato plants. They are also most drought so you can miss a watering or two. They are also more cold tolerant so they can begin producing earlier and continue producing later in the season. But most importantly they produce bigger crops of tomatoes.

How do they do this? They are better because they are “grafted”. Grafting is where the top part of one plant is attached to the root system of a separate plant (the rootstock).  The top part of the plant fuses with the bottom part of the plant and combine the rootstock’s vigor and disease resistance with the  exceptional fruit quality of the top plant.  These are NOT genetically modified in any way. They are some of the same great varieties that have been grown for many years including several Heirloom varieties. One important difference between grafted and non-grafted tomatoes is that the graft must stay above soil level, and you should prune lateral suckers for best fruiting.

The Mighty ’Mato line-up includes twelve heirloom and four hybrid varieties. For 2013 you can choose from the following varieties at our stores:

• Amish Paste
• Beefsteak
• Black Cherry
• Black Krim
• Brandywine
• Cherokee Purple
• Early Girl
• Green Zebra
• Mortgage Lifter
• Stupice
• Sun Sugar
• Sweet Million
• Yellow Pear

For more information about the varieties please click here. To see the picture below please click on them.

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By Miles Hunter,

May13th, 2013

Taste the flavour of home grown Tomatoes!

The weather is finally warm enough to start thinking about putting tomatoes outside in the garden. It is still recommended that you provide some protection from the cold night temperatures. You can do this by covering your tomatoes with plastic or a white cloth like our “Crop Cover” or “Frost Blanket”. When the night time low is above 10 degrees Celsius, or 50 degrees Fahrenheit, you can leave them uncovered.

Whether you are a seasoned tomato growing veteran or a new gardener here are a few tips to help you grow better tomatoes:

1. Tomatoes are heavy feeder, they are the teenage boys of the plant world. You should add manure and fertilizer to the soil before you plant.
2. When you plant the tomatoes plant them deeper as new roots will develop along the stem helping your plants grow faster and stronger. (Except ‘Mighty Mato’ grafted Tomatoes, do not plant them below the graft)
3. Water regularly all summer, twice a week early in the season and daily during the summer months. Tomatoes that do not get regular water are more likely to develop diseases and are less likely to produce as much fruit. They also develop thicker skin if not watered properly.
4. Fertilize weekly with a water soluble fertilizer like Miracle Gro Tomato Food 18-18-21 or monthly with a granular fertilizer like Evegro’s Vegetable and Tomato Food 10-15-19.
5. Add Lime to your soil before you plant and every month during the growing season. Lime helps balance the pH and provides Calcium and Magnesium to the plants.

With so many varieties of Tomatoes to choose from here are a few varieties that perform well in our climate:

• Ball Extra Early – a medium sized tomato that produces early
• Beefsteak – one of the largest tomatoes with lots of meaty flesh
• Early Girl – a medium sized early producing variety
• Sungold – a golden cherry tomato
• Sweet 100 – an excellent small cherry tomato
• Sweet Million – a smaller version of the sweet 100 that produces an abundant crop
• Tumbler – a great cherry tomato for hanging baskets that produces all summer until frost
• Tomaccio – a super sweet grape type tomato that is great for making Sun Dried Tomatoes

In addition to these varieties you can choose from a selection of Heirloom Tomato varieties including:

• Bloody Butcher – a medium sized tomato that is great for slicing
• Brandywine Black – a large heirloom tomato
• Latah – an early producing medium sized tomato
• Nyagous – a medium to large early to mid season tomato
• Prudens Purple – a medium tomato great for slicing

Be sure to stake your tomatoes as they grow to give them support as the fruit matures. You can stake them up with a basic bamboo or cedar stake or buy a “Tomato Cage” that provides support for the leaves as well.

Click here to download our information brochure on Tomatoes.

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By Miles Hunter, May 10, 2013

May 10th, 2013

Summer Never Ends for the Endless Summer Hydrangeas!

If you have ever had a Hydrangea that did not flower and did not understand why this is the variety for you. The Original ‘Endless Summer’ Hydrangea is a mophead hydrangea that can bloom on both old and new wood. So no matter how you prune them they flower every year. There are now four varieties in the Endless Summer Collection to choose from:

• Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ - The Original, flowers can be Pink or Blue
• Hydrangea ‘Blushing Bride’ - pure white blooms with semi-double florets that mature to pink
• Hydrangea ‘Twist N Shout’ - a Lace-cap type with vivid colour and sturdy stems
• Hydrangea ‘Bella Anna’ – the newest addition to the endless summer collection this is a beautiful pink

The repeat blooms of the Endless Summer® Collection truly offer gardeners an endless summer of incredible colour. These hardy plants are perfect for everything from foundation planting to container gardening. They even make an ideal floral arrangement or table setting as cut flowers.

The colour of the Original Endless Summer can be altered from pink to blue. For more information visit www.endlesssummerblooms.com.

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By Miles Hunter, May 7, 2013

May 10th, 2013

All of the Beauty and None of the Work!

If you are looking for a Rose that has all of the beauty with none of the work you should try the new Easy Elegance Roses. For more information click here.

Gone are the days of high-maintenance roses. With Easy Elegance®, you can have hardy, disease-resistant, chemical free roses without all the effort and attention. Let it be known – these are not your grandmother’s roses. You don’t have to spend all day in the yard to make them last. All you have to do is plant them and enjoy the beauty. And there’s nothing easier than that.

You can choose from six varieties including:

• Easy Elegance ‘All the Rage’ – opens coral and turns apricot with a yellow centre
• Easy Elegance ‘Champagne Wishes’ -
• Easy Elegance ‘Como Park’ – red flowers
• Easy Elegance ‘Coral Cove’ – dark pink double blooms
• Easy Elegance ‘High Voltage’ - yellow double blooms
• Easy Elegance ‘Kashmir’ - dark red
• Easy Elegance ‘Macy’s Pride’ – lemon yellow buds open to a creamy white flower
• Easy Elegance ‘Paint the Town’ – red hybrid tea shaped flowers
• Easy Elegance ‘Yellow Submarine’ – bright lemon yellow flowers

Click here for more information about Easy Elegance Roses.

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By Miles Hunter, April 25, 2013

April 25th, 2013

Plant the best! Plant Proven Winners!

Are you looking for plants you can trust to create a beautiful, easy-to-maintain garden? All you have to do is look for the Proven Winners name to know you’re getting the most distinctive plants on the market. That’s because Proven Winners partners with the top plant breeders around the world to ensure our varieties are vigorous, healthy, vibrant, and unique.

Why are Proven Winners Plants Better?

Proven Winners searches the world to find and select plants which are clearly superior to others of their type in our trials in Michigan, New Hampshire, California, Germany, Japan, and Florida. Once a Proven Winners plant makes it to your house, you’ll fall in love. Proven Winners plants are:

• Easy to grow and care for
• Covered with blooms
• Bright and colorful
• All-season bloomers
• Disease free
• Trialed and tested

Our selection of Proven Winners includes many great plants including varieties of Ageratum, Argyranthemum (Daisy), Bacopa, Bidens, Coleus, Ipomoea (Sweet Potato Vine), Lobularia, Nemesia, Petunias, Salvia, Supertunias and Verbena.

There are some great new varieties for 2013 including a new variety of Lobularia called ‘Frosty Knight’. Click here for more information about Frosty Knight. There is also a great new variety of Superbells (mini Petunias) called ‘Lemon Slice’. Click here for more information about Lemon Slice. Both of these new varieties go great with the best seller from 2012 Supertunia ‘Royal Velvet’. The dark purple will go great with the lemon yellow flowers of Lemon Slice as well as the variegated yellow foliage and white flowers of the Lobularia ‘Frosty Knight’. Try them as a combination in your hanging baskets or planters.

To go to the Proven Winners Website to see more great plants click here.

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By Miles Hunter, April 23, 2013

April 23rd, 2013

Brazelberry ‘Raspberry Shortcake’!

If you want to grow a raspberry bush but don’t think that you have the space think again. These new dwarf compact variety of Raspberry grows only 2 to 3 feet tall so it is perfect for a pot or container. The next best thing about these great plants is that they are thornless, so they are perfect to grow with children. These Brazel Berry plants would be great for a balcony or patio garden.

For more information about these varieties visit their website here.

PLEASE NOTE: As of April 23rd we are currently sold out of all of our Brazelberries and our suppliers are sold out as well. We are working hard to find more of them from another supplier. If you would like to have your name added to our list of customers that would like one please call one of our stores and leave your name and phone number.

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By Miles Hunter, April 22, 2013

April 22nd, 2013

Grow Your Own Potatoes!

Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow yourself. All they require is a nice sunny location in rich fertile soil. You can plant them from March to May and harvest them from July to October. You can grow white, red, and/or yellow varieties that are good for cooking, frying, boiling, or baking.

Click here to download our Potato growing brochure.

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By Miles Hunter, April 14, 2013

April 14th, 2013

Grow your own fresh fruit, start your Strawberries for Summer!

If you enjoy the taste of fresh Strawberries in the summer now is the time to plant them. Strawberries are very easy to grow. Strawberries can grow and produce for many years in your garden. They multiply themselves so you can continue to expand your strawberry patch every year. The hardest part about growing them is right after you plant them, you have to force yourself to remove their blooms so that the plant can become established before growing fruit.

For more information about growing Strawberries download our information brochure here.

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By Miles Hunter, April 8, 2013

April 8th, 2013

Add colour to your garden with an Azalea!

Spring is easy to enjoy with Japanese Azaleas. These compact evergreen shrubs flowers reliably every spring. They are one of the easiest shrubs to plant and grow, requiring little to no pruning. They thrive in partial sun or partial shade in well drained soil. There are many varieties to choose from and most of them grow to be about 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide.

If you already have one of these great plants in your garden now is a great time to fertilize with a Rhododendron and Azalea fertilizer and top dress with a compost or mulch like Sea Soil.