The term ‘freeze to death’ is a pretty common part of our human lexicon, particularly if one resides in Canada. It’s a little grim to think about, but I suppose we bandy that phrase about because we know that anyone left outside to freeze in January isn’t likely to have a miraculous resurrection upon thawing. So if our cold winters are that hard on us, shouldn’t the same dire outlook apply to soil-borne diseases that freeze in our gardens and on our tools? Unfortunately, the answer is a firm no.

Although we have several million years of evolution on the African savanna to thank for transforming us into cold wimps, soil-borne diseases were evolved in some pretty tough environments. Of course, it’s not all a winter vacation for them; their activity does come to a grinding halt once the ground freezes, but soil diseases are incredibly patient and are able to slumber through the winter none the worse for wear. If, for example, the temperature in your yard drops down to -20 C, the little clumps of diseased soil clinging to the trowel that you left on your deck will also drop to -20 C. The difference, however, is that although the diseases won’t escape suffering a freezing, they will avoid suffering freeze damage. How they do that is by preventing the insides of their cells from developing ice crystals. The science bit is actually quite simple: ice crystals cause cell walls to burst, which allows the critical cell material to leak. Leakage equals cell death. Therefore, in order to prevent such a scenario, some disease organisms do two things: increase the concentration of antifreeze-like compounds within their cells and boot out any superfluous water within those cells. In either case, the result is a rather languid and tranquil winter rest for the diseases we hate.

So if freezing isn’t the answer to eliminating disease, what is? Well, when it comes to winning the battle, cleanliness is intricately linked to victory.

The first step on the path to defeating soil-borne diseases is to sanitize any dirty tools, trays or pots prior to use. It’s fine to leave dirt-smeared trowels on your deck over the winter, but they must be cleaned prior to digging into next year’s potting soil. That involves removing all of the visible dirt with a simple water rinse. Your next job is to eliminate the invisible dirt that hiding out in the tiniest of cracks and crevices. In the greenhouse industry, the standard method is to dip the equipment into a 10 per cent solution of bleach and water. Just remember that although bleach is an excellent sanitizer, it’s also rather corrosive to metal, so don’t soak your tools for more than a few seconds and then rinse them thoroughly with clean water, and be sure to dry & oil them.

That’s all there really is to it. Of course, I know it would be wonderful if every last plant disease would freeze to death during a January cold snap, but perhaps being out maneuvered by organisms that are lower than us on the food chain is Mother Nature’s way of showing us that the environmental niche we occupy is a lot more fragile than we think. Then again, maybe she’s just decided she’s too old and busy to clean up after grownups who like playing in the dirt.

Hits & Misses: Patience and circulating pumps
Question of the Week: What gives a Christmas tree its perfect shape?
The Business: Enjoy Gardening magazine

Like most people at this time of the year, I’m spending much of my downtime staring out the windows of warm places. Fortunately though, these cold and snowy months also provide the perfect opportunity to indulge in one of my favourite hobbies: Movie going.

This past weekend I saw the film Control. The movie explores the tragic life of Ian Curtis, a brilliant composer and lead singer of the 70s alternative band Joy Division who, at 23 years of age, commits suicide. As quickly as Joy Division was rising to the top of the alternative music scene, Ian was descending into his own personal hell—a world where he was rapidly losing control over his life. No, it wasn’t the feel-good movie of the year, but the take-home lesson was this: fame and control might just be mutually exclusive. Will the movie be a Hollywood blockbuster? Not a chance, but I really enjoyed it and thought there were several Academy Award winning performances. So if your taste in music and movies is best described as alternative, give Control a go. Hmm…I wonder if Ebert and Roeper offer gardening advice…

Hits & Misses
Hit: Patience
From the ugly duckling department, ‘Avante Garde’ is a hot new poinsettia variety that we tried this year because it looked great in the brochures. But after a couple of months of growing it, the consensus among the staff was that Avante Garde was destined for the compost bin. Well, it must have caught wind of our plan because the ‘swan’ finally emerged and has even become one of my favourite varieties. With its unusual-looking foliage, it’s still not the kind of poinsettia that’s likely to have mass appeal, but no one can deny that it lives up to its name.

Each year there are new poinsettias to try. ‘Avante Garde’ is an unusual-looking variety.

Miss: Circulating Pumps
Last week I was standing in a sea of fiery-red poinsettias talking to Hilary, our greenhouse manager. So, naturally, when she shouted “Fire!”, I assumed her exuberance was directly attributable to the sight of thousands of flaming-red poinsettias. Umm…no. Unfortunately, the fire was the genuine item, as in flames were shooting out of the hot water circulating pump in Greenhouse 8. Thankfully, the fire extinguished itself quickly and everything retuned to normal. Nevertheless, I would much rather grow the variety ‘Fire’ than see its namesake razing the greenhouses. Long live circuit breakers!

Question of the Week
What gives a Christmas tree its perfect shape?

Norway spruce, Picea abies ‘Clanbrassiliana’

The reason that evergreens grow in such a nice, conical, geometric pattern is due to a plant hormone called auxin. Auxin (from the Greek auxein, meaning to increase) is found in virtually every plant in the world. Without it, plants would have no direction—literally—they need auxin to ‘find’ sunlight and to grow in a direction that will maximize their exposure to that energy source. When it comes to evergreens, the highest concentrations of auxin exist at the tops of the trees and gradually diminish the farther you move toward the bottom of the trunk. Since high concentrations mean greater inhibition of growth, evergreens taper from the top down.

The Business
Enjoy Gardening Magazine
As we announced in last year’s Spring Gardening magazine, it’s time for a change…time to learn something new about ourselves and the world of gardening. Well, it’s been a long year of planning and writing and designing, but our first issue of Enjoy Gardening magazine is finally in the last stages of production! It won’t be on the stands until the new year, but here’s a sneak peek at the mandate that guided us.

Our Vision
Enjoy Gardening is a twice-yearly publication committed to delivering expert information and inspiring images that capture the minds and imaginations of Canadian gardeners. Although our strongest focus is on gardening, each issue of our magazine incorporates lifestyle elements that reflect our philosophy that a garden is more than a thing to tend—it’s a destination; a place to reflect, relax, and reconnect. So too is our magazine.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Did You Know?
The parasitic plant mistletoe can eject seeds from itself that can travel up to 15 metres at an initial velocity of 100km/hr.

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
–Voltaire

When we think of plants, we typically think of their functional relationship to us: plants as providers of shade, food and beauty. But there are those occasional plants that have a much more personal relationship with people. In my experience, some exhibit traits I’d even describe as jealous, vindictive and, perhaps, suicidal.

Don’t believe me? Well, take the case of my cactus. When I moved it from our greenhouse to my living room, I was single and it was single…well, single in the sense that it had a single stem. It thrived in my house, soaking up the sun in the corner of my living room. Whenever its soil seemed a bit parched, I’d give it a good drench of water and, periodically, a good shot of fertilizer. The relationship between us was solid. It forgave me when I let it dry out too much, and it provided me with luxuriant growth when I poured on the water.

By the time I got married, this rather inconspicuous little cactus had sprouted nine, large arm-like appendages and stretched to a height of two and a half metres. Now, I must say that I was pleased to see that when my wife moved into our home, both she and the cactus hit it off rather nicely. She liked the cactus, and the cactus continued to grow and thrive as it always had. That is until, suddenly and unexpectedly, the relationship turned sideways—literally.

The exact details are a bit of a blur, but indelibly etched in my brain is the sound of my wife’s ear-piercing scream and the horrified look on her face as she lay trapped in the spiny arms of my overbearing cactus that was now laying nearly horizontally across the chesterfield. Had it not been for the chesterfield’s tall armrest, I suspect that my wife would have quickly been transformed into a human pincushion…perhaps causing enough disfigurement that I would find her less attractive, re-establishing the lost relationship that the cactus and I had for those many years…

Fortunately, the jealousy was rather short-lived, so we chalked up the incident to cacti having shallow root systems. Just to be on the safe side, I calculated my old friend’s toppling trajectory and strategically relocated the furniture.

Part deux
A few years later, my wife and I decided that a house two blocks down the street was more suitable for our growing family. Of course, along with all of the furniture, the large cactus had to be moved—a task that’s never easy. So one mild November night, after considerable thought, I decided the only safe way for the cactus to make the journey to our new home was for me to delicately uproot it, wrap it in towels, rest it on my shoulder and walk it the two blocks to our new house. I must admit that I received a few strange looks from drivers as I crossed the street with the cactus’ arms bouncing rhythmically to my step.

When I finally managed to squeeze the cactus through the front door, I carefully leaned it against the hallway wall and thought about how strange a cactus looked propped up with its roots splayed across a towel I’d placed on the floor. After a brief rest, I headed back to the old house and returned with the cactus’ pot. And then it happened. No sooner had I taken the pot through the door, that I noticed something was horribly wrong. The prickly giant had once again toppled over and was laying in a pool a white latex-like sap that bled from the spots where the arms had broken off the main stem. Looking at the cactus laying seemingly beaten, I realized that it was beyond repair and that there was nothing to do but to lay it to rest in the compost bin.

So am I anthropomorphizing a cactus? Yeah…probably, but who says some plants don’t play out their lives like a Greek tragedies?
Think it unlikely if you wish, but I wholeheartedly suspect that my cactus wrote its own script.

Hits & Misses: Diamond frost euphorbia & fizzled flower power
Question of the Week: How often should a Christmas cactus be repotted?
The Business: Generating energy

I hate my aggregate concrete planters. And, no, it’s not their aesthetics that bother me. This is the kind of hate that goes much, much deeper. In fact, it’s a visceral response—mostly in the sense that my viscera are nearly torn apart each time I try to lift one of those damn things. To say they weigh at least 200 kg (500 lbs), is no exaggeration. To date, I have moved them across my yard and onto my deck a total of three times—with a fourth time impending if my wife has her way. I guess we will see, but if it’s up to me, any future transportation of aggregate will involve a pretreatment with a jackhammer.

Hits & Misses
Hit: ‘Diamond Frost’ Euphorbia
The ‘Diamond Frost’ euphorbia is a definite hit this holiday season. We’ve grown rings of them in several 8-inch pots and nestled a 6-inch poinsettia into the centre of each. The effect is really striking—so much so that the poinsettias seem to float in what looks like newly fallen snow. I don’t expect the supply of diamond frost euphorbia to last long, but it was our first time experimenting with them, and we’ll know to grow a bunch more next year.

Miss: Fizzled Flower Power
The ‘Alba’ begonias we’re growing as indoor plants produced an outstanding amount of lush green foliage but fizzled on flower power. In all fairness, I think that Alba would be an excellent spring plant, but with the low light levels of November, they tend to be a little too lanky. With all of the other colourful indoor plants competing for our customers’ attention, these begonias just didn’t stand a chance. Compost anyone?

Question of the Week
How often should a Christmas cactus be repotted?
A Christmas cactus has an extremely small root system, and can be grown in a very small pot for years; however, the soil in that pot should be freshened every few seasons.
Fortunately, repotting is very easy. Here’s how.
1. After the cactus finishes flowering, tip it out of the pot and shake off all the old soil.
2. Shake 3–4 cm of fresh soil mix into the bottom of a pot that’s preferably the same size as the original but, at most, 1 size larger,
3. Gently transplant the cactus into the container, ensuring that it’s at the same height as it was in the original pot.
4. Firm in the new soil and water thoroughly.

The Business
Generating Energy
I attended the Green Industry Trade Show in Edmonton this past week and listened to some interesting talks about the future of the industry. One seminar I found particularly fascinating was about the ways in which the Dutch are investigating the possibility of transforming greenhouses into net generators of energy. In one trial, space-age plastics that are transparent to light energy are being used on greenhouses. These plastics allow plants to utilize the light energy and they also trap a good portion of the remaining solar radiation, which can then be converted to electricity generation. Hmm…greenhouses as power suppliers… fascinating!

It’s exciting to think of the possibility of using greenhouses as net generators of energy. The impact on the industry would be enormous!

Trend Spotting

If you like a holiday colour scheme that shimmers, you’re in luck. Golden hues are everywhere this year, adding opulence to Christmas trees, stockings and wreaths. Used as an accent or as the main show, gold is this holiday’s trend-setter.

Did You Know?
When properly cared for, an amaryllis bulb may produce flowers for up to 75 years.

“Color is the language of the poets. It is astonishingly lovely. To speak it is a privilege.”
–Keith Crown

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Enjoy!

If you are a prairie gardener who grows cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli or any other member of the crucifer family, you’ll want to be extra cautious about adding topsoil to your yard next year. A potentially devastating disease called clubroot has found its way into many of the soils in central Alberta and has the potential to spread across the prairies, causing damage to our crops, wallets and, in some cases, livelihoods.

So what the heck is clubroot, you ask. Well, it’s a soil-borne disease that’s transferred from field to field by means of contaminated soil or infected plant parts. The causal organism is Plasmodiophora brassicae, and once it gets into the soil, it waits patiently until it senses a certain chemical secretion from the roots of cruciferous plants. That chemical signal then triggers the clubroot organism to morph into structures that swim toward the developing plants and penetrate the roots. Once inside, the clubroot organism rapidly reproduces and transforms healthy, white, fibrous roots into gnarled, black and dysfunctional clubby masses. Not surprisingly, the infected plants die outright or are severely weakened.

Clubroot has shown up briefly on the prairies before but, up until recently, never became established. Unfortunately though, the clubroot organism that’s recently taken up residence shows no signs of vacating Alberta any time soon. In fact, it seems to be spreading at an alarming rate. At last count, it had become established in 10 counties in central Alberta and 1 county in southern Alberta.

How clubroot took root in all these counties is a bit of mystery and one that plays out a bit like an episode from CSI. When I spoke to Dr. Stephen Strelkov, a plant pathologist from the University of Alberta and expert on clubroot, he said the theory about the disease’s origin is still somewhat speculative but it’s thought that the infestation likely originated with infected plant material and soil from a vegetable garden that was presumably dumped onto a canola field outside of Edmonton. From that single field, clubroot probably hitched a ride on some soil that clung to a piece of farm equipment and then made its way to another patch of land.

Interesting?—yes—but if you’re a home gardener who doesn’t grow susceptible vegetables, why should you care about clubroot’s spread? Well, in a strange twist of fate, this strain of clubroot has done something that’s sent a chill through the agricultural community—it’s expanded its repertoire of food choices and acquired an appetite for the Cinderella crop of the prairies: canola.

Canola is a member of the crucifer family, but up until this local strain of clubroot came on the scene, was relatively safe from attack. Now every canola crop is potentially threatened. If that’s still not enough to pique your attention, think of the financial ramifications. According to the Canola Council of Canada’s website, this country’s canola industry adds over $11 billion to our economy, and that doesn’t even include canola’s newest use as a source of biodiesel fuels.

More bad news
There’s no cure and little in the way of control for clubroot. If that’s not grim enough, once it gets into the soil, it can survive for at least 20 years. And guess, dear gardeners, where the topsoil we add to our yards comes from? Yup. So if you buy topsoil that hasn’t been tested, you run the risk of inadvertently introducing it into your soil. And there’s the rub: testing for clubroot is currently not a requirement for being able to sell topsoil. According to Dr. Strelkov, there are local labs that can test for the disease’s presence, so the capability is there. I for one just hope that the topsoil companies will put the onus on themselves to provide lab reports that show that their product is clubroot free.

Any new discovery about a potentially threatening disease is always overwhelming to hear about, but as in the case of most things, knowledge is power. The good news is that finding out about clubroot in the early stages means it doesn’t have to become unmanageable. But the fact that clubroot was smart enough to invade canola is reason enough for everyone—gardener or otherwise—to pay close attention and be proactive. After all, there’s a famous poet who once said, “Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.”

Hits & Misses: Pecked slugs & shmengy bulbs
Question of the Week: How do I prevent root rot?
The Business: Green roofs

I had the pleasure of speaking with Thean Pheh, formerly a fruit technologist with Alberta Agriculture until his retirement. It was wonderful to listen to him reminisce about the early days of the fruit development program here in Alberta. But each story he told was ringed with a bit of sadness over the loss of some original plant material from the research stations, as well as the loss of knowledge from some of the researchers. The reason for both losses is that as government officials come and go, so too go budgets and priorities, which, unfortunately, doesn’t knit well with long-term breeding projects. As Thean pointed out, some of the best fruit varieties in our region exist as single specimens in people’s yards because private land was the last refuge for any tree that was a victim of a moribund breeding program. Adding to the tragedy is that when fruit development projects aren’t completed, the information about certain varieties often dies with the researcher. The death of a plant breeder along with his or her rare, great fruit tree is a loss that is immeasurable.

With long-term, non-partisan governmental support, fruit development programs (like the very successful one at the University of Saskatchewan, which resulted in the release of “Carmine Jewel’ cherry pictured here) are less likely to fizzle out and important work won’t be lost forever.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Pecked Slugs
I can’t say for sure that this should be a hit or not, but I was talking to a customer the other day who was telling me that she found a way to stop slugs from attacking her tomatoes this summer. Was it beer? Table salt? Copper? Nope. Laying hens, of course. Apparently, she employs three of them to forage her yard and says they keep her property as good as slug free. It might not be for everyone, but just think of the number of peripheral benefits: fresh eggs every day, fertilizer, aerated lawn and soil…soup, Sunday dinner…
Anyway, this particular customer, who prefers to remain unnamed, says she’s not sure about the city’s chicken bylaws but hasn’t heard a single complaint from her neighbours and is hopeful for next year.

Miss: Shmengy Bulbs
There is nothing quite like sticking your hand into a crate of amaryllis bulbs and feeling your fingers sink into a fetid mass of a partly decomposed bulb. Dorothy, one of our greenhouse managers, was the latest victim of a good bulb gone bad, which was evident by that unmistakable “eeyew” sound heard escaping her lips the other day. Thankfully, the vast majority of the amaryllis we receive arrive in fine shape, but still, just one oozing bulb is enough throw one off his or her lunch. Apparently shmengy is the nonscientific name that our staff apply to any rotting plant material. If the shoe fits…

Question of the Week
A friend told me that my African violet has root rot. What is and how do I prevent it?
Root and crown rot is a catch-all term for a series of plant diseases that attack plant roots and the transition zone between roots and stem, known as the crown. Fungi are usually the culprits, but bacteria can also cause the damage. As the name suggests, root and crown rot causes stems, crowns and roots to turn brownish-black and become soft and mushy. Lesions will normally form on stems near the surface of the soil. When it comes to African violets, the symptoms are slightly different. Older outer leaves will show signs of drooping and younger inner leaves will stunt or turn brownish black. Fortunately, 90% of root rot problems can be eliminated by choosing high-quality pasteurized soilless mixes, by avoiding over-watering and, lastly, by not repotting plants too deeply.

crown rot

The Business
I attended a ‘green roof’ design course last week and was fascinated by the progress that has been made in this field of technology—a field that appears to be lead by Germans. Apparently, in some regions of Germany, businesses can actually be fined if they don’t convert a portion of their roofs into green space. On the lighter side of the issue, it should be said that our speaker also presented slides showing miniature rooftop golf courses. Hmm…the idea has potential.

Did You Know?
The earthworms that we see now are European invaders—stowaways on plants brought to North America by early settlers.

“Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”
–Samuel Taylor Coleridge

first published November 1st, 2007

I find that fall is a great time to review the recent growing season from both a professional point of view and from a personal one. On the personal front, I had a textbook-perfect lawn this past summer. Well, textbook in the sense that it could have been the poster grass for the cover of Turf Grass Disease. What follows here is the sad tale of what happens when you don’t bring your work home with you.

Most of my lawn was in pretty darn good shape early on in the season, but around mid-July I started to see that an elliptical patch of grass on one slope was dying. When I grabbed a clump, it pulled out of the ground with such little effort that I immediately knew what the problem was, and that I was entirely to blame. Well, to be more accurate, an organism that belongs to the genus Pythium was the culprit, but I had done little to discourage it from attacking my lawn. In fact, I had pretty much laid down the red carpet for its welcome.

The Pythium spp. organism causes a disease called pythium blight also known as ‘root nibbler.’ Basically the organism nibbles away at the fine root hairs of plants preventing the plants from taking up moisture and nutrients. It’s kind of like being invited to a buffet where you’re surrounded by food but have your mouth duct-taped shut. Perhaps the home gardener will best recognize pythium as the organism responsible for rapidly decimating flats of seedlings, a condition commonly known as damping off.

An open invitation
The list of my turf management mistakes was pretty extensive. First, I had let the grass on the slope dry down too much, creating a situation where the roots were thin and vulnerable. Next, I applied a fertilizer too rich in nitrogen. Finally, and this was a big mistake, I soaked the lawn so that it stayed saturated for a couple of days. No one could have provided a better environment for pythium to proliferate. Pythium blight can appear on a stressed lawn, as in my slope’s case, or it can appear on lawns that have the going just a little too good: those with overly lush growth, too much surface moisture for extended periods and too much fertilizer.

Now, the root nibbler is not just a turf grass pest, it can also be very destructive in greenhouse crops, so there has been a lot of research into understanding it. As a professional, I am very familiar with pythium’s power—and I do know how to control it. So why did it dine on my turf, you ask? Well I guess I wasn’t as vigilant as I should have been. The dead spot on my lawn proved that while knowledge is a great thing, it’s not much good if one keeps it hermetically sealed in one’s brain. What’s that saying about doctors not taking their own advice?

Out damned spot!
The good thing is that pythium won’t destroy my entire lawn because the environment that was ideal for its growth only existed in one spot. Once I cut out the affected patch and either resod or reseed next spring (and also perhaps smarten up just a touch), the root nibbler will stay quiescent—as long as I learn from my own turf history.

On the other hand, I could justify the infected patch’s continued existence. Whereas most gardeners hate aphids, mites, slugs and the like (and now have probably added root nibblers to their list), I can’t deny that any organism that has spawned extensive research is, at the very least, interesting. I guess I am bringing my work home with me after all! Yet, to be completely honest, the appeal of having my yard on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens does edge out the cover of Turf Grass Diseases most of the time.

Hits & Misses: Santa’s helpers & damned if I don’t
Question of the Week: How do I force paperwhites?
The Business: Digital signage

In an attempt to cross a few things off my ever-growing to-do list, I spent a good chunk of the weekend getting the yard and house prepared for winter. I know—it surprised me, too. Anyway…one of those tasks involved my neighbour’s beautiful birch tree—a tree that I love but that also sheds a lot of leaves and catkins onto my flat-roofed house. As a result, I have to schedule at least four trips up to the roof each year to keep my drains clear of debris; otherwise the water could back up into my skylights. I get the feeling that my neighbour feels sorry for me because every time she sees me on the roof, she quickly and apologetically offers to have the tree removed.

Quite frankly, it’s just not an option. That birch adds so much to both her property and to mine that I’m more than willing to climb the ladder and sweep up the mess. Let’s face it—there’s no free lunch when it comes to maintaining beauty. I just wish that easy on the eyes was also easy on the knees.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Santa’s Helpers
Staff worked late into the night one evening last week and, in one fell swoop, transformed our garden centre from Halloween to hallow. I know I say it every November…but…this year’s Christmas store really is our best one ever. From Christmas ornaments, garlands and wreaths to specialty items like fresh magnolia branches and Belgian chocolate-dipped gingerbread trees, this year’s selection of holiday goodies and décor is sure to satisfy.

Miss: Damned If I Don’t
For a few years now, I’ve been growing lamium as a groundcover close to the huge spruce tree in my front yard. It looks nice but has created a problem: the more water I give the lamium, the more the spruce roots hone in on the moisture and proliferate. If I cut back on the water, the lamium suffers; if I increase the water, the spruce roots form increasingly dense mats of root hairs. Next year, I’ll have to intervene and make a decision about what to do, but for now, the spruce appears to be the winner by a landslide.

Question of the Week
I keep hearing about paperwhites. What are they, and how do I grow them?
Paperwhites are miniature narcissus that produce bunches of fragrant, white and yellow flowers, perfect for adding holiday cheer. Blooms on this traditional Christmas plant last only about 10 days, but their beauty and low maintenance make them well worth growing. Here’s how.

When to Force Bulbs
Allow eight weeks from planting to flowering. Timing will vary according to your particular growing environment, so we suggest you select two planting dates, 1 week apart.
How
1. Use a pot at least 10 cm deep. A ‘bulb pan’ is excellent. Cover the bottom with pebbles.
2. Nestle the bulbs in the gravel so that each is half-covered with pebbles. The bulbs should almost be touching each other.
3. Add only enough water so that the level of the water is below the bulb base. As the roots emerge, they will work their way down to the water. The water should be topped off to keep the level fairly constant.
4. Place the planted bulbs in a dark, cool place at a temperature of at least 8˚C.
5. The bulbs will begin to produce shoots in 6–7 weeks. Once the shoots grow to at least 8 cm, bring the plants gradually into the light over a period of about 1 week. They should be positioned in a location with as much direct sunlight as possible.

The Business
Digital Signage
For the next two months, we’ll be trying something new in the garden centre: digital signage. As people come to expect more from signage and displays, it gets harder and harder to keep the store signage current. To solve that problem, we’ve installed two, 42-inch, plasma flatscreens among the Christmas trees in the garden centre and will spend November and December experimenting with providing our customers with digital information. By using some of our video clips, as well as tips, ads for specials, and colourful slideshows of product, we will be able to assess how to use this new technology most effectively. If everything works out, next year we will roll out a new system that includes all of the areas and will be able to provide our customers with a richer experience here at Hole’s.

Trend Spotting

It seems that, this year, Christmas is definitely for the birds. Hot-ticket items like birdseed wreaths and balls are showing up everywhere this season. Also riding the wave of this trend are rustic birdhouses made from reclaimed materials such as tin, barn boards and horseshoe nails.

Did You Know?
In nature, poinsettias are perennial flowering shrubs that can grow to ten feet tall.

“Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.”
–Gary Snyder

Jim takes a quick look at these interesting (and expensive) ancient pines..Quicktime
WMV