Pansies!

We are up to our eyeballs in pansies! These beautiful flowers are a sure sign of better weather. Our greenhouses are full of them, most are beginning to bloom profusely. It is really a lift to one's spirits to view the colour and the life that is growing despite the snow that continues to hang around. Use up your last days of "winter" to continue planning your beds and gardens, reading magazines and books on plants that are available and perfect for your place. You could even decide where and how many hanging baskets and planters you might like and whether they are in shade or sun. Take note of how much sun shines on and around your home and plan your flower beds and pots accordingly. Without the leaves on the trees, it will be a little deceiving, so keep watching as the trees begin to leaf out. I look forward to watching the bulbs pop out of the ground and checking to see if the perennials I planted last year overwintered. Sometimes I forget what I planted! Last year we personally did some renovating, so I was digging up and dividing and trying to find homes for all the plants in other flower beds. It will be fun to see what comes up. Our official spring openhouse is the last weekend in April. Saturday the 26th 9-5 and Sunday the 27 from 1-5. It's really too early to plant then but you can come and see a sample of the plants pots that we have and get ideas. We carry empty planters and baskets, plain and decorative clay, fiberglass urns, etc. If you'd like to ready your soil, we have composted soil, peat moss as well as other soils, depending on what you need. The perennials that are ready will be on display providing the weather is not too cold. One year we placed them out, had a late cold spell and some leaves got frost damage so we are a little more cautious now about placing them outside too early. Because they are started in a greenhouse, they need to be "hardened off".... gradually adjusting to cooler temperatures. So until next time....happy dreaming!

Eco friendly pots Poll

Just a reminder to vote in our poll which is at the bottom of this page. Just scroll down right to the bottom. We want to hear from you!

That is one big flower! It's one of the first of many to bloom on our New Guinea Impatiens. They've also been called Sunshine Impatiens which is really a misconception. They will grow in full sun but tend to burn and take a great amount of water. The best place for these impatiens is partial sun or bright light but not direct hot sun and moderately moist, light soil. Following these instuctions should yield beautiful flowers.

Here is the new greenhouse that we put up in the fall and covered beginning of March.(well, acually I didn't help at all, technically...)

On Tuesday, Darren, Ryan and Danielle began moving pansies into the "North Range", as it has been dubbed. See the snow still laying on the ground? Surprisingly it's quite comfortable in there out of the wind and weather.

Now there is more room to grow in the

other greenhouses.

Baskets, baskets and more baskets

We are busy planting various hanging baskets for spring and summer. This particular mixed basket was planted two days ago. There are quite a few different colour and plant mixes. This one will be purple/blue, red and white.

This is the work area where most everything is started or planted. Patty and Shirley are planting the mixed cordova baskets.

This particular greenhouse is filled with mostly Wave petunia baskets on the ground and above are all

pansy containers that were hung with hangers to make more ground space. We are bursting at the seams here and would really like the snow to be gone and the weather to warm up so we can begin clean up and move plants outside. The guys did add a new greenhouse this summer and fall, also working on it in the mild January weather. It has been a blessing this spring when it came to having extra space to place pots, cuttings, trays and hanging baskets. Some days we have to shuffle plants around just to make room so planting can be done!

These are viola hanging baskets. They are cute,

bright, little pansy-like flowers that are purple

and yellow. They are filling out nicely and will

soon be ready to ship out. Notice above them...

more baskets!

Need a gift?

We can make up a plant basket with various green plants as well as anything that might be flowering in our greenhouses. We have baskets or bring in your own. Our staff will accomodate you the best we can.

This is a mini Jade Plant....easy to care for and beautiful to look at. An ideal plant for someone who might be a little forgetful because it doesn't mind being forgotten.

Our seed rack is here. If you have a friend who loves to garden and a birthday coming up, why not place some seeds and a tool and some gloves into a basket for them? It will be a gift they can enjoy all year.

We also have gift certificates.

Don't forget to check out our poll at the bottom of the page.

Please cast your vote so we can learn how to serve you better.

Spring has sprung at Huron Ridge

Spring has arrived here at Huron Ridge despite the arrival of snow over the weekend and last night. By the sounds of the weather forecast, it's not going to last long! My kids were outside sledding on Monday and Tuesday. I do appreciate a little snow during March Break....it's nice to be able to send the kids outside to play.

Hope you enjoy the latest pictures I'm posting. It's fun walking through the greenhouse snapping pictures to show you. It is a lift to the spirit.

Here is a bench full of newly transplanted Tuberous Begonias. We've had lots of sunshine and bright light in the last week or so, which is beneficial to all the plants.

Here is some early basil that we have growing. It's always a treat to have some fresh herbs before the garden is even planted.

These are bright pink geraniums. They will soon be transplanted into pots and spread out on a bench so they can grow nice and full. What a great colour!

Red Onions! These were planted last week, I think, and are beginning to sprout. We also planted spanish onions and leeks.

This is one of my favourite colours of petunia. The centre and veins are dark purple and the outside of the petals are a cool lavender colour.

It's very bright and showy and looks great with red, white and yellow. It's a trailing kind, much like the Wave Petunias but bred by a different company.

What's flowering now?

These are mini carnation plants that are just beginning to bloom. The red ones smell lovely..like cinnamon. We're a little disappointed in how slow they are coming on and that the plants are not growing evenly. Today they were bumped off their bench in our main greenhouse to make room for the Tuberous Begonias that the ladies are planting.

This is a cineraria plant. It has delicate daisy-like blooms. It will bloom for a long time but when it's done, that's it. There's no reviving it. I think of cineraria in comparison with cut flowers. You enjoy them for awhile and then get something new.

There are still thousands of primula in the greenhouses. These particular ones on the carts are heading to Mississauga to the flower auction at Ontario Flower Growers. Perhaps I'll blog about this next time.

And last but certainly not least, our pansies are just beginning to bloom! What a delight to see this sign of spring! Pansies are quite tough and will weather outside in cool temperatures withstanding ice and light snow. One year in mid March, I planted pansies in my window boxes. A week or so later, we had an incredible ice storm. My pansies were encrusted in a thick layer of ice. To my surprise, when the ice melted, the plants were fine. I had to wait for the buds to open because the flowers were damaged but they came back beautifully, proving to me that these plants are a perfect option for early outdoor spring pots.

We will have pansies flowering for the next 2 months and probably beyond that.