Grow Your Own Figs This Summer

These Fig trees are easy and reliable. Keep them indoors over the winter as house plants, put them outside after the last frost for the summer, and experience the juicy sweetness of your own fresh figs.

Bonfire Patio Peach Tree (Prunus Persica Durazo 'Bonfire Patio')

General Culture:

These petite ornamental peach trees grow in average, medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun. They prefer moist, acidic soil. Zone 5 - 8.

Noteworthy Characteristics:

This peach cultivar is a dwarf which typically grows to 5' tall in 5 years. It features attractive, dark red leaves which hold their color throughout the growing season. Double pink-red flowers are produced in very early spring. Inedible peach-like fruits mature in summer but are often hidden from view by the dense foliage.

Problems:

Peaches generally are susceptible to numerous insect problems, including peach twig borer, aphids, spider mites and scale. But preventative spraying is easy on a tree this size, and there are organic spray solutions available. Peaches of all varieties are also susceptible to numerous disease problems, including peach scab, peach leaf curl, leaf spots, bacterial canker, root rot and mildew, but again, a little preventative spraying can protect these trees.

Uses:

Grown primarily for its profuse, early spring bloom and persistent dark red foliage. Interesting as a specimen or mixed in the shrub border.

Happy Easter!

We are open today from 10 AM to 4 PM.
Drop in for gifts, plants, and cards.

Add Acid to Turn Hydrangeas Blue and Deer Spray Everything!

A little reminder: add Aluminum Sulfate to the soil around your 'Endless Summer' and 'Twist and Shout' Hydrangeas starting now, if you want them to be blue. (If the soil lacks acid as the shrub puts up its buds, your flowers will be pink.)

Also, as the weather warms the tender green shoots of your perennials will be peaking through the soil. Don't give the deer a chance to chew those babies to nubs. Even if it's a plant they don't normally eat, you can't trust them. They'll eat everything this time of year. Pick up some organic Deer Stopper (our favorite because it smells so good) and spray EVERYTHING!

Blooming now: White Forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum )

Botanical Name: Abeliophyllum distichum

A wonderful (fragrant!) early blooming option to the ubiquitous yellow forsythia. It stays smaller than its brassy, blond cousin, growing only 3 to 6 feet high and wide.

According to this article in Fine Gardening, it is harvested illegally in Korea for it's medicinal purposes! Who would have guessed?

Also, which as a tough-love gardener I like the most, Fine Gardening reports "Problems: Infrequent."

Three cheers for low-maintenance plants!

Victoria Gardens Will Be Open Easter Day

With plants and gifts!

Hallelujah Hellebores!

Hellebore are a spring garden must have. One of Victoria's favorite perennials, these beauties are deer-resistant, shade-tolerant plants that bloom March -April. The blooms often dry on the plant and remain well into the summer. And hellebore have nice foliage that add texture to the garden all season long.

(And we have them in stock!) Visit us on the corner of Rt. 213 and Cottekill Road in Rosendale, NY. Visit our website or call for directions (845) 658-9007.

"Sometimes referred to as 'Christmas Rose' or 'Lenten Rose', hellebores are the stars of the late winter/early spring garden. Plants generally bloom between December and March in cultivation, though some begin earlier, and others continue into April and May, particularly in gardens with colder spring climates. Nearly every garden has a spot for hellebores, and the plants will thrive in many different environments. Still, they remain unknown to many gardeners despite their toughness, beauty, hardiness, and wonderful habit of blooming in winter when most other plants remain dormant.

The majority of hellebores are deep rooted, stout plants. Acaulescent hybrids(many, but not all, involving Helleborus orientalis) are well-known for their thick, shiny green foliage. The large leaves may persist through winter, but not all plants are wintergreen in all climates. Once established, most hellebores make drought-tolerant plants, particularly if given some dappled shade in areas of long, hot and/or dry summers. Yet, despite the fact hellebores are almost invariably sold as shade plants, in most garden conditions they will perform their best if given some
sun. Many species grow wild in open meadows with only short grasses to shade the earth around them." -from hellebores.org

And they are also black walnut tolerant!