What a difference a few weeks make! At the beginning of April things were small and just starting to grow in the garden. Now we have all kinds of color. Plus we have started to see hanging baskets making an appearance and veggies are showing up in the garden centers. It is a great time for new beginnings and rebirth in the garden! In fact we are showing more stories on planting, with lots of tips to get you excited about the season ahead.

If you are getting excited about gardening, you should check out William's latest entries in the Garden Time blog. This week he talks about his new easier attempt at composting and he talks about some of the great plants he recently bought at Gardenpalooza.

Another reason to get excited for spring is the giveaway we are having for new subscribers to the new Garden Time On-line magazine. If you sign up this week you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card at Al's Garden Center. Garden Time On-line is a free monthly magazine that is delivered to your e-mail. Each month you get some great articles from the Garden Time crew and some special guest authors as well. So if you haven't signed up yet, do it today and you may win!

The week we featured...

French Prairie Spring Color

Yes, it is spring. You can tell by the warming weather, but the best way of telling is the explosion of color you can find at your local independent garden centers. This week we stopped by French Prairie Gardens (503-633-8445) and visited with Karren to see what she was excited about in the garden center. First she showed us a couple of varieties of citrus that they carry. The Improved Meyers Lemon was the first one we saw. This lemon is known for their compact size, hardiness and productivity. They can produce fruit throughout the entire season. The other citrus was the Pink Variegated Lemon. This one grows fruit year round as well and even though it is on dwarf stock it can get a little bigger than the Meyers. Then we looked at Petunias. Karren really liked the Vista Bubblegum which is a striking pink. The other one that everyone seemed to like was the double, bi-colored bloom of 'Peppermint'. Next we saw the Sun Coleus. These coleus are a bright cousin of the standard coleus and have been hybridized with bigger leaves and colors. They are not hardy for our climate, but they are real showstoppers for your garden. The deep red one we saw was 'Kingswood Torch' and it had brilliant light and dark red on its leaves. Finally we saw the different kinds of baskets that they carry. If you are looking for a hanging basket you will want to know where it will live. Most baskets are designed as either sun or shade and are planted with plants that favor one or the other. The shade baskets had some great color from fuchsias ('Swingtime' in the one we saw), bacopa, and verbena. We also saw a sun basket which was packed with petunias, calibricoa and verbena. Remember that hanging baskets are heavy feeders so that means regular fertilizing and lots of water. You can't leave them dry out because they will stop growing and may take a while to get back on track. If you are looking for some great plants, drive down I-5 and stop by French Prairie Gardens. They are just 8 miles west of Woodburn.

Planting Onions

If you like fresh vegetables, you can't beat onions fresh from the garden. Some people have a tough time with onions, but they are really easy if you follow these simple rules. First get your starts from your local garden center. You may find them in 2 different packages. One package will be the tray pack; the other is a bunch of starts that are rubber banded together. In either case you will want to separate them into individual plants and plant them in the ground as a single stalk. If you plant them close together you will get smaller onions. If you have a larger variety like Walla Walla you can plant them further apart to allow them to get larger in the ground. William also shared his rules for success. Use good loose soil and water well for the best success.

KinderGarden - Mothers Day Pots

Our Kindergarden segment takes us back to Al's Garden Center (530-981-1245) in Woodburn. Amy Bigej and her little helpers showed us how easy it is to decorate a small clay pot. All you need are the pot, a tube of tile caulking and some little decorative pieces to dress it up! Spread the caulking on the pot. Spread it out with a knife and stick your small pieces to the still soft goo. Let it sit for a day and it is done! If you get the caulking in areas you don't want it, just wipe it off with a wet paper towel. After it is dry, pot up a plant and surprise your mom with a cool gift that says 'I Love You'.

ODOT Roses

As you are driving along I-5 or many of the other highways in the state you may notice the beautiful color of rose blooms on the ramps and in the median of the road. These are not accidental roses, these are cuttings of some special roses that are grown and planted by the Oregon Department of Transportation and their horticulture department. We stopped by their growing operation and talked to Mark Buffington to learn about how they got started and how they grow these wonderful plants. Mark told us that they discovered the roses over a decade ago in one of their plantings near I-405 and 26. These roses were thriving in the dirty conditions along the freeway. They were also one of the fastest growing plantings with little or no maintenance to take care of them. It was decided that they would take some cuttings and see if they could grow more. It was such a success that they started growing more plants in many different colors. Now you can see some of these same roses along many of our freeways. Mark told us about the many different plants that they buy from local growers, but by propagating their own stock of these roses, they are able to save the taxpayers a lot of money! Granted, these roses are not the type that you would want to try in your garden, in fact some of these plants can grow to be 4 feet tall and 8 feet across, but we are sure that you can find a variety you like from your local garden center or many of the local growers like Heirloom Roses. So, as you drive down the freeway this summer. Take a quick glance to your side and see some of the great color that makes Oregon, Oregon.

Jan's May Tips

The winter can be tough on plants as well as people. We find this out with our monthly trip to see Jan McNeilan for some tips of the month. Jan took us out into her garden to show us a beautiful rhody that was in full bloom in her garden, but there is a second part to this story. This rhododendron will probably fry in the sun if they don't move it to another part of the garden. It was protected by a big apple tree that was knocked down during a winter storm. That wasn't the only thing that was knocked down. They also lost their greenhouse! The old greenhouse took a direct hit from a falling tree limb. Luckily they had 'outbuilding' coverage on their home owner's insurance policy so they were able to replace it and even got a bigger one installed. Inside they had all their seeds planted and growing. It is not too late to get your seeds started. If you have a greenhouse you can use a seedling heat mat to give them a kick-start or you can just start them in a south facing window in your home. You can then easily transplant them outside later or into bigger pots in just a week or so. For more tips on seed starting check out the OSU Extension website.