We are parents! Garden Time is now the parent of a new variety of tulip. The ‘Garden Time’ tulip is being introduced in this week’s show. It is our 10th year as a program and a bunch of local breeders, hybridizers and growers are introducing different varieties of plants named for Garden Time. This is the first of hopefully many more ‘Garden Time’ plants. Thank you Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for getting the flower named for us!! You guys are great!

Another great sponsor of the show is Capitol Subaru. We found out that during the month of March, when you purchase a new Subaru, they will donate a tree to be planted at one of over 20 different forest reserves in the US. Pretty cool thing to do for a car company!

One more thing about this week’s show. The story on the Solar Gem Greenhouses has a special gift for Garden Time viewers. They are offering a special ‘planting’ kit worth $150 to people who mention Garden Time when ordering. Check out the details below.
Enjoy the show and then go out and garden!

This week we featured...

Garden Time Tulip

This year the tulip festival at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm (1-800-711-2006) will have a special meaning for us at Garden Time. We are a week away from the official opening of their annual festival and we were surprised with a special announcement. They told us that they had an expert hybridize a new variety that they are naming ‘Garden Time’. We met with this wonderful man, Leo Berbee, in the fields at Wooden Shoe to see our namesake. Before we went through the formal introduction we asked Leo about what it takes to hybridize a new flower. He told us that they start with 2 parent plants that they think might made a beautiful new flower. Then they take the pollen from one and fertilize the other. This is done by hand so that you can make sure the varieties stay true to the parent plants. After about 4 months you harvest the seeds from the ripe seed pods and you plant those. After about 5-7 years you start getting flowers. Then you start to narrow down your selections, starting with picking 500 seedlings to evaluate. You are looking for a tulip that is a different color, shape or style. You also start to evaluate the flower to see if it would be a good flower for the garden or the cut flower market.

That is what went into the selection of a special tulip that we are introducing today! The Garden Time tulip was introduced and baptized in the field. This baptism happens with new varieties with everyone sending wishes of beauty to happy gardeners for many years to come. If you are interested in this tulip you can order some for your garden by going to this website, http://www.woodenshoe.com/shop/triumph-tulips/garden-time. The tulip will be shipped in the fall of this year and you can plant it and enjoy it next spring. You will also find a link to ordering the tulip in the Garden Time Store.

If you are interested in the annual tulip festival, that starts next weekend on the 20th of March. The warm weather has pushed the tulips out early so there should be some nice early color in the fields for you to enjoy.

PRUNE Your Roses

If you follow the traditional rules, your roses should have been pruned a couple of weeks ago, but with roses you can break a few rules. We went to the experts at Heirloom Roses (503-538-1576) to see how they tackle the chore of pruning. Ben Hanna, the owner of Heirloom was out in the fields pruning away some of the old winter canes and prepping the plants for a full season of bloom. Roses are very forgiving, but we tend to treat them gingerly when it comes time to cut them back. Ben showed us how to cut them back and even how to remove some of the older canes to promote that new growth. He and his wife even came up with an acronym to help you remember the few basic rules of pruning: PRUNE. P is for ‘Prepare your plant’. This means cutting everything back to about 36 inches. This will give you a better view of the plant and help you assess what needs to be cut. R is for ‘Remove all dead, diseased and crossing canes’. This will make for a healthier plant in the long run. U is for ‘Understand your plant’. If you know what type of rose you have and how it grows that will help you know where to cut and how much needs to be taken off the plant. N is for ‘Nothing left behind’. Clean up your plant and clean the area around the base of the plant to remove all diseased leaves and canes. Throw these into your garbage and not into your compost. If they are composted and you spread that compost in your garden it spreads the spores of the previous disease to your plants again. And finally, E is for ‘Enjoy your rose. By following these simple steps you can now expect to have a healthy rose loaded with blooms all summer long! Of course now is also a good time to get new plants in the ground. If you have any rose questions you can call Heirloom, or better yet, sign up for one of the Saturday Academies where you can learn in a ‘hands-on’ setting. Be sure to check out their website to see a video on pruning http://www.heirloomroses.com/care/prune, and also print a ‘how to’ sheet to help you.

Dividing Hostas

One of the easiest perennials to divide is the hosta. We paid a visit to Sebright Gardens (503-463-9615) to learn how to do it from Thomas Johnson. Sebright grows over 300 different varieties of hostas so they know what they are doing. Thomas told us that you should see the points of the new growth poking out of the ground before you dig them up. If you are seeing the new leaves starting to unfold you should wait a couple of weeks so you don’t damage the new growth, but that is the only warning he gave. He just got his hands dirty and pulled a plant apart, but you can also wash the clump and then just tear it apart by hand. He started by making a cut from underneath the plant to separate the roots and then pulling the plant apart. If you have a large clump in the garden and can’t dig them up it is still easy! You can chop up a clump of roots with a shovel and still not kill the plant! Once they are divided you can move the pieces to their new home in your garden and replant them with compost, leaving the heads of the new shoots just above the soil level and they should be fine. If you ever have any questions about hostas you can contact them at Sebright Gardens. You can also see some of Thomas’s hostas at Gardenpalooza on April 11th at Fir Point Farms.

Solar Gem Greenhouses

Extending your growing season is not that hard especially if you have a greenhouse. We recently paid a visit to the Yard, Garden and Patio show to learn more about greenhouses. We met with the representative, Pat Hurley, who filled us in on the unique traits of the Solar Gem Greenhouse (800-370-3459). For starters this is an ‘easy’ greenhouse. There are no special tools, foundations or prep for this greenhouse. You just find a spot in your garden and they deliver it. It is also a one-piece unit. There are no pieces to assemble or maintain. That means there are no seams that will leak out warm air or let in cold air. Your greenhouse will hold and maintain the heat so your plants will thrive. It is a very functional greenhouse. Pat told us about an owner in Montana who grows and uses most of her fresh vegetables in the greenhouse during the winter months. Sounds delicious! If you are interested in the Solar Gem greenhouse they are available at Little Baja in Portland. If you are in the Woodland area, they can also be found at Tsugawa Nursery. Of course you can always find them at the Solar Gem website as well! For more information, just stop by one of these retailers or click on the link above. And here is another great deal about Solar Gem. Order your greenhouse before the end of the month and mention the Garden Time show and you will get a potting tray, a watering tray and a strawberry trough for free, that is a savings of $150!