“Proven Winners” and January Planning

January is the time of year when you’re starting to get restless, so now is the time to reflect on your garden of last year. Did you like what you chose to plant? Ask yourself what planting choices were a failure last year. We know that everybody has at least one. Nobody has a perfect garden! What worked and what didn’t work? What combinations did you really love, and want to repeat, and what combinations did you really not like? This is a good time to take note of that as you think ahead to this year’s garden.

January is also the time when all the catalogues come out. Seed catalogues are probably the best and the worst, because you get so overwhelmed but you want some of everything. Most seed packets have 200 or 300 seeds in one packet, so you really have to curb yourself. Decide how many plants of this one type you really want. Then, only plant that amount, or you will be passing them out to all your neighbors later on.

There are always exciting new products on the market each year. “Proven Winners” are the plants that have been planted by a group in the States as “Test Plants” and have performed well when compared to other plants in the same trials. Blomidon Nurseries is going to follow recommendations from this group quite heavily this coming season and supply a good stock of these “Proven Winners.” We will have the best selection of “Proven Winners” anywhere in Nova Scotia, with 50% to 60% of our annuals and many new perennials falling in the “Proven Winner” category. My suppliers in Ontario all have a certain amount of them, so I’ll bring in shrubs, evergreens, broad-leafed evergreens, and even trees. We have a new supplier for house plants that are in this category as well.

When I look to order for Blomidon, I order by category. For instance, Hydrangea is a category that has just blown up over the last few years. There are so many different hydrangeas you could not possibly carry all of them. We have three main groups. We have Lacecaps, Mopheads—which are the big ball-shaped flowers—and the cone-shaped Paniculata. I go through each variety and say I want so many in this group, looking for new “Proven Winners”—especially the ones we haven’t carried before—and pick up a couple of varieties in each group.

January is also a perfect time to plan a new flower bed. Sit down with pencil and paper and draw out a new plan for an additional flower bed in your garden. Do your research and figure out what would be the best plants to put in the new bed. This planning is the most important part of this process, because if you are any kind of a plant geek and go into a nursery without a plan, you will come out with a whole mishmash of stuff that is not at all what you had pictured when you decided to put in a new flower bed. It’s really important to take your time in the winter months to look up each plant and figure out the mature size of the plant, not the size of the plant when you buy it. Then you can decide whether or not it will be a good fit in your garden. You may have a shady garden, or a drought tolerant garden, or a garden in a wet area, so your research will help you choose wisely.

At Blomidon Nurseries we want our customers to be successful in creating a wonderful garden to be proud of. Therefore, we highly recommend that you put in some time and some research during the winter months to help you plan and choose your plants to create a new flower bed that will flourish when the warmer weather comes.

Don’t forget to check out our “Proven Winners” this year as we will have some beautiful plants and a great selection, across the board, in all categories. As always, the staff at Blomidon Nurseries invite you to stop in, just to look around, or to make us a part of your research, as you ask questions and share the vision for your garden.