If you are looking for the perfect flower to bridge the gap between winter and summer, consider the primrose. Like a ray of sunshine on a damp and gloomy day, primroses (primula) provide early spring blooms in almost every color of the rainbow.

They prefer cool temperatures, and moist, rich, well-draining soil (with lots of compost). Primroses can tolerate full sun in spring but definitely prefer afternoon shade once temperatures get warmer. They can also be grown indoors provided that you maintain cool night temperatures in your home (below 65 degrees), filtered sun and moist soil.

The most popular types of primroses include Fairy primroses (Primula malacoides) and German primroses (Primula obconica). Both are heavy bloomers and well suited for garden planting or in containers.

German primroses are often called perennial primroses, since they can often come back to re-bloom the following season. They have larger rounded leaves, up to 12 inches high, with taller flower stalks. The flowers come mostly in shades of red, rose and salmon.

Fairy primroses have a slightly more delicate look to them, with smaller leaves and flower clusters on 6-12" stalks above the foliage. They generally are available in color shades of pink, lavender and white.

We have a great selection of primroses in stock right now. So if the winter blues are getting you down, chase them away with some perfect primroses!

The world of berries can be confusing. You have blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and yellow raspberries. And don't forget boysenberries, loganberries and marionberries, which are all closely related. How do you tell them apart? Berries whose core stays intact are blackberries. Berries that lose the core and resemble a thimble are raspberries. But then...a few berries are a cross between the two!

The similarities don't stop there. All bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about blackberry and raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line.

Now here's the good news, blackberries, raspberries and any other favorites will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties. Just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. As far as cold-hardiness goes, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures better than blackberries.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit tree food such as Dr. Earth Fruit & Vine . They prefer staying moist, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient.

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

In mild climates berries can be trained be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

We have berry plants that grow well in our local area, like Thornless blackberry, Heritage raspberry and Indian Summer raspberry. So don't stress about all your different choices. Just plant some and enjoy!

As homes continue to be built larger and garden space becomes smaller, fewer homeowners have the space to plant as many fruit trees. But that doesn't mean you have to go without the fresh taste of homegrown fruit. All you have to do is incorporate the principles of Backyard Orchard Culture.

The objective behind this gardening concept is to allow for a prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space. This can be accomplished by planting multi-grafted fruit trees, planting two or more trees with different ripening dates in the same hole, or by espaliering fruit trees along a sunny house wall or fence line.

By using multi-graft trees or planting more trees in one hole, a homeowner can now extend a 3-4 week harvest season into 10-12 weeks of different flavors. Planting or creating espaliers along a fence line can also free up valuable garden space for more fruit trees or other ornamental plants.

Close planting also offers the additional benefit of restricting a tree's vigor, because it has to compete for root space and sunlight with other nearby trees. More of the tree's energy will go towards producing fruit instead of sending out new growth. Close planting also can create an environment for better cross-pollination, which also leads to increased fruit production.

Most types of fruit trees need to be pruned each year to stimulate new fruiting wood, remove dead and diseased branches, or to allow more sunlight between the branches to help fruit ripen better and more evenly. If you start pruning consistently when your trees are young, it will be much easier to keep the tree at a manageable or desirable height.

At the heart of Backyard Orchard Culture is the concept of summer pruning. By pruning at the same time you are thinning your crops, you will be better able to distinguish the kind of wood on which the tree sets fruit. You won't accidentally prune off any fruit because you can see it, and the new growth is always above or beyond the fruit.

Reducing the size of the tree canopy will in turn reduce the photosynthesis (food manufacture) of the tree. This helps to limit the amount of food materials and energy available for the roots to store, which in turn will control the tree's capability to produce as much new growth the rest of summer or the following spring.

Pruning for size control in the summer will reduce your pruning chores in winter. Once the leaves fall off, you will have a better opportunity to prune for branch spacing and overall shaping of your trees. To create an espalier tree, simply prune off anything that doesn't grow flat. Then selectively thin and train what's left to space the fruiting wood. You can espalier most fruit trees, but apples and pears lend themselves to this type of pruning better than other varieties.

Smaller fruit trees can be much more manageable to spray, prune, and harvest than large trees. So, take a new look at your garden and you might be surprised at the possibilities you have for growing fruit trees. Then close your eyes and think about how great the fruit from those trees will taste!

One of the true pleasures home gardeners can experience is growing their own fruit. And with a little planning, it's possible to have an extended harvest season. Even gardens that are short on space can have an extended harvest if the proper planting techniques are used.

The key to an extended or year-round harvest is understanding the ripening times of fruit and citrus trees. Most citrus start to ripen in winter, with mandarins coming first and then followed by lemons, limes and oranges through March and April. But most lemons produce a steady crop of fruit year-round. Thanks to some new Australian and New Zealand citrus cultivars that get confused by the hemispheres, you can have citrus in late summer and fall. Then you can always count on kumquats and limequats for a November-to-January harvest.

With deciduous fruit trees you can start with early varieties of apricots that ripen as early as mid-May, followed by a crop of cherries in June. The summer months bring in nectarines, peaches, plums and pluots from mid-June through August. After that, apples, pears and persimmons ripen in September and October. Figs will bear fruit from early summer to late fall.

If you are short on space, consider planting more than one variety in the same hole. Just make sure to plant trees with similar growing habits. Apples, cherries and pears tend to be the fastest and highest growers. Since citrus require more sun to ripen than deciduous fruit trees, make sure they get the sunniest locations. Most deciduous fruit trees will produce a great tasting crop of fruit as long as they receive at least 5-6 hours of sunlight during the growing season. Citrus prefer 6-8 hours of sunlight.

The final secret to getting great tasting fruit is to wait until the fruit has ripened completely on the tree. This allows the sugar content to be at its highest level. The problem with most store-bought fruit is that it is harvested long before it is ripe in order to stand up to the rigors of shipping. The fruit never develops the same intense flavor on a shelf as it does on the tree.

Now is a great time to buy fruit trees. We have a good selection of citrus and deciduous fruit trees. New introductions include 'Cotton Candy' Aprium, 'Spice Zee' Nectaplum, 'Sauzee King' white nectarine, 'Angel Red' pomegranate, 'Ambrosia' pomegranate and many more! . If you have any questions, our staff of fruit tree experts will be happy to help you plan your year-round fruit tree garden!

Click to print this article.

Many gardeners are saddened when the dreary months of winter approach, because they believe it to hail the end of color in their garden. A yard filled with beautiful flowers in summer and fall suddenly seems impossible to duplicate when the weather is cold and the sun is hiding. But two plants that are becoming increasingly popular and cheering up winter gardens.

Let us introduce you to "Flowering Cabbage" and "Ornamental Kale." These ornamental plants look much the same as their cousins bred for the table, but have been bred specifically for their showy colors and ruffled foliage. They come in a variety of colors, ranging from white to pinks, purples, or reds. (The ornamentals are edible, but not bred for taste.)

More important, these plants can survive winter temperatures as low as 5 degrees. While a sudden severe cold can be deadly, these plants will do just fine if given time to acclimate. More interesting, a light to moderate frost will even help intensify their brilliant colors. They actually prefer the cold and don't do at all well in the summer months.

Both flowering cabbage and ornamental kale prefer to be planted in the full sun but will tolerate some shade (although their colors might not be as intense). As with all other annuals, they do best when planted in rich soil amended. We recommend feeding them every two weeks to keep them looking their best. They also do very well in pots, making them great for adding a bit of color on patios and around entrances.

We invite you to visit us to see their vivid color displays. Then bring some home and cheer up your garden.

Spray peach, nectarine, and apricot trees against peach leaf curl, an airborne fungus disease that impairs fruiting and can eventually kill a tree. This disease thickens and stunts new shoots, and it puckers, thickens, and curls fresh leaves from the time they first emerge in spring. Affected leaves are red or orange when they first emerge, and later they turn pale green or yellow. Later still, a grayish white powder appears on them, and finally the leaves drop prematurely from the tree. Affected trees bear poorly, and the fruit that survives is usually deformed by wrinkles, raised areas, and irregular lesions.

Be sure to spray all the trees with Monterey Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicidal Garden Spray--including dwarf ones growing in containers--against this dread disease, even if they've never show symptoms. Since peach leaf curl is caused by an airborne fungus, it's carried everywhere, though it's at its worst in wet years. Virtually all unsprayed peaches and nectarines fall prey to it eventually, and once the leaves have emerged there's no cure for the problem.

Before spraying your peach and apricot trees, clean them up by removing any loose leaves or mummified fruits and by raking up and destroying all debris in, under, and around each tree. Spray the entire tree, carefully going over the trunk, the branches, and the twigs; also lightly spray the ground under the tree. Spray twice during winter while the trees are dormant, once as soon as the leaves have fallen and again before the buds swell in spring.

We'd also recommend a separate spraying with Ortho Volck Oil Spray to get rid of overwintering insects.

1. Try Something New:
Are you a rose freak? An orchid expert? Or maybe you only grow vegetables. At any rate, diversity is a good thing. Take a journey--however brief--down another avenue of gardening. Or just try growing a new, cool plant you've never seen before.

2. Learn to Like Spiders (or, at least tolerate them):
Repeat after me..."Spiders are our friends. Spiders are our friends." Don't automatically reach for the Raid or rolled-up newspaper every time you see eight legs and a bunch of eyes staring back at you. Remember, the earth would be overrun with pests like flies, fleas and much more were it not for our fanged friends. If a spider or other relatively harmless bug gets in the house, try carefully catching it in a small container and releasing it outside before instinctively smashing it to bits. Or, if you're like me, allow a few out-of-the-way spiders to hang around the plants. They'll keep your fungus gnat and earwig problems at bay, for sure. (Learn to identify the poisonous spiders, however, and terminate with extreme prejudice if you spot one.)

3. Don't Beat Yourself Up for Failures:
I guarantee you that even Martha Stewart has accidentally killed plants. Many times, a plant death isn't even the grower's fault--plants, like the rest of us--eventually die. If the plant's demise was your doing, learn from your mistakes and move on.

4. Be Good to Mother Nature:
Wean yourself and your plants off of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Start a compost pile. Plant native and/or waterwise trees, shrubs and perennials. Mulch, and use natural materials when doing so. It's all about building the soil.

5. Give Something Back:
Participate in or start up a community garden in your area. Share your love of gardening with kids and seniors. Got too many zukes? Take them to your local food bank. Gardening is at least twice as much fun when someone else benefits from your labor of love.

One of the biggest weed concerns most homeowners have for their lawns is crabgrass. This nasty clumping weed can make a mess out of a lawn in no time, leaving unsightly dead patches when it dies off the following winter. The good news is that there is plenty of time to prevent next year's crabgrass from taking root in your lawn.

On of the keys to preventing crabgrass is understanding how it grows. This in turn will help you decide which cultural and chemical control options to use against it. Crabgrass is a warm-season annual grass that dies off every winter. It can only reappear the following year from germinating seeds that were created before the mother plants died.

Crabgrass will not start germinating until soil temperatures consistently reach and stay at 60 degrees. This can be as early as late January in Southern California and as late as May in the Northeast. (In a few very warm areas like South Florida and Hawaii, it can germinate year-round, so count your blessings!)

Crabgrass prefers full sun, lots of moisture, and thin lawns that allow light to hit the soil. The thicker and more vigorous your lawn is, the less favorable environment you provide for the crabgrass. This means you also need to keep your mowing height higher. If you keep your mower height between 2-3 inches, there will be fewer crabgrass plants in your lawn. Also, avoid frequent lawn watering. As temperatures rise, water more deeply but less frequently.

Most pre-emergent crabgrass herbicides are available in combination with lawn fertilizers, so crabgrass prevention and spring fertilization can be done at the same time. These need to be applied before the crabgrass germinates in early spring. (See temperatures above.) We recommend using Greenlight Crabgrass Preventer. If temperatures are unseasonably warm, you might have to apply this product earlier than you normally would.

Sometimes, a few crabgrass plants still manage to find their way into your lawn. If this is the case, simply remove the plants by hand--making sure to pull out the entire root, too. If you miss the pre-emergent control season and crabgrass appears, control with a post-emergent spray such as Monterey Crabgrass Killer. The sooner you spray or remove the plants, the less chance they will have of producing seed for the following season.

Rabbits are one of the most loved and adored animals around. They are kept as pets, appear in children's books and even have a celebrated icon in the Easter Bunny. So it's hard for some people to believe that they can also be one of the country's greatest pests. But a few happy rabbits can wipe out a nice garden in no time.

Rabbits will devour a wide variety of plant material, especially in the spring when young, succulent new growth is present. Small flowers and vegetables can be ripped right out of the ground, and other damage can be identified by chew marks on older woody growth, clean-cut clipping of young stems, and rabbits' distinctive round droppings.

What makes controlling rabbits so difficult is that they reproduce quickly and often. Although their life expectancy is 12 to 15 months, they can produce up to four litters per year, with as many as six young per litter. The young are born in shallow nests in the ground but are able to leave the nest in two to four weeks.

Although baby bunnies can look cute when they are young, they will quickly establish their feeding patterns and favorite places to visit. Making matters worse is that most rabbits are random eaters, taking a nibble here and there every night until most of your landscape has been damaged.

While some people have success trapping rabbits using traps filled with carrots, fruits and other vegetables, the easiest way to control them is to make your garden undesirable with the use of repellants. We recommend a two-pronged approach that odorizes not only the soil but the plant foliage as well.

Dry soil repellants can be shaken out right onto the soil surface; we recommend applying around the garden perimeter. Liquid repellants can be sprayed directly onto the foliage of their favorite (damaged) plants. It is important to re-apply the repellents according to package directions until you have broken the feeding patterns of the rabbits. Signs to look for are new growth appearing on plants and a decrease in droppings.

Rabbits have many of the same plant tastes as deer, so another solution is to plant deer-resistant plants in your landscape.

Should I use bone meal or bulb food when I plant my bulbs?

Answer:

We recommend Dr. Earth Bone Meal at the time of planting, then applying Dr. Earth Bulb Food once the foliage appears above the soil line in late winter or early spring.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Nitrogen can burn the actual bulb, which only needs the phosphorus and potash from bone meal in order to stimulate rooting. But once the bulb is sending out a stem, it needs nitrogen to become strong so it won't bend over from the weight of the flowers that it sets. This is especially important for bulbs with large heavy flowers, such as tulips, ranunculus, and hyacinth.

It's also important to dig your holes or trenches a little deeper than the bulb needs to be, applying some bone meal, then a little more soil so the bulb doesn't sit directly on the food but has access to the food as it sends out roots (got to give those roots some incentive to stretch).