New Blends for 2013

We have offered several new blends in our 2013 Landscape Bulb Program. Here are a few that I introduced.

Impress Me

Peeps

The Emporer

Ash Tree Replacement

I know it's not bulbs or perennials, but I thought it might be of interest. A couple months ago the Village of Arlington Heights cut down my neighbors half-dead ash tree and today I see they dropped off a replacement tree to plant in its place. I was curious for some time to see what they would replace them with and  it is... a Common Hackberry. Don't know much about them, but I do see after looking it up, that they produce a small berry, (thus HackBERRY). Hopefully it won't bee too messy. Upon further inspection of the surrounding ashes, because there is one in front of every house on the block, I think we will lose 2 or 3 of the surrounding ones. Even though the one directly across the street was treated it might have been too late. Mine still looks OK, let's keep our fingers crossed (treated it last year).

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/trees/handbook/th-3-119.pdf

Guess Who Bloomed Today!

Iris germanica 'War Cheif'... that's who. It's amazing how dark the buds are before opening to this wonderful  chocolate reddish maroon. As the bloom progresses it will change color hues.

Bud Stage

6 flower buds per stalk

Crazy Weather?

Wow, what a week of weather we have had in Chicago area, first 5 to 6 inches of rain, then snow. Granted it wasn't much but it was April 20th.

What's Blooming on April 16th, 2013

Just thought I'd post what's blooming to maybe lift a few spirits! Photos are not from this year, but they are blooming. It's raining today so current photos are not going to happen.

Chionodoxa

Chionodoxa

Kaufmanniana Tulip Hearts Delight

Kaufmanniana Tulip Hearts Delight

Dutchmaster Daffodil

What's in a Name?

I just spent three days traveling the mid-west visiting customers old and hopefully new, and loved talking plants and business with all of them. Most were upbeat despite the weather, economy and whatever else business or life throws at them. I even found a customer in Kansas who's numbers were up from last year (there's hope yet).

One of the more astonishing things I came across was a tulip blend called "Red, White and Blue". Who knew there was a blue tulip? There had top be because the picture on the package had a blue tulip. Well as soon as I got back to the office I had to do a search to see for myself since I knew I could sell one, lot's of them if this was true. What did I find? Lot's of things, a company named "The Blue Tulip", a website espousing the virtues of blue dyed tulips for floral designs, but most notably a website/blog with quite a few rather upset consumers who were as excited as I was to see blue tulips in a package but were upset when they found out the color was not even close to true blue.

Yes, I am being rather facetious with the last paragraph as I know that right now there is not a blue tulip, that doesn't mean it can never happen, but only time will tell. Misleading as some of these names are though is something that frosts even me to no end. Creating a package that shows a blue colored tulip REALLY frosts me. One way to bring about real distrust is to try and deceive a consumer with advertising, yes to me even naming something that isn't a reality is deceipt as well. There are times when in the color world there can be differing opinions as in fuscia, mauve and teal. In fact if you do a search on the internet of "Shades of blue" you will find that there are, according to one, 65536 that the eye can see. With at least 52 shades with given names. And if you think there is a pink daffodil, just ask me and I will tell you, it doesn't look pink to me. I'll just leave it at that.

Keep it simple!

I often advise both consumers and landscape contractors that when putting together bulb combinations that if you are not sure, to always keep it simple. Here is a great example of the basic tulip colors red, yellow and purple. I happen to think that this simple combination can be the most striking from a distance.

At DeVroomen we named our red, yellow and purple blend "Royal Oxford". We even have it in retail packages this year.

Michigan Ave., Chicago

Simple yet vibrant