Briar Lane Flowers

Since Christmas is coming up, I decided to do a post on great Christmas gifts for gardeners. (I am not affiliated with any of these products and do not earn money if you purchase them.) I will break it up into categories of gardeners:  those that grow primarily vegetables, those that love perennials, and those that grow cutflowers.  Great gifts for those that primarily grow vegetables:  I got this as a gift for my Dad last year and he has really enjoyed it. I may pick up a copy for myself since he has liked it so much and because I am going to planting more vegetables this year. These are perfect for the older gardener that may be struggling with arthritis but does not want to give up gardening. For the gardener that absolutely loves rare and unusual vegetables and learning about the history of heirloom varieties, this catalog is perfect! Great gifts for those that love perennials: Not sure what to get your favorite gardener...

I have started planning for next year already. If all goes to plan, I will have 3 separate dahlia patches in 3 separate locations. I am planning on working on collarettes, anemones and other open centered varieties at two other locations. My closed centered varieties such as the KA varieties that I have purchased will be growing at my house. I will also be growing some seedlings at my house. These are seedlings that are more likely to be close centered and from seeds I collected this year.     Closed centered dahlia Makayla Miranda I am working on two separate zinnia breeding projects. Project one includes using some genetics from Floret's Unicorn zinnias and some other purple genetics to hopefully come up with something beautiful and unique. Project number two is going to be an attempted cross between two different zinnia species which may or may not work out the way I want it to. .  .stay tuned over the next year to see if the beginning stages turn out the w...

I planted two different varieties of Nasturtium this year: Caribbean cocktail mix from Select Seeds and Vesuvius from Migardener. Both of them were beautiful. I think the Caribbean cocktail mix was my favorite though. The Caribbean cocktail mix:               As the raspberry colored blooms aged, they turned a delightful pink. These are the Vesuvius nasturtium. I planted these ones in the ground while the Caribbean cocktail mix were planted into large pots. I didn't notice any difference in amount of blooms or plant health.  The blooms start out quite neon orange and then fade to a beautiful apricot as they age.