The Truck is Here! Getting Ready for Trees for Troops!

Fedex is a great partner to work with! They just delivered the truck for Trees for Troops. And they delivered it a week early so that we could display our banner on the Truck.

Trees for Troops Weekend will be December 5th through December 7th. 

Holiday Photo Spot Now Ready

Ready for a new Holiday Photo? We've set up a set where you can stop in and snap your own holiday picture. There's no charge for this, and you can use it at your convienence during business hours. ((Remember to bring your camera!) 

Trees for Troops online ordering

Just a quick note to let everyone know that you can now order a Tree to send to our Troops direct from our website. Click Here to go to the order page

Trees For Troops

I'm finishing up preperations of our participation of Trees for Troops and should have the information up on our website by the end of the week. Trees for Troops Weekend is Friday Dec 5th - Sunday Dec 7th.

Here is a short video that shows some pictures from last years program...you can see why I'm so excited that we are participating this year.

Saying Goodbye to the Garden

I was taking down the Halloween decorations, and cleaning up the rest of my pots, and I noticed a few annuals and perennials that even after a few heavy frosts, still looked pretty good. Its amazing how some annuals and perennials will tolerate cold temperatures way better then some others.

Generally ones that look good after frost now, are also good candidates for planting early in the Spring. (Yes I am looking forward to Spring already)

The Osteospermun (Sunscape Daisy) shown in the picture was fine. I've tried to get a few growers to produce these in the fall since they outlast Mums by a long shot, but Mums are such a traditional plant, the grower couldn't sell enough of the Sunscapes in the fall to make it worthwhile.

Lobelia still looks pretty good.

The Bouvardia which is a tubular orange flower survived, but the orange bonfire begonia didn't.

The Perennial Gailardia was also still blooming, and it handled the frost very well.

Fall Back to Spring Bulbs

On a crisp autumn day in 1593, an elderly botanist named Carolus Clusius planted a handful of tulip bulbs in a small garden at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The act is considered by the Dutch as the birth of their famous flower bulb business. In the U.S.A. alone, more than 270 million tulips will be planted this fall by home gardeners coast-to-coast. Given this amazing quantity of flower bulbs that are planted, it amazes me even more that there is a large number of people stopping into our garden center in April that don’t realize that those beautiful tulips needed to be planted as bulbs in the fall. Since Tulips, along with bulbs like daffodils, crocus and hyacinths are spring bloomers. They are collectively know as ‘Spring Bulbs.’ This name sometimes confuses the consumer but if you remember that it’s the flowering time that gives the bulb group its name, you’ll be fine.

You can read the rest of this article in the Knol that I have published on google here.

RU Ready for Some Football?

We we're extremely excited to get the exclusive on the official liscenced Rutgers Football ornament produced by Joy to the World. Myself, Dad, and my sister are all Rutgers Alumni. We will be donating 10% of the Retail to the Rutgers Gardens.

Each ornament is created by artisans in Poland. Each one is hand blown, silvered and exquisitely hand painted to become a collectible work of art.

Ornament is two sided. The Front has the big "R" rutgers logo. The back is in Red and has "Go Scarlet Nights"

Williams Nursery has the exclusive for this ornament for this year, and will be the only place online that you can buy it for 2008. So its the perfect gift for the Rutgers Fan in your life.

You can go direct to our Mail Order site and order it online. We can ship it anywhere in the country.

Winners of the Scarecrow Contest.

Scarecrow Winners

The First Place winner of the Scarecrow contest for a $500 Cash Prize is the Muenzen family of Fanwood for Rest in Peeps.

Second Place $250 Gift Card is Pie Eating Contest by Jo Wayner of Westfield for Pie Eating Contest

Third Place for $100 Gift Card is Don't be Chicken Recycle by Alyssa, Bridget & Kim Gautieri of Cranford.

Honorable Mention a $25 Gift Card is tied and goes to Grim Weeper and Luci & Luigi

Thanks to Everyone for their incredible job! You can visit our picture page to look at the other winners.