October 28th - Hayrides canceled

Hayrides have been cancled for this afternoon.


-- Post From My iPhone

Hayrides Added for this Wed, Thu, Fri

Although we had officially ended the hayrides on Sunday. We've decided that we will run the hayrides this Wed, Thu, & Fri afternoon from 3PM-5PM. We are trying to get the ponies to be here too. Hayrides are weather permitting.

Scarecrow Contest Winners!!!

Congratulations to the Winners of our Scarecrow Contest


1st Place Winner - $250 DWC Gift Certificate
Gardening Angel by Marilyn Karr of Elizabeth NJ

2nd Place Winner - $150 DWC Gift Certificate
Mozart Decomposingby Muenzen Family of Fanwood

3rd Place Winner - $100 DWC Gift Certificate
Peter Peter Pumpkin Eaterby Sharon Lacaskey of Winfield

You can see the pictures of the other entries by clicking here.

Costume Contest Winners and Photos

Well even though the weather wasn't great yesterday we had a great turn out for our costume contest. A big thanks to all those that participated!

The winners are listed as follows:

5 and Under
1st Place Barell of Monkeys, Taylor and Adriana from Cranford
2nd Place Dalmation in Basket, Georgia from Mountainside
3rd Place Butterfly, Stephanie from Fanwood

6-12
1st Place Dracula in Coffin, Shawn from Scotch Plains
2nd Place Dorito, Nicole from Fanwood
3rd Place Cotton Candy, Allie from Scotch Plains

Adult
1st Place Jersey Fresh Tomato, Jessica from Mountainside
2nd Place Shark Mike from Scotch Plains
3rd Place Snowman

You can see all of the pictures that Linda from our staff took here.

You can also see the pictures that Greg took here (I think you need to be a facebook user to see these).

New Events for this Weekend!

As of Yet Unannounced Events.

It's been an exciting week. We've been working on making this weekend Special and have added a few events to our calender.

We will have a few of the crew at Ice Age to help us this weekend. As part of a nationwide initiative, Fox will be hosting Family Fun Days this Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25. We will have a professional pumpkin carving artist on Saturday (he just dropped these two pumpkins off). There will be movie giveaways and we will have a craft table set up on both days.

You will have the chance to win prizes including DVD copies of the first two installments of the Ice Age trilogy, and all kids will receive a branded Ice Age glow stick to keep Halloween night fun and safe.

Child Safety Day

We have partnered with New York Life this Saturday to help keep your child safe. They will be here from 10am-4pm giving free fingerprint and photo ID cards. These cards can be an important tool in an emergency. They will also be providing information on safe trick or treating.

Win at our 18th annual Costume Contest

This Saturday October 24th at 2 P.M.

Please arrive early

There will be 3 age categories:
5 years & under
6-12 years
adults (age disclosure not required).
Prizes will be awarded for First place winners for both the 5 and under, and the 6-12 year olds and adults. First prize is a $50 Gift Card, Second prize is a $25 Gift Card, and third is a $10 Gift Card.

Shown is last years 5 and under winner Georgia from Mountainside as Charlie McCarthy.

See the other pics from Last Year.

Cider Donuts
We will have cider donuts both Saturday and Sunday. Donuts arrive fresh around 10:30. We will also have plenty of Cider and more apples.

Don't let the Rain keep you inside. Lots to do, and lots undercover.

Hours

We are open 9am-6pm 7 days a week weather permitting.

Hayrides
Hayrides will probably not be running on Saturday because of the rain, but we will keep the status updated on our blog.

Remember events are weather permitting, and you can get event status by following williamsnursery on Twitter, or by visiting our blog williamsnursery.blogspot.com.

See you Soon!
-Dave Williams
Williams Nursery

October 18th - Hayrides canceled for today.

Due to the rain, hayrides have been canceled for today. We have plenty of mums and pumpkins in our covered greenhouse.


-- Post From My iPhone

Dry Pumpkins Under Cover!

I know its raining this weekend, and the weather has messed up your decorating plans. Greg has moved tons of pumpkins inside to the greenhouse, so you can pick out the best for carving and decorating and not get wet. We also have hundreds of mums that just arrived with flowers starting to open and they're nice and dry.

You can even get a head start on carving this weekend. I had found a product called Dr Frybrain's Pumpkin embalmer at the Halloween show this year. One jar is enough to do all of your pumpkins. (and yes we have it in stock) Your carved pumpkins will last for 3 weeks with a treatment. It will also make your pumpkins squirel resistant, since the squirrels only attack the pumpkins looking for the seeds.

So don't let the rain let you down. Stop in grab a pumpkin and some tools, to take home and start carving. If you get a gallon of cider this weekend, we will even throw in a package of mulling spices to help warm you up.

October 17th - Hayrides canceled

Due to the inclimate weather, hayrides have been canceled. We will not have donuts for today.

October 11th - hayride status

Weather is perfect. Hayrides, ponies, pumpkin picking 10 am-5 pm


-- Post From My iPhone

The Anemone has Landed

For those that missed our last E-news, here is the article that I posted on Japanese Anemones

Although they’ve been around for hundreds of years the Japanese Anemones still are unknown by many gardeners. They are one of my favorite fall blooming perennials. Anemones actually get a head start on the fall starting their blooms in early August, and continue well into October.

Anemone comes from the Greek word that means wind. The common name is Japanese Windflower or Japanese Anemone. It’s a bit of a misnomer that these are called Japanese Anemone. There are three main species that are called Japanese Anemone; A. hupehensis, A. vitifolium & A. tomentosa. They are actually all originally from China. A horticultural record keeping error in 1695 listed them as originating in Nagasaki Japan. By the time the error was discovered in 1844 the name was already well rooted in the gardening world. It is still known by some in the trade by Anemone japonica.

The foliage of the Anemone is a dark glossy green. The leaves remind me of large maple leaves. Sometimes the leaves can grow up to 6 inches wide. From spring into the summer the foliage stays low and compact. The ones in my garden reach a height of around a foot tall by the end of July. Then a transformation begins. Spikes of flower buds grow up from the center on large stiff stalks. I’ve never had to stake them. These stalks reach a height between two and three feet tall just before the flower show begins.

The l flower petal colors are clear and vibrant. Colors range from pure white to bright pink to dark magenta. The stamens in the center of the flowers are bright yellow and the stigma is a light green. The more popular varieties have a single row of seven to ten flower petals. There are also double flowering varieties that have quite a few more petals.

A few of my favorite varieties are as follows:

Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ – Pure white flowers with a height of 3’ tall.
Anemone ‘ Pamina’ – flowers are pinkish red.
Anemone ‘ Party Dress’ – Big fluffy, double pink flowers.
Anemone ‘Prince Henry’ – Deep dark rose flowers.
Anemone ‘ Queen Charlotte’ light pink flowers, a darker than average foliage, and a clump forming habit.
Anemone ‘Robustissima’ – pale pink flowers
Anemone ‘September Charm’ – Flowers are silvery pink.
Anemone ‘ Whirlwind’ – Semi-Double white flowers.

Anemones are extremely adaptable as to what soil type they will grow in. They can take clay, sandy or loamy soils. The one thing that they do not like is a soil that stays too wet. I once made the mistake of giving them too much of a good thing. We had one bed that had mixed tons of organic compost and peat moss. We then planted the Anemones into this soil. They spread like wild flowers, but they didn’t bloom well. The bed that had the least amount of soil preparation did the best. Here they don’t try to take over the garden, and they have flowered perfectly for the past ten years. I have also found that after the Anemones have become established they are generally drought resistant.

Anemones also are adaptable to light conditions. They tend to take full sun to ¾ shade. They are also very disease and insect resistant. The only problem I’ve noticed in our garden was some rust on the foliage. This happened because we had the plants under overhead sprinklers too late in the day.

Anemone used to be on my list of deer resistant plants, but I have noticed that the deer have started to appreciate the taste of the Anemone flowers. Deer can vary by region, so I would recommend using a repellent for newly planted areas.

Anemones look great planted with perennial asters. I had some planted with Aster ‘Purple Dome’ and the effect was stunning. They also look great planted with yellow or copper color mums. If you’ve never tried an Anemone, you should because it truly is one of the finest fall perennials. We just received a large shipment of anemones and they are in bud ready to flower in your garden.

Apples Currently In Stock - Oct 10th

Here's a few peeks from our slightly scary hayride

I just love how easy Animoto makes it to put a video together from pictures. They even have a great iphone application.

For those that don't have flash click here to see the video.

Sun, October 4th - hayrides opperating 10-5pm

A beautiful fall day! Stop in for a hayride, pumpkin picking. Jersey fresh apples.


-- Post From My iPhone

Harvest Festival Rainy Day Fun

Last Sunday we proudly were a sponsor of the Pumpkin Patch at the Union County Harvest Festival. Although it was a misty sort of day, My son Dakota, and his friend Max helped, and even though there wasn't any large crowds, we considered the day a success, and we had quite a bit of fun.