Thanks to all the Tree Stewards

 We sometimes forget how important trees are to our everyday. I've written about the importance of trees before. Today I'm writing to thank the people that have planted them. This year for Arbor day I set aside 50 5-6' trees to give out to anyone who wanted one for no charge. I even thought that I may have a hard time giving out these fifty trees. I was happily surprised that we had 50 people come in on arbor morning, and in an hour's time all of the trees had happy homes.
I had created a little pledge sheet that the family taking the tree had to sign, that they would take care of their tree, and they also promised to share a picture of their tree in their new home.
Shown on the right are the O'Keefe's of Westfield. Mary O'Keefe send me a note that the tree stewards have planted and watered it faithfully. Thanks!

Thanks to all of the other tree stewards for sending in their pictures. (If you haven't sent your pic there is still time.) I am compiling them all together.

Billy, Do you like movies of Gladiator allium? - In Bloom today

allium gladiator-10
Originally uploaded by williamsnursery

Excuse the reference to the movie Airplane:-)
After a great soaking rain last night, I walked back into our perennial department. Right away I spotted this Allium covered with water droplets. The variety is Allium gladiator. It looks like a giant fireworks show in the garden. You can see the other pictures that I took of the allium here.

New arrival! Just in from Monrovia and a first for us

I just love this mandevilla stars and stripes. A new mandevilla that I had first seen last year, that I've been counting the days for us to get them. Dark red blooms with bright white lines. These are in limited supply for this year. They have tons of buds and ready to go.

-- Post From My iPhone

Learn how to Garden with the Master Gardeners

The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Union County will be holding their 21st annual Spring Fair & Plant Sale on Sunday, May 16, from 12:00 to 5:00 PM at Trailside Nature Center in Mountainside.

The Master Gardener Helpliners will answer your gardening questions, so bring samples of that sad looking plant that is struggling in your yard. The Union County Bureau of Mosquito Control will also be there to show how you can help prevent mosquitoes from taking up residence in your yard.

4- H will have a display on trees, and children’s activities include face painting, planting a marigold to take home and making bird feeders, all at no charge.

Attend the lecture at 2pm if you want to learn how to grow a vegetable garden. At 3pm a composting lecture will be given. They will be conducting tours of their Herb and Community Sharing Garden, where over 1,500 lbs. of fresh vegetables were grown by volunteers and donated to community food banks and churches last year. Among the wide variety of plants for sale will be the hard-to-find Ramapo tomato, as well as many other vegetables.

Visit their website at http://www.mastergardeners-uc.org/ for more information about the Master Gardener program, or for directions to the garden.