Show #22/8009. NaumKeag

Utilizing The Glass House

They have a seasonal change out that's about to occur and they're currently in the middle of that change out. Thus taking out all of the biennials right now and planting summer annuals, removing things like Foxgloves and Sweet Williams. But at the same time they're sowing next year's crop of biennials in the greenhouse. They start all of their seeds in small seed pans. Stephen shows us a dianthus barbatus, a Sweet William, they started them in late June, June 18th. So these are about ready to be picked out and potted up into six-packs or trays. Then they will grow things for a few weeks and if they need to be potted again, pot them in a little larger pot. If they get big enough they will even pot some biennials to an even larger pot. Steven shows us an Anchusa that they use as a biennial. It will get big and beefy and ready to be planted out in probably late September.

There are three big seasons for this border. At the beginning of the year, for their Tulip Festival, these borders are full of tulips and forget-me-nots and Annual honesty. Then a second succession comes with all the biennials, things like Tanacetam, Foxgloves. They only last a few weeks, some are true perennials and some are true biennials and some are short-lived perennials that they could probably leave in and get a couple years out of. But they kind of stop blooming and don't exactly pay their rent for the rest of the season, so they rip them out and put in summer annuals, something like an Ageratum or a Flowering Tobacco or a tropical salvia that will keep the bloom going for the rest of the season, up until about late September, early October. They then rip those out and replant the biennials for next season.