After a dismal, discouraging, disheartening spring with unseasonable cold, frosts and snow in April and May which resulted in severe damage to many of the plants, not to mention the CO-VID situation, and shipping delays, I'm proud to say that I've bounced back pretty well.  The plants look great in the new potting mix I switched to in March.  My first-time collaboration with another lilac colleague to take cuttings from her plants didn't go as well as I hoped this summer due to the learning curve with the new fogging system and the electronic leaf, but I did get some of them to root and we're very optimistic about next year.  In a couple of years we both will have more rare varieties to offer in very limited quantities, like 'Hugo Koster', 'Joan Dunbar', 'Ruhm von Horstenstein', 'Paul Hariot', 'P.P. Konchalovsky', and 'Azurea Plena', to name a few.  So I keep plugging along with my dream to make more lilac varieties readily available to the public.  Wish me luck!  And buy a lilac!  

The lilacs are coming, the lilacs are coming!

Happiness is...

Uncovering the lilacs, and tipping them up and seeing that they look great.

We had a little setback over the winter.  The west wind has been roaring through here at times.  Most of the ground cover fabric that we laid so beautifully last year over the new gravel blew off several times.  We got it tacked down again yesterday and today.  It will never look as nice as it did at first, but it's done.

So, today, we were finally able to start up-righting the plants!  Everything looks good and as soon as we can get them set out in the sales area so I can take inventory, we should be able to start shipping.  This probably doesn't look like much to anyone but me, but I'm satisfied with the past two days of work.

Protecting the lilacs for the winter is no mean feat!  The buying season is over by the end of October.  At that point, we start grouping the lilacs that are in pots by size into blocks that are 20 feet wide.  The smaller guys that are still in their rooting trays get lined up to go under low hoops made of concrete reinforcing mesh. Then the potted plants all get tipped over on their sides and covered with opaque white plastic film for the winter. I'm up on a hill that is open to the west, and the wind comes through here like a banshee at times.  If we leave the lilacs upright and don't get much snow, they can really dry out and then are not in good shape come spring.  This is why we can't ship over the winter; they're covered and frozen.  This also is why we don't take pre-orders now.  We need to get them uncovered and uprighted in the spring first. Then we can take inventory and see what looks good.  We've been doing this for 3 years now and it has worked pretty well.  It took us about a week to get everything lined up and place the hoops. Then it took another week to get them tipped over so we could cover them.  For the larger plants, we just push them together and wrap netting around the group and throw leaves in for insulation along with some mouse bait.  This work is not too much fun, especially if the weather doesn't cooperate, as we can only do it on the weekends when I'm not at work!  But it's worth it for that day in March when it's finally warm enough to uncover them and see how they look.  Thanks to my mentor Evie King of Syringa Plus for teaching me how to do this and all her advice and wisdom.

We're officially closed for fall/winter 2019.  It's too cold to be shipping bare root lilacs.  We've lined the pots up to prepare for tipping and covering at the end of this month.  Our low hoops for the rooted cutting trays are in place and the trays are lined up.  We just have to get them covered.  Over the next few weekends we'll be doing miscellaneous chores and getting the shed organized so that we're in good shape for next March.  I'll be making new signs for the lilacs in the display garden over the winter, along with printing new labels and benchcards for the sales area.  There's always something to do in the nursery!

It's been a tough summer!  Cataract surgery, my nursery helper left after 3 years, and I think the cuttings I'm trying to root this year have been too wet again.  But I made a wonderful new connection with Charle-Pan Dawson of Cherry Valley Lilac Farm in upstate New York, and I hope to be able to offer rare lilac cultivars in a few years.  I am adding 'Owen Rogers' and 'Beautiful Susan' to my line-up this month, for you lilac fanatics who want the lilacs no one else has.  The plants are looking great and I will start shipping again after Labor Day when it's a bit cooler.

I've been really busy here for the past month or so.  I'm behind on posting updates.  Thanks in large part to my brother, with some help from my niece, I'm now the proud owner of my lilac propagation greenhouse.  I'm late doing my lilac cuttings this year (again!), but I'm optimistic that this is a good environment for rooting my rare lilacs and making them available to lilac lovers all over the country.  I've got some trays going already and hopefully these will root!  Fingers crossed.

 

 

The sales area is shaping up nicely!

The gravel is spread out and rolled.   Looks pretty good overall.  Tomorrow we'll see if we can get the new ground cover fabric down.  We worked on the 3rd section of the greenhouse too.

Here are some before and after pictures today.  Chuck had brought in a bunch of gravel but was on another job and couldn't start spreading it until today.  I'm so happy with how this will turn out, but we're so far behind for Opening Day that I want to either cry or drink heavily.  Tomorrow he will bring in the rest of the gravel, then it needs to be smoothed out and rolled.  Hopefully we can start tacking down the new ground cover fabric on Sunday.  In the meantime, I have a lot of berries, assorted trees, some figs, and lots of lilacs to pot up.  We're also working on the new greenhouse for the cuttings, which needs to be ready by Memorial Day weekend.  Wish me luck!