Groff`s Plant Farm

Groff’s Plant Farm
Monday-Thursday 9-5 Friday 9-7
Saturday 9-5 CLOSED SUNDAY
Fall is For Planting Issue
Fall 2013
Late Bloomers
Are your flower beds looking a little anemic right now? Heavy with spring and summer bloomers?
Need some good fall blooming perennials and shrubs to spruce them up?
We have been really impressed with some of the new coreopsis breeding. The Big Bang series new color, ‘Mercury Rising’,
boasts a vigorous habit with large deep red flowers. This beauty is
no wimp and has been blooming since late June. Its sister,
‘Galaxy’, has clear yellow flowers and was a visitor top pick at Mt
Cuba Center’s field trial last summer. The Cruzin’ series of threadleaf coreopsis has some exciting new colors as well. Bicolor
‘Route 66’ has been a favorite for years, but the red-orange flowers
of ‘Broad Street’ are sure to stop you in your tracks. ‘Ruby Frost’,
a red and white bicolor has also been a standout here in the greenCoreopsis ‘Mercury Rising’
house.
The Joe pye weeds are especially spectacular this summer. They are moisture lovers and all the
rain has made them fat and happy. Joe pyes draw a wide variety of pollinators, but I usually see tiger swallowtails and bees swarming them. If you don’t have room for a 6’ plant, try the shorter cultivars ‘Baby
Joe’ or ‘Little Joe’.
Asters are synonomous with fall. They range in size and color from the naturally compact New
England Aster ‘Purple Dome’ to the more bushy light blue flowers of the aromatic asters ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ and ‘October Skies’. One of my favorites is the calico aster ‘Lady in Black’. I love the contrast of the
light pink flowers against dark foliage. It pairs well with the bold texture of ornamental cabbage and kale.
If you want yellow- try the willow leaf sunflower. The golden yellow daisy-shaped flowers bloom
late August through fall. Again, the straight species of Helianthus salicifolius reaches 4ft, but breeders
have shrunk them to fit smaller gardens with the selection ‘Low Down’ topping out at 18”.
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides- or plumbago is a star of the fall shade garden.
Clear blue flowers and pink fall color make this short groundcover a favorite,
not just because the latin is fun to say five times fast. (You’re going to try
that now, aren’t you?)
Don’t forget about ornamental grasses. Their gorgeous seed heads steal the
show in the fall. But if you are going to plant some, do it quick. They like
warm temperatures to get established. If planting is left too late most of them
will just sit there looking at you angrily.
For shrubs, fall is all about berries and leaf color. Everyone loves the red
Plumbago in flower
berries of the hollies, both the evergreen types and deciduous winter berry
holly. But how about the purple beauty berry? Or the blue fruits of arrowwood viburnum?
The red foliage of sweetspire ‘Little Henry’ rivals burning bush. The aromatic sumac, ‘Gro Low’
makes a lovely woody groundcover ablaze with color in September and October.
If your fall flower beds are looking a little skimpy, we’d love to help.
Fall Container Workshop
We will be holding a fall container workshop on Saturday
September 14th from 10am-noon. Susan Boldt, the artist who
designs our hanging baskets, will be on hand with selections
of perennials, pansies, ornamental cabbage, mums and blooming annuals to help you refill your pots or window boxes.
There no charge for this event, except your plant selections.
Soil and pots will be available if needed. Please help us prepare by letting us know if you are coming: 717-529-3001
We had a lot of rain this summer. A
neighbor measured 24” from June 15th to August 1st. It was great for many things– corn,
new plantings, moisture loving shrubs and perennials like hydrangeas and astilbes and
WEEDS.
Being in the flower business, we don’t
seem to get to our beds until the spring rush is
past. This season, that was too late.
Weed seeds can lie in the ground for
many years waiting for the right opportunity.
Most weeds germinate on the surface or in the
top half inch of soil. Therein lays part of their
control. Every time we disturb the soil surface
we invite more weeds to grow. While I love
my chickens, their scratching brought a lot of
weed seeds to the surface.
Now I am not saying don't pull weeds.
By preventing them from growing and going
to seed you can slowly win the weed battle.
Weeds are either annual or perennial. Annual
weeds complete their lifecycle and go to seed
in one year. Controlling these is about preventing the seeds from maturing and going
into the soil. Examples of these are red pigsweed, woodsorrel, lambsquarter and green
foxtail.
Perennial weeds return yearly, often
spreading by underground shallow roots or
stems and are more difficult to control. Think
Johnson grass, dandelions, bindweed, and
Canada thistle. The key here is management
now. The plants are actively sending nutriDad proudly displaying a red root and a pigsweed– both taller than him
ents down into their roots preparing for winter
dormancy. Fastidiously pulling them to prevent food storage will work. What works even better is several applications of a favorite herbicide that works systemically in the plant. Space spray applications 3-4 weeks apart.
A reasonable coat of mulch will also bury many weed seeds too deeply to permit germination. To me
two inches or so is reasonable. More than that you are creating an environment for fungal diseases to thrive.
If you use any kind of germination inhibiting chemical it is important to not break the soil surface after
application. Any time you move soil after treatment you are bringing untreated soil and more weed seeds to the
surface. Germination inhibitors are best used in the spring.
So where did some of our worst weeds come from? Dandelions and many other problem weeds came to
this country with the settlers to be used as salad greens. Weeds seem to thrive with cultivation and other agricultural practices. A lot of our grass-like weeds only flourished after the land was subjected to over-grazing.
Another practice in colonial times that brought us lots of European weed seeds was the shipping trade.
The boats headed to Europe loaded with American raw materials and often returned carrying soil back as ballast.
These weeds met no natural enemies and spread across the country with each swing of the farmer's hoe.
Even more fascinating is the fact that there are always plant collectors looking for plants with ornamental value. The early European collectors who
came to this country were quick to take many of
Fall Hours
our native species back to European gardens.
Sept 1-Oct 31
Once there, they were refined by breeding and
selection. The net result is that a lot of cultivars
Monday-Thursday 9-5 of our native plants were developed in Europe
and then reintroduced into this country.
Friday 9-7
We often joke that every flower is a weed someSaturday 9-5
place and every weed is a flower somewhere. I
Closed Sunday
sure hope that no one loves some of the rascals
that plagued my garden this summer.
Winning the Battle With Weeds (or trying to…)
Worms in the Kitchen!
I have worms in my kitchen. I have to admit
when my husband wanted to start vermicomposting, I I
thought he was crazy. Five months into the experiment, I
kind of like it.
We have a little “Worm Factory” tower on the
floor beside the sink. Most kitchen scraps go into itspoiled lettuce leaves, peach skins, apple cores, carrots
peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, pea pods etc. They
don’t seem to like citrus peels, and meat and dairy are
completely off limits. Junk mail gets shredded and added
to the mix for bedding. The worms also eat stale bread,
rice, leftover pancakes- basically anything not too salty or
spicy. Large pieces need a little extra chopping. On top of
the kitchen scraps and shredded paper mix we lay wet
newspaper- and cover the whole thing with a lid.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t smell. The only problem
we have had so far was fruit flies. We stopped adding banana peels, and that solved that problem. We started with
1000 red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) and they have been
reproducing well. Now our tower is 3 levels high. Each
level has holes in the bottom and the worms just crawl up
through when they have depleted the food supply. The
bottom is almost all casings, and a few worms- excellent
decomposed material almost ready to add to the garden.
The second layer is partially decomposed bedding and
scraps. This is where most of the worms hang out. The
top level is where we add the fresh material and bedding.
A tower isn’t necessary. I know a couple that
kept a Rubbermaid bin under their bed. Adding new
scraps to only one side allowed them to keep the compost
progressing. Here is a good blog (with pictures) of another
way to set up bins: http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/how
-to-build-a-worm-farm/ Here is another good resource:
http://deq.louisiana.gov/portal/default.aspx?tabid=2101
My kids love the worms- they have a little sandbox rake they use to stir up and aerate the mix. They also
help add more bedding and kitchen peelings. Liam loves
to tell guests about our 2000 “pets”. And hey, we always
have bait for fishing.
Groff’s Plant Farm
6128 Street Rd, Kirkwood, PA
17536
717-529-3001
E-mail: [email protected]
On the Web: groffsplantfarm.com
Directions
FROM THE NORTH:
Take 222 south through Quarryville. Turn left
on Blackburn Rd 1/4 mile past Solanco High School.
Continue 3 miles to the stop sign. Turn left. Continue
300 yds across the bridge. Turn right onto Street Rd.
Look for the sign and the lane on the right in less than
1/2 mile.
FROM RT 1:
Exit north onto 472 (away from Oxford).
Continue EXACTLY 5 miles, crossing the reservoir.
Turn left onto Street Rd. across from the Union Presbyterian Church. Continue 1.7 miles to the stop sign.
Continue straight and watch for the sign and lane on
left 1/2 mile
Better yet: Use the Google Map directions
link on our website: Groffsplantfarm.com
The fresh crop of 4” perennials is here! We
have over 350 varieties ready for planting if
you want a jump on spring. $2.49 each
or $40/flat of 18
Mums $3.99 or 3/$10
Ornamental cabbage and kale
Large $2.99 or 5/$12
Small $1.29 or 18/$20
Fall Pansies also available
Frilly flowers of the ‘Fizzy’ pansies