Tell me more, tell me more about Scilla Peruviana
We just received the Scilla Peruviana Bulbs, Just wondering when I plant these do we constantly water or weekly water. Any help would be great-Don D., San Francisco Thanks Don for the purchase and e-mail. Plant them 3 inches above the top of the bulb in sun or part shade. Water them once a week unless it is really hot (more) or wet (less) Place your finger in the ground once a week, If the ground feels moist don't water, if dry or the leaves are wilting a bit, water. Here is some more info on scilla Peruviana-Thanks! Yolanda Wilson, vanveenbulbs.com NAME:Scilla peruviana L. FAMILY: Liliaceæ NICKNAMES (Corymbose Squill), Caribbean Lily, Cuban Lily, Giant Squill, Hyacinth of Peru, Peruvian Lily, Star of Peru Español - Flor de la corona, Flor de la piña, Jacinto del Perú, Jacinto estrellado Western Mediterranean (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia) An interesting and beautiful bulb, whose history and origin have long been clouded by the happenstance of its introduction in the England. The story goes that it arrived in that country via a ship named The Peru. This freighter had picked up the bulbs in Spain, where it occurs naturally, but somehow this fact was lost. The rumor is that Linnaeus found it on a Spanish ship called The Peru and assumed it was Peruvian but it was actually Spanish. Think about it, we take our favorite plants with us everywhere we move-so did the Spanish when they sailed to Peru. We forget in history that the Spanish took the Incas gold but they also found wonderful plants like the Ismene and Alstroemeria that the Incans had hybridized long before other people on the plant had advanced civilizations. The Spanish brought plants with them to Peru and planted them. Since that time, even in its homeland, it has come to be confused as a species thought to be native to South America but apparently no one really knows. The favorite common name of Cuban Lily seems to come from the fact that it is naturalized there, as it is in many countries, though it is generally not considered invasive. Of the easiest culture, this bulb only asks for good drainage and preferable a not-too-rich soil. It is perfectly attuned to a mediterranean climate like the Northwerst, resprouting from a dry bulb with the fall rains and producing its handsome flowers in spring (March-May). The densely packed, corymbose head last for a considerable time, often with hundreds of flowers opening over time. Usually a deep blue color, there is know to be some variation in its intensity. In the wild, there is apparently considerable variation as well. Often found grown as a florist pot plant, the long-lasting flowers and easy culture making it a good choice for this use. Grown as an indoor plant in colder climates, or with year round rains, it is often virtually evergreen. It has clearly adapted to its native mediterranean climate and grows best under those conditions. Plant anytime of the year to bloom this April/May. It is found in the Mountains of Spain at over 1000 ft elevation so they are very hardy to -10 degrees or colder. My friends in the Trinity Mountains of California lose their crocosmias in the winter but have never lost a scilla peruviana. -Yolanda Wilson, vanveenbulbs.com
Vanveenbulbs.com Wild West Tour Completed
By Yolanda Wilson It has been a month since I returned from San Francisco and this time last year we were flying off to Cincinnati to the garden show. We decided not to do it this year so that I could concentrate on the Vancouver Clark County Public Utilities Home and Idea Fair at the Fairgrounds in Ridgefield next weekend. I love the west coast shows the best anyway -this is the ultimate place to live. Here is a run down of the shows this year- Eugene Good Earth January-Saturday morning Steve interviewed me on the Gardening Show Ask an Expert on KUGN in Eugene. Sales on Saturday were great and I love people in Eugene. Many people had heard me on the radio and came in to the show. We woke up Sunday morning to six inches of snow (the most they have had in eight years) and got stuck in the parking lot of the hotel. After sliding through an intersection driving a van and trailor we made it to the show. We packed out early so that we would miss the next snow storm. Tacoma Home and Garden Show-There was wet snow falling as we unloaded but still had a good show. I visited with Ed Hume for a bit which always delights me. As a child I watched his gardening show in Portland every week and dreamed of having my own show. Now that I am making videos for expertvillage.com I admire him even more. He started the dream for me. Thanks Ed! Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show-Rocking show as always. My hometown. This is your life at the booth running in to friends from high school, college, the farmers markets, the wholesale flower market where I grew up..........Visited with Mary Gutierrez from NW Garden News for a while. We went to South Africa together in 2006 and lives in Seattle so we don't get to visit too often. Seattle NW Flower and Garden Show-Our most fast paced show. We stay very busy and move a lot of bulbs. I saw Mary again and had a chance to visit with Ciscoe Morris-He had a great time in South Africa last year on his tour and is going to Australia this year. He usually gets mobbed by people but he came to the plant section early and we talked for at least a half an hour. He mentions our bulbs on his radio show and talks not to mention his newspaper articles quite often Thanks Ciscoe! Saturday morning I was a guest on Scott Conner's radio show which is always a treat. I sure love him and Donna. They have been so supportive. Eugene Home and Garden Show March-Back to Eugene, one of my favorite places. Friday night when I got to the booth I was immediately interviewed by John Fischer KEZI weatherman and I was on the five o'clock news for two segments. I talked about the flame calla and lucifer crocosmia. At the January Good Earth Show he came by the booth and made faces at me and I thought he was just some weirdo but when I saw him on TV I realized he was the weatherman in Eugene and everyone knew him. So many people came up to me at the show that had watched the news. Thanks KEZI! We had a great show, the weather wasn't too bad. We discovered the VET Club-a great local institution. San Francisco Garden Show, California, Cow Palace-We did well as usual with so many happy customers. The weather was cold-in the 30s at night and high of 46. Two years ago it was 80 during the show. I always enjoy San Francisco-everyone lives together in perfect harmony. At least at the show. We visited the Starlight room in the historic Francis Drake Hotel. What a beautiful view!!! Portland Better Living Show, Expo March-Our last big indoor show. Our booth was under the "Gardens Gone Wild" sign-How appropriate. It was a huge success!!! We did well and loved the show. I watched Ed Begley, Jr speak to a crowd that seemed so Portland and felt very lucky. I went to his book signing and brought some bulbs to him to bring back to his garden and he said he would buy his book for me and took twenty dollars out of his pocket and purchased his "Living Like Ed" book for me, signed it and then gave it to me and said thank you and gave me a hug. How exciting!!!! Thanks Ed!!!! So now I am back home looking at the pile of laundry, paperwork, dishes that need to be done. Time to settle down for the next ten months and go back to my normal life. There is always next year......
Vanveen Bulbs on Haight Street in San Francisco
I periodically google vanveenbulbs.com and sometimes I am greeted with a pleasant surprise. I remember speaking with Jennifer at the show. I didn't realize they had a blog and our bulbs were the center of their bulb watch 08. How exciting. Thanks for buying bulbs from us at the San Francisco Flower Show-I will be watching your blog to see how our bulbs fare in your yard-Thanks! Yolanda, Vanveenbulbs.com Saturday, March 22, 2008 fillmorestreetgardeners.blogspot.com BulbWatch 2008 Starts Today!Welcome to BulbWatch 08! (que the music and cable news style graphic.) This is where we start tracking the bulbs we got at the home and garden show.Last Sunday we planted most everything we got at the show.Today I noticed the first of the bulbs is sprouting already! I thought it would be fun to think of it as competition - a competition to determine which bulbs we buy again next year.What we have in the the picture is the Fangio Red Lilly.(see pix on web page fillmorestreetgardeners.blogspot.com and keep up with the progress) It is clearly the early front runner. It gets big points for coming out in front. Fast results we like that, however it is a long road until the end of the growing season. Can it maintain the early lead? Or will it bloom and fade away before summer is over? Stay Tuned for more after the break!**********************************************Let us continue our BulbWatch 08 coverage by looking at the field of candidates.As you can see the ballot is pretty full. $22 worth of full. (As you can see there is a lot riding on this) Fangio Red Lilly - Location: Mixed Pot, Back Yard Oriental Lilly (Aubade) - Location: Mixed Pot, Back Yard Oriental Lilly (Casa Blanca) - Location: Single Pot, Back Yard Acidanthera X2 (Peacock Lilly) - Location: Single Pot Back Yard, Around Tree Fillmore Street. Red "Flame" Cala Lilly - Location: Single Pot, Back Yard Crocosmia X2 (Geroge Davidson Yellow) - Location: Single Pot Back Yard, Around Tree Fillmore Street. AMARYLLIS BELLADONNA (Naked Ladies Surprise)- Location: Single Pot, Back Yard Begonia (Apricot) X2 - Location: Single Pot, Back Yard, Stone Container, Back Yard Dahlia (Marlene Joy) - Location: Single Pot, Back Yard, One To Be PlantedOver the next 6 months we will be closely following the growth of these bulbs as well the ones from last years show that have sprouted again. Which will succeed? Which will perish? Which will I buy again? Which will I dismiss as folly? So much is on the line. So many questions.... So few answers. Join us on this amazing journey as we start with the the Fangio Red Lily. Keep tuning in for updates! Posted by Matt and Jennifer (The Sparkles) at 6:26 PM Sunday, March 16, 2008 Deja VuSeems like there is some sort of Deja Vu going on here in our corner of the world...This weekend was the Home and Garden show at the Cow Palace.It was this time last year when we rediscovered the joy of planting bulbs. Readers of this blog will remember my tales of growing the lilies we purchased last year at this show. Despite all of that I knew I wanted to try again.This year I knew I wanted to to try out some new bulbs. I think I contained myself. I only spent $22. We picked up some begonia tubers and several lilies and even a Acidanthera. This year we decided that growing lilies behind our apartment building is the way to go. (Not so many grumples back there.)I talked to the people at vanveenbulbs.com and told them how much I enjoyed the Asiatic Lily last year and they pointed me to the CasaBlanca.They told me that this was the "mother of all lilies!" Well how am I going to say no to that. It turns out this bulb could grow five feet! The blooms could be 10" That is insane! I have to try this. I planted it in a very deep pot out back and I am sure if it works out you will be hearing about it. What I love a bout bulbs is that you really get a big pay off for doing a little bit of work.Well if standing at the same bulb counter at the same garden show was not enough I came home and saw thisLast year I knew planting these lilies around the trees was probably not a wise move if I wanted them to last so I dug up the bulbs and planted them somewhere else. I had pretty much for gotten about them as they did not look to healthy when I planted them. But it seems mother nature has worked her magic and they are back for another season. It seems there are now 5! One more than last year. Here we go again! The year seems to be repeating itself.
I love Yolanda on expertvillage.com
Dear Vanveen Bulbs: I had the pleasure of coming across some of your products at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show this March 2008. The staff were incredibly nice and shared many tips, this, in spite of very heavy foottraffic and many customers at the booth. I also stumbled across Yolanda's videos on the expertvillage site when I was trying to figure out howto plant crocosmias. I truly enjoy those videos, inpart because they are so practical, and in part because I enjoy Yolanda's analogies of gardening and party-throwing. I hope you will continue to make those videos. Best regards, Sharon Novice Gardener Thanks Sharon for stopping by our booth at the San Fran Garden Show. You can see all of my how to garden videos on expertvillage.com. Go to our experts and to Y for Yolanda - I didn't realize anyone actually watched the videos-thanks for the encouragement -I plan to make more as flowers start to bloom in my garden and I catch up from the garden shows-Thanks again! Yolanda, vanveenbulbs.com
Another reason to buy flowers and plants domestically........
Roses Are Green: Fair-Trade Flower Market Grows Most Flowers Sold In U.S. Have Shady Past Mary Losure, Round Earth Productions POSTED: 10:55 am PST November 26, 2007 UPDATED: 12:09 pm PST November 26, 2007 Planning to buy a bouquet of roses for someone you love? If, like 90 percent of the roses sold in the U.S. today, they’re imported, they may have a dark history. The workers who grew them might have been child laborers. The blooms might have been exposed to deadly, environment-polluting pesticides. But those scenarios are beginning to change. Move over, fair-trade coffee. Now, there are fair-trade flowers. Flowers produced under certified eco-friendly, fair-trade conditions are in high demand in Europe, but until recently, American sales have been on a much smaller scale, mostly confined to California. But this fall, two East Coast supermarket chains, Giant Food Stores and Ukrop’s, began carrying fair-trade flowers. Giant Food Stores spokeswoman Tracy Pawelski said sales so far have exceeded expectations. "It’s growing, just like 'natural' and 'organic' 10 years ago,” she said. Increasing demand for environmentally responsible, socially conscious products is pressuring flower farms worldwide. The Ecuadorian flower industry, for example, is struggling to clean up its act after years of harsh criticism. The fair-trade-certified Malima flower farm outside of Cuenca, Ecuador, looks like a college campus. It includes a day-care center, a medical center and a gleaming cafeteria. Under its certification, by the German-based Flower Label Program, workers must wear protective gear. Chemical use has been cut back and the most toxic chemicals are banned. Malima’s glassy new corporate offices are set in among the flower fields, instead of back in the city as the old ones were. "I open the window, and the field is right there," said company Vice President Marcelo Crespo. "So, if the chemicals are killing people, I will be perhaps the first," he said with a trace of sarcasm. Malima sells most of its flowers to Europe. So far, Ecuadorian growers who want to sell to the United States haven’t felt as much market pressure to change their practices, but that could change if fair-trade flowers catch on in the U.S. the way fair-trade products such as coffee have. Crespo said he sees certified flowers as the future of the Ecuadorian industry, which exports nearly two-thirds of its flowers to the U.S. “It's not only a situation where you believe you should do this, it’s a must,” he said.
Gardening with Deer
Gardening with Deer Avoid Plants that Attract Deer*Trees-Fruit Trees- Apple trees on the border of the property stop the deer from getting closer to the flower beds by the house, They also love cherries, pear, peach, nuts Azaleas, Rhododendrons-,young Cedar or Fir Trees-Deer love the new growth- Protect new growth from deer with cages or netting, Camellias *Bulbs-Lilies, Tulips, Allium, Colocasia-Taro, Daylilies, Hostas, Crocus, Grape Hyacinth, Gladiolus *Flowers-Roses, Impatiens, Pansies, Asters, Cosmos, Geraniums, Clematis, Hostas, Petunias, Sunflowers, Gerbera, Sedum, Hydrangea *Fruits and Vegetables-Deer love them all and certain herbs Purchase Plants that Deer do not Devour
*Trees-Eucalyptus, Monkey Puzzle Tree, Maples, Oak, Spruce, Bird's nest spruce, Boxwood, Dwarf Alberta spruce, Dwarf blue spruce, Juniper, Mugo pine *Bulbs-Allium, Daffodils, Hyacinth, Muscari, Scilla Peruviana, Chionodoxa,Crocus, Lily of the Valley, Aconitum, Crocosmia, Eucomis, Amaryllis Belladonna, Kniphofia, Nerine, Calla Lilies, Arum Italicum, Ismene, Agapanthus, Iris, Tritonia, Galtonia, Canna Lilies, Tigridia, Lycoris, Hardy Cyclamen, Astilbe, Cimicifuga, Filipendula *Flowers-Ageratum, Brown-eyed Susan, Coral bells, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Cornflower, Dusty Miller, Evening primrose, Heuchera, Lavender, Sage, Purple coneflower, Russian sage, Salvia (annual and perennial), Shasta daisy, Speedwell, Verbena, Wood Fern, Yarrow, Zinnia *Ground Covers- Carpet Bugle (Ajuga), Moss,Periwinkle, Santolina, Thyme How to keep deer off of your property-Deer Fencing-Must be 6 to 8 feet tall Cover your plants with netting-Cover the beds with a thin netting. As the plants grow the netting rises. It is barely visible. If you have just a few plants to protect, you can wrap plastic netting around them or put it on the ground around the plant — deer hate stepping on netting. Deer Repellants-Sprays, Eggs, Tobasco, Cayenne, Irish Spring Soap-These wash off easily and deer are smart-they will keep checking until it is washed off *Automatic Sprinklers-Electric eye senses and sprays *Ultrasonic devices: These repellent devices are expensive, and deer can become accustomed to familiar sounds and objects, which means that this most successful if you move the ultrasonic transmitter frequently Learn to live with Deer You can garden with deer in your area, Select plants that deer don’t like, Protect plants that deer do like Please phone (1-888-289-2852) or e-mail ( info@vanveenbulbs.com), if you have any suggestions or questions.-Thanks! Yolanda, vanveenbulbs.com
Gladiolus are really deer food
Just a note: I was on your web site today looking up information about some of the bulbs I bought at the SF Garden Show and noted that your site lists gladiolas as deer resistant. I live with deer and also have gladiolas and can assure you that they LOVE glad blossoms. They don't eat the plant, but they start eating the flowers as soon as the buds start to open, and sometimes part of the flower stem as well. I also have tried another company's new type of glad which deer aren't supposed to like, but with very poor results as well. Since I love glads, I have tried lots of strategies, but the best is hoping I can cut the flower stem just as it starts to open and bring it inside. The only thing the deer seem to like as well is roses, which I had to give up when I moved up the hill to a house with a large lot next to open space and without an effective fence. I would strongly suggest that you remove glad bulbs from the deer resistant list. - Lee ___________________________________________________________________ Thanks Lee for the e-mail and I will take it off of the deer resistant list. The deer did not eat my glads last summer in Washington State-they were in the center of the flower beds so maybe they didn't look that far but they loved the lilies-Yolanda
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