Greenhouse and Nursery

Your favorite leprechaun will enjoy receiving our lucky as can be clover plants (Oxcalis) for St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll have them ready for you take home the first week of March. Here are some interesting facts about the clover plant:

• Unfortunately, there is no 4-Leaf Clover seed for us to plant. They just appear now and then in fields of 3-leaf clover. The odds of finding a 4-Leaf clover is estimated at 10,000 to 1.
• By definition, for a clover to represent the Trinity, it would have to bear 3 leaves. 4-leaf clovers have 4 leaves and therefore can't be considered shamrocks.
• The four leaf clover is a universally accepted symbol of good luck with its origin ages old. According to legend, Eve carried a four leaf clover from the Garden of Eden.
• "The clovers also occupied a position in the cultural life of early peoples. White clover (T. repens L.) in particular was held in high esteem by the early Celts of Wales as a charm against evil spirits." Clover Science and Technology". N.L. Taylor, 1985.
  
• Druids held the 4 leaf clover in high esteem and considered them a sign of luck. In 1620, Sir John Melton wrote: "If a man walking in the fields find any four-leaved grass, he shall in a small while after find some good thing.
• According to Irish folklore, finding a stem of clover with 4 leaves will bring you good luck, but finding a clover stem with more than 4 leaves will bring you bad luck.
• The mystique of the four leaf clover continues today, since finding a real four leaf clover is still a rare occurrence and omen of good luck.

What do the leaves symbolize? One leaf is for HOPE... The second for FAITH... The third for LOVE... And the fourth for LUCK!

Easter Plants

Enjoy some time in our greenhouse smelling and seeing all our Easter plants. You’ll be tempted by finding:

• Tulips
• Daffodils
• Azaleas
• Hydrangeas
• Hyacinths
• Easter Cactus
• Easter Lilies

Who doesn't love to have the nice white lily as part of the Easter gift?

In fact, the lovely white trumpet lily has been enjoying a great favor in being included as a principal item for church decoration for quite some time. A perfect gift of nature to beautify our Easter. Isn't it?

But its acceptance in America, as such, dates back around the 1800s. It came in with the rise in the Easter observances by the Protestants in America. And, strange, it took some more time to find a widespread acceptance. For, the early Americans those days were not used to seeing a lily waiting to be picked up for the Easter decor. The native American lilies, for example, the garden or, Madonna lily, bloom in the early summer. Though it could be forced to bloom earlier using the hothouse conditions, the hassles associated did not allow it to be accepted widely and the custom did not find a widespread growth until a lily was imported.

In the 1880s, while in Bermuda, Ms Thomas P Sargent became familiar with a beautiful lily that blooms naturally in springtime. She just fell for this lovely white 'Bermuda' lily. She brought its bulbs in back home in Philadelphia. There, a nursery man, called William Harris, fostered its popularity among other florists.

Following this it did not take long for the flower to win the hearts of million to be the main flower of the Easter floral arrangements.

Give someone the present of one of our Easter Baskets filled with flowering plants. It’s a living gift that easy to take care of and can be planted outside as the weather gets warmer.

You won’t want to miss our festive Easter bunny garden stakes and other Easter decorations including egg and forsythia wreaths, natural bird wreaths with eggs and rabbit statuary in both fiberglass and cast iron.

Gardening

If you love to garden we have a large selection of starter seeds that you can begin inside now.

If you want something with easy care, you’ll enjoy giving and getting one of our beautifully designed dish gardens or terrariums.

For all your indoor gardening needs we have a full selection of indoor potting soils, insect sprays and plants foods including specialty foods for violets, cactus and orchids. Need to repot? You’ll enjoy looking through our large selection of beautiful indoor containers. Need Help? Bring your plant in and we’ll repot it for you for a small charge.

Use our fire starters in our Copper Fire Pits that will be arriving this month. These beautiful copper fireplaces can sit outside on your deck or patio and are designed to be viewed from all sides. Available in both a large and medium size, the top may also be removed for use when grilling. As the weather starts to warm, it’s a great way to enjoy being outside and stay toasty warm by the fire’s glow.

What’s happening in the Garden Center at Dearborn Market in March:

The Philadelphia Flower Show, America’s largest indoor Flower Show runs Sunday March 2nd through Sunday March 9th. This year’s theme, From the Roaring '20s to New Orleans' French Quarter, the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show will inspire people to jazz it up. "Jazz It Up" will celebrate the birthplace of jazz and much more, as exhibitors take gardening to the next level with pumped-up versions of New Orleans walled courtyards, cast iron balconies, fountains and canals. If you like music, there will also be the toe-tapping sounds of great Jazz legends. As a hint, to avoid the most crowds, visit the show late in the day around the dinner hour. The show is located at the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 12th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. For more information including show hours, entrance fees and directions visit, www.theflowershow.com.

We recently enjoyed a wonderful seminar sponsored by Lyric Brand Bird Seed regarding how to attract birds to your yard and garden. Here are a few birding tips you may wish to consider:

1. As early spring approaches, it’s time to get out plenty of birdhouses to attract a variety of birds into your back yard. Purchase ones that are more naturalized in color and style as these tend to attract more birds than the brightly colored ones. Purchase various sized housed to attract different kinds of birds. Experiment with various hanging places to bring you the best results.
2. Leave out nesting materials that can be placed inside a small mesh bag and hung from a tree. Materials to include would be pieces of string, small bits of fabric, raffia, feathers and wool.
3. Plant rose hedges or other thorny bushes such as raspberries as shelter and protection for birds from predators such as local cats. Keep a “wild area” of your yard for those birds that are not comfortable with more suburban settings.
4. Don't forget water! Birds need it even more than food and at all times of year for both drinking and bathing. Place the birdbath close to sources of quick shelter such as a bush or evergreen tree to generate a large quantity of visiting birds. Be sure to clean the birdbath frequently and keep it from freezing in the winter.
5. Many birds will eliminate harmful insects in your garden. Be careful and think twice about using harmful chemicals in your yard that might poison birds and other wildlife.
6. Why not consider a hummingbird garden? These unique birds are so small that they almost appear to be large insects. Choose flowers that are red in color. Here are a few that hummingbirds love: Trumpet Creeper, honeysuckle, snapdragons, nasturtiums, bee balm, and red hot poker. Hang humming bird feeders in your new garden and enjoy their levitating acrobatics.
7. Keep squirrels away from bird feeders by using baffles and providing other feeding stations for them.
8. Remember to keep bird feeders clean as many harmful bacteria can emerge if rotten wet seed is mixed with fresh clean seed.
9. Injured birds or fallen baby birds should be kept warm and quiet and immediately taken to the closest bird shelter or local SPCA.
10. Create a bird pond in an area of your yard where it can easily be viewed from inside your home. Make sure the pond is only a few inches deep and has a running water element. Fine gravel or small stones can be used in the base of the pond and will allow the birds sturdy footing while bathing.
11. Buy a good pair of binoculars and keep them close at hand for enjoying a close up view of the birds and other animals that visit your yard. Try to identify as many birds as you can by using a good field guide or bird species book.
12. Place attractive stickers on large painless windows or sliding glass doors in your home to prevent birds from flying into them.
13. Use nylon bird netting to prevent birds from helping themselves to all your berry bushes and other fruit trees.  Use scaring devices such as shiny tin can tops or brightly colored fabric hung from tree limbs can also be effective. Noisy pinwheels or whirligigs mounted on stakes can also prove useful keeping birds away from your summer harvest.
14. Here are some favorite foods to attract some of your favorite birds: Chickadee and titmice love sunflower seeds; Doves are ground feeders and enjoy sunflower seeds cracked corn and peanut hearts; Goldfinches are drawn to thistle seeds; Cardinals enjoy the black oil sunflower as well as safflower seeds. We have a full line of Lyric Brand Bird Seed products for you to enjoy.
15. Enjoy observing which birds visit your yard and at which times of year. It can turn into a memorizing and highly enjoyable pastime.

Floral Department

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th. Decorate your home for this fun day with St. Patrick’s Day cut flowers including Bells of Ireland, Viburnum and Green Carnations. Our cheery yellow cut daffodils compliment all these cut flowers to create the perfect holiday arrangement. Very Irish indeed!

Bulbs continue to be on hand including daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. New this month you’ll find French tulips. They’re taller than the regular commonly seen Dutch tulips and have a larger sized flower head.

Easter is Sunday, April 23rd.

It wouldn’t be Spring without Forced Branches. We have on hand Forsythia, Flowering Quince, Cheery and Apple. Placed in a large vase they make a beautiful spring statement anywhere. Hang your favorite blown Easter Eggs on the flowering branches to create an Easter Tree.