| John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. |
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March 1999 Hosta & Ornamental Grass Enthusiasts Newsletter Winter does not seems so long when you have been working in the greenhouse since the beginning of February! Our last frost date here in zone 5a is less than 50 days away, hurrah! The plants we over wintered are now growing great. It is great to see that great hosta foliage at the middle of March. This month I have to skip the hosta and grass highlight. I concentrated on getting some new relevant pages out on the web-site. These are highlighted below. Please take the time to review the information on the specified pages if you are interested! What's New on our Web-Site??
Hostas For my 8 favorites click to http://www.hostas.com/retail/suggestions-hostas.html If you enjoy flower arranging, or the shear simplicity of bringing in a group of selected flowers from your garden for display, read onward! You may want to consider adding hosta foliage to your arrangements. An ideal characteristic that hostas leaves have is that they are long lasting when put into water. They will most likely outlast the flowers that you combine with them. I am also going to try dry hosta flowers and leaves this year using the drying agent (or desiccant) silica gel. It has the property of changing color according to its water content: from blue (dry) to pink (absorbed moisture). This is a reusable product because it can be dried in an oven at 225 degrees which turns it back to blue. I found one web-site selling this product which can be found at http://www.activa-products.com/flower.htm. I am eager to do this so I can be reminded of the different shapes, textures, colors, sizes of hosta leaves throughout the winter months. It will make great reference material while writing about my favorite plants when they are sleeping out the winter! Grasses For my 8 favorites click to http://www.hostas.com/retail/suggestions-grasses.html Grasses on the other hand are extremely easy to dry. Cut the plumes to their desired length just as the plumes are fresh and the foliage has not yet started to turn brown for the winter. Bundle together the stalks. I use 'quick-ties' to secure the bundle. Hang upside down in the garage to dry. The ones that I hung to dry this winter maintained a lot of their foliage color. Especially Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus' which still sports its horizontal bands. If you into flower arranging grass plumes are a great addition! You can have your own abundant supply of these beauties by planning ahead now and planting grasses with the plumes that you like. My favorite kind of plumes are the Miscanthus plumes. I have pulled all of the grass plume pictures on live plants that are good for drying and listed individually below for your convenience in viewing. All of the plumes pictured below are available for sale!!! A new web-page now shows dried ornamental grass bundles: http://www.hostas.com/grasses/drying-plumes.html
Hosta Pick of the Month Next Month! Ornamental Grass Pick of the Month Next Month! Wisdom from the Garden Take time to rest to gather strength for better and bigger performance - winter dormancy. |
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