December Shipping

Winter shipping and three new ones



The end of the 2009 shipping season is quickly approaching. We will suspend the shipping of plants from mid December 2009 until January 2nd of 2010,due to the real possibility of having plants delayed in the Christmas mail.For plants to be delivered by Christmas,we need to have your paid order by December 14th for shipment on the 15th.
We will resume normal shipping on January 2nd.We will also be running the last of this years auctions and Dave's Marketplace sales this coming week.
NOTE...We have three new ones not yet added to the online catalog.
They are Lisa and Honeymoon, both double pinks and Damian a white, pure Aurea.
We have very few of these so if you want one contact me direct and I will send an invoice.Price is 14.95 plus postage.

Fall Work

I can breath a sigh of relief.The new cover is on the greenhouse and the fall brugmansia cuttings are started.Most people think that our busiest season is in
early spring.The reality is that October and the first part of November are the busiest by far.There are thousands of plants to start for spring sales and this year also happened to be the year to put new plastic on the greenhouse.This covering is made to last four years and we pushed the envelope and used it for five.It was already starting to shred when I took the old stuff off.This year my teenage grandchildren,who are my usual helpers,were out of town so I decided to see if I could still do this by myself.I could, and did, but about half way through I decided, never again.Next time I will wait for help.
Then there are the cuttings.This fall I started 700 brug cuttings.That is forty two different varieties.
These are for sales starting in February.There will be about this many more started in January for sales later in the year.After breathing that sigh of relief I went for a long, quiet and relaxing, walk in the woods.That always sooths the soul.

FLEMING ISLAND RACHEL

We are proud to be able to introduce Fleming Island Rachel to our line of Brugs.This beautiful,dark pink triple was hybridized by Ludger Schneider and grown by John Scott and we were able to obtain a cutting in the spring of 2008.We are propagating this one now and will have it available in February, 2010.The triple flowers are fully 12 inches long and 8 inches wide including the long tendrils.FIR has grown well for us in the heat, and humidity, of Florida and shows good resistance to disease.Another big plus is that she hasn’t been bothered by insects except for an occasional caterpillar.
Rachel is an offspring of Klein Lady and Everlasting Ruby and was released in 2005.The BGI Family Tree lists this one as a double but,as you can see from the picture,she is a full triple with perfect skirts.
See more pictures at http://countrygdn.com/firachel.html

Galaxy

This is another new one that we plan to release late next year.We have had this one on trial for about eighteen months so far and want to test for another 6-9 months before releasing it.The parents are 'Harlot' and 'Dorthea',both very beautiful in their own right.Galaxy seems to have inherited the long tendrils of Dorthea and good,dark color from both parents.She sets large numbers of blooms with each flush and has wonderful fragrance.Flowers are large;12-14 inches long,including the peduncle and 8 inches across the face.I will be crossing this one to several others this fall.For more pictures go here...http://countrygdn.com/galaxy.html

Saturday,October 10th was our fall plant swap on beautiful Lake Jackson ,at Florala on the Alabama/Florida line.Pam Thompson hosts this event twice a year and ,as usual,she did a terrific job.Attendance was down from previous years but ,even so, we had people from Georgia,Alabama and Florida.In past years they have come from as far away as Canada.Trading was brisk and literally truckloads of plants changed hands.In my case,I went determined not to bring back any plants.Famous last words of course.My truck was so loaded,on the return trip,the tailgate was dragging the ground.I received some really nice additions to the Brug collection and some Voodoo lilies
among other things.I think Pineapple and Gloriosa lilies were in the mix and even a variegated yucca plant followed me home.I didn‘t even know there were variegated yuccas.Trading and visiting were followed by a good meal at the local Chinese restaurant,a door prize drawing(everyone wins)and more visiting.I’m already looking forward to next spring.
A couple of last minute notes here;
New people who are considering coming to future swaps need to know that it isn’t all trading.Most of us bring many extras and they are given away just for the asking.Last but not least I would like to thank Carol(ctbig) on Daves
Garden for the use of her photo.My camera was where it usually is when I need it,at home.

And finally,a link to Pam and Toms website;turn up the volumn and enjoy.

>Oak Baskets and Other Great Stuff

We will be introducing a few new Brugmansia next spring.Three of these will be our new hybrids and a few will be “new to us”.One of our favorites is our new pink double ‘Royal Ruby’.It is a Pink Smitty to New Orleans Lady cross and has produced pink doubles with just the right amount of skirt seperation.The second skirt emerges just outside the first giving it a true “double” appearance.We are all familiar with doubles with skirts separated by several inches as well as those in which the second skirt never drops. These may ahave been acceptable when we were first breeding double pinks, but now
We need to be breeding for true “double“ appearance.Think double roses.
‘Royal Ruby’ has achieved that and ,in addition,it has a nice fragrance.
The flower size is medium to large with average blooms being 12-14 inches,including the peduncle and 5-6 inches across the face of the corolla.
So far I have not succeded in setting pods on RR but I hope to have a few now that the weather is cooler.
See more pictures at http://countrygdn.com/royalruby.html

This short piece was originally written for the BGI Buzz.
As time passes it is sometimes interesting to see what plans have changed


“ Dawna recently asked for a short piece on the history and the future plans for Country Garden. Since she also asked Brenda and Liz for articles on their nurseries, I assume she intended this to be a "Two Beauties and the Beast” presentation in the Buzz.
Ann and I started Country Garden in 2000 with a few sales on EBay. We knew at the time that we wanted to make it a regular nursery and worked in that direction. Our first intention, as with all businesses, was to make a profit but we also felt we could meet a need as a source for nice brugs at a reasonable price. At that time, there were only about four nurseries selling brugs online and
both selection and customer service were awful. We obtained our first brugs from Arlene Howard, Lynn Carman,Bonnie Vaughn and Gloria Lessner.We also imported several varieties from Hodnik's in France. This was still legal until early 2001 and we made it just under the wire. We also used the commercial sources available at the time. From the first, we have concentrated on customer service in the areas of quick delivery and good packing along with a guarantee of live, healthy delivery. I will admit that we had some worries about that last one but time has proven to us that the vast majority of people are honest. We do replace a few damaged brugs,and a few from our mistakes, from time to time but these have stayed at a reasonable and acceptable level.
Country Garden was set up from the beginning, not as a pretty nursery with nice plants in neat rows but rather a place where I could grow brugs quickly and efficiently. It stays a mess but an efficient mess. We sometimes get calls from people wanting to visit our "gardens".The only garden here is full of onions, garlic, turnips etc.All the brugs are kept in containers and are either in the greenhouse or under a shade structure in the summer. They are always
chopped up and ragged looking as anything large enough for cuttings is taken off and rooted.
So where do we go from here? Short term is easy to see. We just keep doing what we have been doing. We will be adding a few new and different plants to our sales list in 2008.Adeniums(thanks Ronna),plumerias,and hardy hibiscus to name just a few. We did try passifloras last year but gave that up when the passis tried to take over the world starting with the greenhouse. Those things need
more room than we can spare. The long term vision is a bit foggy.
I will be sixty eight this September but I am still blessed with good health and strength. I had hoped that one of the grandchildren might be interested in taking over one day but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Companies are not lining up to buy us out so that leaves just me. Maybe one day, a few years down the road, I’ll walk out to the greenhouse and decide I've had enough. It will be time to call in the bulldozers."

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It is now over a year later and some things have indeed changed.
Plumerias were a bust due to ever present rust making the leaves unsightly. Hardy Hibiscus never got off the ground, no pun intended.
The Adeniums have been a success and now sales rival the brugmansia in number. Amaryllis have been added and grow well for us. They will never be a major sales item but are beautiful and just plain fun to grow and hybridize.
The downturn in the economy has had an effect. Our major material supplier has gone out of business. We will have to travel to Mobile, almost 200 miles round trip, for supplies. I hope to arrange some kind of delivery next spring. As for us, we are safe. Sales are down but we have no overhead outlay except for supplies and propane. I have no doubt that if we had rent and labor to pay, we would have gone the way many of our friends have and be out of business.So,onward and hoping for an upturn in the economy next year.Hoping,but not expecting. In the meantime, I do love what I'm doing.

A pleasant surprise from the garden

In the late 90's I concentrated on growing heirloom vegetables and herbs.One of the heirloom tomatoes was "Snow White Cherry".This one did not impress me much and would probably have been tossed after that season.One good thing did come from "Snow White Cherry" and that was a sport growing from one of the plants.This branch had bright,lemon yellow fruit,in sharp contrast to the very pale yellow of SWC.The taste was very good so I decided to dry some of the seed and give them a try.The downline plants came true from seed so the plants were named
"Lemon Drop" and were shared with Seed Savers Exchange.Seed Savers trialed them and later offered them for sale in their store.Here is Seed Savers description from their seed packet;

Lemon Drop Tomato

Lycopersicon lycopersicum

"a pleasant surprise in the trials at Heritage Farm,where each season more than 750 varieties of tomatoes are grown.Heavy sets of 1/2 to 3/4 inch translucent yellow cherry tomatoes.

Nice,clean,tart-sweet flavor.Indeterminate.80-90 days from transplant."

I continue to grow "Lemon Drop"usually planting two crops a year.The early spring planting and a couple of late fall plants to carry through in the greenhouse.These,along with a few red cherries make good grazing through the winter.A couple of cautions are in order.Late rain can cause some cracking if it come while the fruit is ripening.If you are a seed saver,I suggest that you just dry the seed and save rather than fermenting.These seed tend to sprout during the fermentation process.Seed are not commercially available except through Seed Savers Exchange but we will be offering them through Country Garden next spring

http://countrygdn.com/