November is an interesting time here at the greenhouses. We’ve got multiple things going on and if you have time to stop by and see what’s happening it’s worth the trip. Currently we’re in the process of planting just over 70,000 perennials for our 2015 season. We’ll be planting perennials the beginning of this month and then again the beginning of December.
The poinsettias and cyclamen are coming along nicely as well. November is definitely the time to come see them. The poinsettias started changing color in mid-October. Since they require 12 hours of darkness to change color it is very important we don’t have any light pollution during the night. Since we aren’t in town we don’t have to worry about streetlights or other artificial light sources. If you have a poinsettia that you’ve managed to keep alive from last year you’ll want to make sure it is getting 12 hours of darkness without any light interruption. By that I mean you can’t have poinsettias in a room you turn the lights on and off after sunset. I recommend putting them in a separate room that doesn’t get used or where you can leave the lights off at night. They like lots of sunlight during the day and then once the sun goes down no light until sunrise.
We start shipping them out around the middle of the month and I highly recommend coming to see the bright colors before they fly out the doors. I think the best week to stop by and see them is the week of November 10th. Our biggest poinsettia ship weeks are the last week of November and first week of December. We’ll have our annual Poinsettia Festival on Saturday, November 29th 10am to 4pm. It’s a free event where we have snacks, festive music, vendor booths, and of course lots and lots of poinsettias for sale. Don’t forget that our winter hours have now changed and are Monday through Friday from 9am-4pm.
