Now's the Time

Plant - Ornamental trees and shrubs, roses, perennials, herbs, cool season vegetables, annuals like Geraniums, Petunias, Snapdragons, Allysum. Plant tomatoes after last frost.

Fertilize - If not done in February. Use root stimulator on all new plantings

Prune - Fruit trees before bud break, spring flowering shrubs and vines after blooming.

Purchase - Caladium bulbs while selection is good. Store Caladium bulbs at temperature above 63 degrees.

Pest Control - Spray fruit trees. BT for caterpillars.

April

Plant - Plant your Caladiums, warm season annuals, vegetables, summer and fall flowering perennials. Groundcovers for maximum cover before fall. Repot houseplants.

Fertilize - All your plants that are actively growing. Summer flowering shrubs. Test your soil.

Pest & Disease Control - Spray fruit trees. Treat Roses for blackspot, powdery mildew.

Having a Beaux Arts Ball!
By Cynthia R. Mitchell and Heidi Dillon
Co-Chairs for Beaux Arts Ball

 The 1998 Dallas Museum of Art Beaux Arts Ball is fast approaching! North Haven Gardens has joined as the Landscape Design and Flora Sponsor. Their extraordinary contribution of trees, shrubs, topiaries,colorful plants and hanging baskets, coupled with their garden design expertise will truly make the garden a special one. "North Haven Gardens is an integral part of the overall landscaping scheme of the gardens", says Cynthia Mitchell, "They have a vast amount of residential experience with a wealth of creativity to garden design that contributes to this spectacular garden event."

Working under the direction of Ball Designer, Tom Addis, and Decorations Chairman, Leanne Kendrick, North Haven Gardens will help transform the DMA into a variety of English gardens. Attendees will experience walking through an alley of trees and topiaries on their way to dinner in one of five different gardens: an all-white garden, a cottage garden, a botanical garden , an 18^th century landscaped garden, and a rose garden .

 With all those landscaping projects finally in motion and beautiful spring weather here, be sure that all your effort is directed where it will be most effective. Whether it is landscaping in general or some of the specifics such as water gardening, perennials, trees, shrubs, roses, herbs or other more exotic categories, North Haven has the word on their care and cultivation from the foremost experts in the world.

The Vegetable Book, A Texan's Guide to Gardening, by Dr. Sam Cottner, is a very informative guide for growing your vegetables and will go a long way to ensure your success.

We are constantly searching for new references to offer you the cutting edge in horticultural technology, botany or landscape design ideas for North Texas Gardners. New breakthroughs and new varieties are constantly being introduced. Come in and check out our latest selections.

  Our buyers have recently returned from the Atlanta International Gift Market and we are excited about the wonderful selection of gift merchandise that is arriving.

Our collections of summer blooming bulbs are now in the store. We are offering a wider selection of bulbs than ever before. Caladium bulbs will be arriving before the end of March. There is a shortage again this year, so plan to make your selection early.

We have a beautiful new collection of Teak furniture for your patio, balcony or garden room. Several new designs have been added. Be sure to see the wrought iron table and chair sets, and benches. They will add a very elegant touch to your garden area. Just imagine how great a new large wrought iron arbor would look in the garden with a climbing rose or blooming vine.

An outstanding new item will be our small conservatory style Greenhouses. They are a wonderful addition to a living room, family room or garden room. They come complete with stands and in a variety of sizes and designs. This is certainly going to be one of our popular gift items. They are perfect for orchids, and other small tropical plants.

The Squirrel designs are back in stock plus some new T-shirt designs. Be sure to check out the "Early Girl" and "Big Boy" tomato T-shirts and matching aprons-- what a great gag gift for a couple who has "everything".

Our ceramic cachepots and containers of all sizes continue to be a favorite gift item. Consider filling one with the new items in our Herbal corner. We are enlarging the collection of aromatic essences and oils. Many of these are for the bath and so with our stressful lives a relaxing bath is great for the end of the day.

The carved round stone cats, bunnies, and dogs are a great touch for the garden or garden room. And remember, engraved Riverstones continue to be a popular personalized gift. Special orders are always welcome.

A North Haven gift certificate is always a welcome gift. All of our sales people will be happy to assist you in any way with your gift selection. This is gift buying for the gardener at its best.

 Now that spring has arrived the time is here to select and plant those roses you have been admiring in the catalogs all winter. Before you make those selections, however, it is important to keep some things in mind about size and type. You can choose from two general types of roses, Modern or Old Garden. They are both wonderful but there are differences.

The Modern Rose: It has these classifications:

• Hybrid Tea with large blooms and long stems suitable for cutting are usually 5'-6' tall.
• Floribundas are a little shorter, around 2'-3' tall they have smaller blooms and bloom in clusters on the end of the stem.
• Grandifloras are the largest of the group being usually 6'+ in height with slightly smaller blooms than hybrid teas with clusters on the end of the stems.
• Climbers are usually 10'-15' in length with clusters of flowers.
• Miniatures are the smallest of the group averaging 12"-18" in height with correspondingly smaller blooms. Excellent for borders and containers.

Old Garden Roses: There are a number of classifications, but some of the points that make them so interesting are:

• If grown on their own roots they can have a very long life (20+ years is not uncommon).
• They are very sturdy and many show a strong resistance to black spot and other diseases. (A note here... This does not imply that they do not ever have to be sprayed or cared for. They might exist with minimal care but they will bear more blooms and be healthier if cared for like modern roses).
• Their colors tend to be more muted and pastel than modern roses and they exhibit a rich diversity of fragrance that is incredible.

North Haven has a large variety of all these types of the highest quality available. In addition we will have shrub roses suitable for separating off different areas of your landscape.

 Sometimes it's the little tidbits of garden knowledge that can make the difference between success and failure. You probably remember your grandmother putting coffee grounds or egg shells in her flowerbeds and wondered if she was losing her mind. I was always embarrassed when my father buried catfish heads in the vegetable garden. Of course, we had the best tomatoes on the block, too!

So here's my collection of "old wives tales", horticultural hints, and folklore "fact":

• Houseplants hate Dallas water, but they love rainwater. If you can't catch rainwater, then add 1 Tbl. apple cider vinegar to each gallon of room temperature water. It buffers our city water, and it acts as mild fertilizer.
• Use 10% Pickling vinegar to kill weeds. It works best on warm, sunny days. Just remember that it's non-selective. Spot treat directly on the weed.
• Got squirrels in your attic? Evict them with fox urine. There are special dispensers for strategic placement.
• Speaking of squirrels, are you tired of them getting in our birdfeeders? Use safflower seed-the birds like it, but squirrels don't!
• It's cool to have a compost pile, but it's bad to have a cool compost pile. Heat it up, and get the compost cooking with cottonseed meal or blood meal, or cheap beer.
• Keep your roses looking rosy with alfalfa meal. It contains natural disease-fighting and root-stimulating hormones. Roses love it!
• Do your plants have sickly, yellow leaves with green veins? It could be iron deficiency, or it could be magnesium deficiency. The simple solution is Epsom salts - a wonderful quick source of magnesium sulfate. For iron deficiency, a product called "Ruffin-Tuff Iron" can help correct it.
• Are your plants annoyed by aphids or smothered by spider mites? Texas A&M research says a strong blast of water works about as well as anything. The insect's head is stuck in your plant-the water blast decapitates the critter.
• Tired of feeding our plants to slugs and snails? Try any or all of the following:

• Need a repellant for aphids, spider mites, mealybugs, thrips, etc.? Try garlic pepper tea.