With New Year's resolutions and short days with cold temps, January is the typical time of year to start an exercise regimen. Few make it a change to their lifestyle, but those who do reap the benefits. Other lifestyle changes to consider include what you do when the weather warms. You want the choices to be beneficial. Clara Beaufort with Gardenergigs.com has some things to think about with her contributing article. Clara can be contacted at clara@gardengigs.com

Pet and childproof your backyard for the spring
 
You have endured the winter cold for close to three months and you look forward to the spring season. You long for the long, bright, warm days and some fresh air. Like you, your pets and kids are eager to step out and enjoy the new season.
 

Another season and another decision to make. Some of our or our customer's favorite varieties are discontinued each year and the struggle to find a worthy replacement does not always bear fruit. This year we have been unable to acquire my wife's favorite - Coreopsis Highland Blast, and had to settle for a new series called Uptick. We hope its larger blooms accompany the same drought tolerance and consistent blooming of the discontinued variety. Size isn't everything.

Color catalogs complete with care or culture are received each year ahead of order time, but in our experience marketers prefer to sell ideas and not realities. We look at the pictures, make our lists, then visit display gardens where we can judge for ourselves if new varieties live up to the hype they are given. Weather conditions may change how a plant performs, but if it doesn't look good as a live plant, then we don't put stock in it as a picture. Faded blooms and weak contrasting flower patterns were the most common misrepresentations found this year.

Branding is another favorite in marketing. When you see a Proven Winners plant in a Proven Winners pot, that is branding. Certain varieties sold by this internationally known brand requires it to be sold in their pot, leading to higher production costs in some cases. The pot may not add value to the plant, but it will add value to the brand and consumers aren't looking to buy the company - just the plant.

We hope this spring when you research new varieties ahead of roaming the aisles for what's new, you take the hype with a grain of salt or better yet, a grain of fertilizer. Happy growing. 

In nine weeks we will open for another season. Nine weeks may sound like a long time, but in greenhouse terms, it goes by in the blink of an eye. Although our seed planting and deliveries are on schedule, we worry something may go wrong, as it usually does, and those nine weeks won't be enough. This year's bombshell happened last week. We were informed a particular variety of lobelia would not be available this season and substitutions are limited. We do what we can and move on. On the upside, we will again be offering dozens of varieties either new on the market or added due to popular demand. But from experience, we know the hype is often greater than what the product deserves and only personal trial will tell the tale. Check out our new variety list soon to be updated. We hope you are as excited for another great year of gardening as we are.

May 2015 was a difficult month for waiting to set out plants purchased at a greenhouse or nursery center. Mother Nature once again proved she was in control and summer would have to wait until she was good and ready, leaving us wondering if that time would ever come. Favorable weather in early May proved too good to be true for cold sensitive plants. Frosts, heavy rains, and windy conditions had to be weathered until June, but not without a few frosty mornings at the beginning of the month left us wondering if it would ever be safe to set out impatiens, peppers, tomatoes, etc. Alas, the worm has turned. Warmer weather is upon us. Plants set out over the past few days are growing at astonishing rates and we have an entire summer to enjoy the fruits of our labor. Have a happy and enjoyable summer!

What do you do when you look out the window at the dormant landscape while longing for the day you can once again dig in the dirt, but that time is still months away? Unless you embrace the winter season and all it has to offer, there is little a garden enthusiast can do except to page through seed catalogs and magazines devoted to your passion. These same catalogs, accessible on-line in digital format, offer attractive descriptions to accompany the eye-candy photos. Experience teaches us to be wary of too-good-to-be-true descriptions.

It isn't often when a new development becomes a game changer such as when Wave petunias were introduced in the mid 90s. Since then, we've seen the introduction of hundreds of seed and vegetative varieties. Not all live up to their hype. For those unfamiliar with the term, vegetative means they can only be grown from cuttings, usually requiring a royalty to be paid to the holder of the patent. Why bother? It is much easier to produce plants with the same desirable characteristics of the parent through vegetative means than by growing its seed. Wave petunias are grown from seed. So the question is: "Is there a game changer for 2015?"

For those of us who have had a chance to check out what's new, 2015 is not a disappointment. From improvements on old varieties to new colors to varieties now available from seed previously only available as cuttings, this year will prove to make plant shopping a difficult one. Sometimes it isn't the new stuff that impresses us as much as our discovery of how to utilize that which has been around for awhile. One such example is Dragon Wing begonia. It doesn't look like much in early summer when it is still growing, but give it a little space in a bright spot with a little shade, and it will perform magnificently until frost. If something new and different is your desire, then look at  Osteospermum Blue Eyed Beauty, Petunia Flash Mob Bluerific or Flash Mob Redtastic, Stachys Lilac Falls, or Calynopsis Yellow w/Red. Make this year your own little scavenger hunt.

Our 2014 greenhouse season has come to a close, but our work is not done. 2015 new variety information is in print and we are oggling over the possibilities, but must accept every advertisement with a grain of salt, for the next best thing since sliced bread does not always turn out as great as they say. We plan on checking them out in person when we take our annual summer plant tour. We hope to have the best performers waiting for you when we again will be open for the season next spring.

Can't wait for growing season? Spring is getting closer, but one would not know by looking out the window. When will we be able to frolic outside in shorts and tank tops? Our crystal ball is made of ice crystals and unreliable. You can pass the time by looking at pictures of your last year's flowers and gardens, researching new varieties for 2014, and deciding what to put in your garden this year. You can't control when spring arrives, but you can control how you pass the time. Think spring!

Just about everything performed well in our north central Wisconsin garden this past summer as one would expect it to. I only have the weed performance to complain about. If only the vegetables could do as well.

As I study seed catalogs and place orders for the coming season, I notice the abundance of new varieties and disappearance of some old reliables. This sets off a chain reaction of responses: find a suitable alternative, replace the tag inventory, promote the new choices and convince others to try them. Not always as easy as it sounds. I'm not sure why tomato varieties seem to be exempt from disappearing like everything else we've come to know and love. Blitz impatiens and Boy marigolds are on that disappointing list.

Looking ahead, there are many bright spots in the world of container plants. We've had the opportunity to visit a few demonstration gardens to view first hand their real world performance. One cannot always rely on the words in an advertisement. The hardest part, for us, has been to limit our choices. We not only have to prominently display selections which caught our eye, we must also have enough of the right varieties when demand is at its highest. Look forward to seeing new petunias, verbenas, and several other plants you can grow and admire all season long in 2014! See our list of new varieties and hopefully there will be a picture to stimulate your interest.

It took a while, but the prayers for rain have been answered. Unfortunately, its timing could improve. The cool and wet spring hasn't been very good for gardening, but maybe it was for the best. We needed to rest our backs from all that shoveling of snow before bending over in our gardens. Someone up there has been looking out for us after all.

Seven days ago we opened for the season on a rainy, icy day here in northeastern Marathon County. One week before that, we still had piles of snow eager to melt away into the landscape. More than a few warm and sunny days have made our lawns turn green and our gardens anxious for the plants piling up in many of our garages. Should you be among those who are waiting for the day when vegetable plants and flowers can be moved directly from the greenhouse straight to the waiting ground, don't fear we won't have anything left. It may be true our selection may dwindle, but we are still planting and transplanting in an effort to keep up with the ever changing weather. See you soon!