Annual Flowers

      Flowers

      It was a cool and rainy day as I returned to the big garden on Wilbraham Road. I will take it though, next week it could hazy hot and humid, yuck. We traveled to Somers to pick out our annuals for an upcoming planting day on campus as well as planting a few of or key areas. We are lucky, a big grower is right down the road from us with quality material. Growers Direct is as big as 10 football fields of greenhouses. Its huge. Although I was not much help, Its good to get way from campus to think about what needs to be done. I was thinking about the green industry and what the economic impacts are on the U.S. economy are. Well in 2004 everything involving horticulture, the green industry had an output of 147.8 billion dollars. There were 1,964,337 jobs and 64.3 billion dollars of income. Pretty good numbers if you ask me. We are a growing industry and anyone considering a job in this field can look at these numbers and find there is plenty of room for hard working people who can learn technical procedures as well as delivering a finished product at any level of the trade. Also there are two great schools right in our region if that's where you choose to start. And if I were younger I would recommend it. Stockbridge at UMASS is excellent, and S.T.C.C. is also good. I wish a small school would offer something though. Like a Baron Institute, or Porter and Chester. I have also found that one character from a move has brought down our trade a bit. Bill Murray from the film Caddy Shack is the culprit in this case. I find that a lot of people believe we are just like this guy in the move and that's just not so. Its a funny movie and Bill Murray does an excellent job. Watch the move and over time if you read this post you will find out more about the character's of this industry.

     Plant of the Day

      Japanese Maple is a variety of a Acer that some believe has been used to much. And I do see a lot of them in the home owners landscape as well as commercial settings. Over used or not I like them. They have  wonderful Burgundy hue, and a lot of people will call them red maples even though they are not. They also have different sizes and shape with the different kinds. I have used Acre Moonfire and Bloodgood in two totally different locations and needs and both worked great. They prefer a shaded canopy but have seen some in full sun do well with care. Jeff came upon 2 in the Law School Court Yard that are really neat and they are Acer Flamingo, Kind of has a variegated leaf to it and stands out in smaller plantings.


     Politics/News

   Did they stop that oil leak yet?

     Fineto

  Sam the Dog is here by my side every night as a peck away at the computer key board. I rescued Sam 3 years ago from the Shelter. He is truly mans best friend. He follows me to every end of the house and  can understand my emotional feelings better then most humans I know. Oh if I could talk to the Animals.
One family of ducks had their ducklings and are swimming around in our puddle. We will wait for the others. A crow and a squirrel had a fight the other day, I do not know over what, but it was neat. Does any one else notice hat the crows seem blacker and bigger this year. I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty plant all the annuals,  Remember, not to deep and not to high. level with the surface with most flowers works also.
Stamp the dirt of your shoes before entering please.


                                                                 Good Luck, Eddie



P.S. Where have you gone Desi Arnaz Jr.