Recently was a perfect spring day for me. I got to go inside the gates of a wholesale nursery. And trust me when I tell you, I have been driving by and gazing wistfully up their driveway for many, many years.

Thanks to the wonderful gift of friendship of David Culp of Brandywine Cottage fame, I have made some amazing gardening friends since I moved to Chester County, PA now also many years ago. (Time flies!) and a lot of these garden centric friends are far more knowledgeable and experienced and than I am.

One of these people that I have come to know through David is Andy Schenk. I have been buying plants from Andy every year I’ve been going to the Galanthus Gala. He sells his personally grown plants from “Look Again Garden.” Andy is also the owner of a wholesale nursery in Malvern Pennsylvania called Sam Brown’s Wholesale Nursery.

So recently, I got a tour of the nursery!! It was the best and I saw so many cool plants.

I have been busy in the garden and there’s a lot to do. I am in a holding pattern with some of the plates. I have purchased to plant it because we sadly have to take a tree down.

We don’t take down trees unless we have to, and one has reached its end of life. I will be planting more things where the tree is being taken down, including new trees.

I also have been working on my endless seeming rose project. Not only did I lose a couple of roses to voles having root snacks, I have had other roses that were among the few grafted. I still owned completely die back over the winter.

What’s happening is above the graft dies. Below the graft, which is Huey rootstock, lives.

I do two things for winter protection: I buy that mint compost stuff from heirloom roses, and I also use leaves (oak leaves from my trees which are all healthy) and wood chips. I don’t feed after August and late in the fall I stop dead heading. I never use pine mulch near my roses either – too much mold, etc that’s also why I don’t use cocoa hulls that a lot of people like.

I have never measured precisely, but I think I mound up about 6 to 8 inches around the base of each rose.

I actually have been corresponding with David Austin English Roses in Texas about this. They have very high standards when it comes to grafting, but I think even high standards can’t compete with mother nature and climate change. They agreed with me that that is why so many people like own root roses. You see when we have a hard winter like we’ve just come through even if the rose dies above the ground the root stock if it’s healthy will still stand up new shoots.

So I have planted four roses now. Three were own root. One is grafted because I can only find it grafted. A Meilland Eden Climber. It’s been one of my favorite roses since I discovered it through Winterthur years ago when they had a catalog where you could buy plants mail order. Actually a friend of mine who just recently passed away was one of the people instrumental in that catalog once upon a time.

Bare root are really pretty easy to plant. When they arrive, and then this case they came from David Austin, I soak them overnight for 24 to 48 hours before planting.  I soak them in water with liquid seaweed.

Then I plant, and plant I have! I have planted six new bare roots in total since I began writing this post a few weeks ago!

It is a busy time in my garden and I have had two trees taken out that were dying and spring trimming and some of the plant health.

Out of the two trees coming down, I got more than 8 yards of wood chips, which were put down on Friday and lots of firewood to be split.

I have been editing and planting. Editing things that were killed by the winter and/or deer demolished. I have a few shrubs to go.

The peonies are glorious this year!

Happy gardening! I have to just hit publish on this or more weeks will go by!