THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240098
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Robert Stiffler
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
AN EXCELLENT PLACE to buy unusual varieties of camellias is at the Virginia Camellia Society annual spring show and plant sale next weekend at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Sales are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and next Sunday. For the show, entries must be made between 8 and 10 a.m. Saturday; judging will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. The show opens at noon Saturday and closes at 5 p.m., and opens again from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The show is free, but regular admission to the garden applies. HOW TO GROW FROM SEED
It's next to impossible to find very new - or very old - varieties of plants unless you grow from seed. All bedding plants seem to be ``last year's best seller.'' To help you grow from seed, there's a new book, ``From Seed to Bloom - How to Grow over 500 Annuals, Perennials & Herbs,'' by Eileen Powell (Storey Communications, soft-cover, 320 pages, $18.95). Just published this month, it's up to date. To order, call (800) 4451-5700, Dept. YP. WILLIAMSBURG SYMPOSIUM
It's time to register for the 49th Annual Williamsburg Garden Symposium, April 9-12. This year's theme is ``Gardening Traditions.'' Keynote speaker will be Roger Swain, co-host of the Victory Garden TV show. Mississippi extension agent and garden writer Felder Rushing is also on the program. His most recent book, ``Passalong Plants,'' has been a best seller. Kim Hawks, proprietor of Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill, will talk about native plants. Gardeners selected from throughout the country will show and tell about their own gardens.
Registration fee is $280 and registration is limited to 200. Contact the Garden Symposium Registrar, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, P.O. Box 1776, Williamsburg, Va. 23187-1776 or call (804) 220-7255. Fax (804) 221-8921. MORE GUIDES TO GARDENING
More Taylor's Guides are coming off the press, including ``Taylor's Guide to Herbs,'' ($19.95 edited by Rita Buchan, Houghton Mifflin), ``Taylor's Guide to Roses,'' ($19.95 edited by Peter Schneider, Houghton Mifflin) and ``Taylor's Guide to Container Gardening,'' ($19.95 edited by Roger Holmes; Houghton Mifflin). Taylor's Guides have a reputation for excellence.
``Noah's Garden,'' the widely acclaimed book by Sara Stein, has been reprinted in a less-expensive paperback edition ($10.95 paperback, Houghton Mifflin) .
These new books will be available in April and May. Any bookstore or the Norfolk Botanical Garden Shop can order them for you. NEW PAINT FOR PRUNING
Although pruning paint has received a black eye in recent years as being a hindrance rather than a help to tree recovery, a new product from Europe seems to be catching on. It's called Lac-Balsam and is the best-selling plant dressing in Europe. It contains a natural antiseptic resin that speeds healing and stays flexible.
It costs $12.95 for 12 ounces from Gardener's Supply and also may be available in some garden centers. Gardener's Supply catalog is free by calling (802) 863-1700. THE GREAT COVERUP
If you want to know how to build temporary and portable greenhouses, warm and cool the soil with special mulches, make a cold frame for year-round flower and food production or use floating covers for early plantings, protecting rose blooms and wintering strawberries, the ``Great Garden Cover Up'' is for you. It's a special issue of The Avant Gardener and is available by mailing $2 to that publication at P.O. Box 489, New York, N.Y. 10028. NATURE KNOWS BEST
Graham Stuart Thomas, one of Great Britain's most respected gardeners and garden writers, has this to say in the January issue of The Garden, published by The Royal Horticultural Society: ``I have often thought that hybridists and selectors of plants are losing their way. To clutch onto every outlandish aberration of nature seems to me to be retrogression, not progress. Occasionally, things get out of control. It has happened with the gigantic heavy-headed dahlias, the tousle-headed and immense Japanese chrysanthemums and those startling orange or lemon-yellow African marigolds. One can scarcely call them flowers; they are good weather-resistant blobs of color, perhaps suitable for street display or use in public parks, but since when has it been decreed that a public park shall be a repository of vulgarity? If we want, or even need, to improve on nature's bounty, should we not study the best she has to offer first and resolve not to aid the propagation of strange deviants?''
Something to think about, isn't it? PRUNE HOLLY FERN
If you have that excellent plant, the Holly fern, you know that by this time of year, fronds become brown and ragged. Prune them out, cutting them out at ground level. New fronds will soon appear and fill out to make a beautiful fern for another 12 months. If you don't have holly ferns, take a look at some next time you're in a nursery. They're large, strong and beautiful - a fine plant for this area. A BEAR-Y FINE DAY
The Maymont Foundation in Richmond has a fine day planned from noon to 5 p.m. next Sunday. It's ``Bear Family Day at Maymont.'' Activities include a Victorian teddy bear's picnic, presentations by bear researchers and tram rides to the bear habitat. Maymont has three black bears kept in a natural environment and will be introducing a new bear. The month of April has been designated ``Bear Month.'' There also are bobcats, foxes and other wildlife at Maymont, all free. Call (804) 358-7166. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MONROVIA NURSERY
The Virginia Camellia Society sale is next weekend.
by CNB