March Hours: Monday - Saturday

9 to 5:30

Sunday 1 to 5

Stop by the nursery on one of these beautiful March days...Our selection of plants and garden items is expanding daily as we look forward to the spring planting season! 

It's still a great time to plant trees and shrubs so take advantage of the cool weather and get those landscaping projects done- we're happy to help!

The nursery is bursting with fresh plants and lots of blooms... perennials, herbs and some annuals can be planted now! 

Prep For Spring
The Garden Checklist to Get You Started

• Prepare garden beds: Clear out leaves, debris and mulch.  Pull weeds and add a fresh layer of mulch. 
• Fertilize trees and shrubs with Hi-Yield Grower's Special.
• Give your roses a boost with Bayer All-In-One Rose and Flower Care, a formulation of systemic insecticide, fungicide and fertilizer, that will help protect against aphids, Japanese beetles and black spot.
• Un-earth containers from winter storage.  Empty old potting soil and decide if new moss or coco liners are needed.
• Lawncare: In late March or early April apply fertilome All Seasons with Barricade to zoysia and bermuda lawns.
• Control weeds in your lawn by spot-spraying with fertilome Weed-Out Plus for zoysia and bermuda, or Hi-Yield Atrazine for weeds in centipede and St. Augustine.
• In early March, finish winter pruning by snipping on plants that don't bloom (evergreens) and those that bloom in summer such as crape myrtles, all hydrangeas except the oakleaves, butterfly bushes, summer-blooming spirea and roses.

• March is an excellent time to get a headstart on landscape projects!  Plant trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcovers and vines now and then fill in with colorful blooms once the threat of frost is past.
• Begin planting container gardens that can be easily moved and protected from sudden cold snaps.
• Start your perennial and herb gardens.  Our perennial and herb selections expand in March: Perennial roots are not damaged by cold and so can be planted early.  Hardy herbs, such as rosemary, lavender, thyme, sage, chives and parsley can be planted now. 
• Infuse color into your early spring garden with annuals, such as snapdragons, petunias, marigolds and dianthus, alyssum and nemesia, that actually enjoy cool weather.
• Wait to plant cold-sensitive annuals such as vinca, caladiums, lantana, sweet potato vine, basil and tomatoes unless used in container gardens.  These are hardest hit by late cold snaps and will need to be protected.

More Bang for Your Gardening Buck

Perennial Care and the Best Long-Blooming Choices

Spring is a wonderful time to plan and plant a perennial garden and we carry our largest selection of perennials in March and April.  Generally perennials bloom 3 to 6 weeks but, with a little pruning, you can extend the blooms of many perennials much longer.  Compared to annuals, perennials offer the advantage of returning year after year, increased durability in established plants and the opportunity, through division, to add to your and your friends' gardens in the future!  Here are a few tips to keep in mind concerning perennial gardens as well as our favorite, long-blooming perennials for the Alabama garden:

• Fall and spring are the best times to plant perennials, although selection is far greater in spring. 
• If you plan to create a new perennial bed this spring take some time to select the best spot in your landscape.  For sunny perennials, an area that receives at least 4 hours of sunlight is best.  To lessen the stress on plants from our intense summer heat, providing some afternoon shade works wonders!
• Border gardens, with a backdrop of evergreens, a fence or wall, are a convenient place to grow perennials- make sure your bed is not so wide that you can't reach to prune.
• Most perennials prefer well-ammended, well-drained soil.  For new beds add a thick layer of compost and mix with existing soil.  Top dress existing beds with a thin layer of compost each spring to maintain the soil's nutrient content.
• Don't overcrowd!  Allow perennials plenty of growing room- many take several years to reach their mature size.
• Mulch, mulch, mulch!  A layer of mulch around your perennials will control weeds and insulate roots from heat and cold.  Remove and replace mulch once or twice a year (garden pests can hide in old mulch).
• Fertilize perennials when new growth emerges in spring and again in mid to late summer.  We recommend Osmocote, a time-released granule fertilizer.
• To help newly planted perennials thrive as temperatures rise, water thorougly once a week, or as needed, in lieu of rain.   
• Call it what you like- pruning, trimming, dead-heading, or pinching- this is the secret to spectacular perennial plantings!  Consider it cheap therapy and spend an hour or two a week during the growing season trimming dead flowers and leaves from your plants to keep them blooming and beautiful! 
• Most perennials need to be divided every 3 to 4 years, or when they no longer bloom as they should.  Fall is the best time to lift, divide and move perennials.
• Cut perennials back in late fall, at the first hard frost, or when foliage yellows and wilts, whichever comes first!
• The "working" garden: Annual gardens are for impact, perennial gardens are for experience.  It may take a little longer, but you can create a low-maintenance perennial garden that thrives in your landscape.  Don't get discouraged- if one plant doesn't live, throw it out and stick with the ones that work best for you.  The greatest gardens are created through trial and error!

Our Favorite Long-Blooming Perennials

With some dead-heading, these perennials will bloom from late spring into the fall.  Add this to the fact that these are sun, heat and drought tolerant choices that thrive in southern gardens and you've got a recipe for a low-maintenance, high-beauty garden!

Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus)

Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Coreopsis species

Daylily (Hemerocallis hybrids)

Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa caucasica)

Salvia species

Shasta Daisy (Chrysanthemum maximum) 

Wandflower (Gaura lindheimeri)