BABY, IT'S C-C-C-COLD OUTSIDE

Pennsylvania's fall weather was so fine for so long, I got a full week into November without tapping my firewood stockpile. But reality reasserted itself. The 2012-'13 woodstove season is well underway, and a layer or two of my oak stash is ash. Which doesn't imply an intergeneric metamorphosis from Quercus to Fraxinus, it just means it did a Santa Claus impersonation and disappeared up the chimney.

FOWL FOOLERY DEPARTMENT 

Here's a Miscanthus sinensis use we overlooked in our catalog: Deceiving ducks. This hunting blind lurks beside the Conestoga River. Now, THAT's a killer app!

DOWN ON THE FARMS

Florida

If you'd like to grow your own duck blind, make the neighbors disappear or fill some gallon & larger pots, we've got all the Miscanthus you can shake a shotgun at. Choose from nearly 2 dozen varieties, from diminutive M. sinensis 'Gold Bar' and petite 'Little Kitten' to soaring M. xgiganteus and bold, broad-bladed M. var condensatus 'Cosmopolitan'.  

Pennsylvania

It's begun to look a little like Christmas. Our first measurable snowfall was a slushy one-incher that didn't stick around long. Santa threw the switch and lit up a 25' fir in Penn Square -- kinda puny compared to Rockefeller Center's 80' spruce, but hey, ours is a live B&B. Theirs will soon be 2x4s.  

WHAT'S HOT

Barista's Choice  

Coffee-colored Carex cultivars: Fashionably latte'!

Spike your ornamental grass line with a little mo' Joe. Like a double espresso, these compact sedges pack a powerful jolt in a small package.

Our menu includes Carex flagellifera 'Toffee Twist', C. comans Bronco™, C. buchananii, b.'Firefox' and b. Red Rooster™, and C. flagellifera Bronzita™. Add a cool twist of C. comans 'Frosted Curls', or sweeten the pot with a scoop of C. oshimensis 'Ice Cream'.

Perk up sleepy sales with a hot spot of Carex from Emerald Coast Growers - The Easy Choice!

UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS

January 9-11, 2013: Come see the ECG North crew in Booth #919 at MANTS (MidAtlantic Nursery Trade Show), Baltimore, MD

January 13, 2013: Six great speakers including ECG Marketing Manager John Friel highlight the P.L.A.N.T. Seminar, presented by the Perennial Plant Association and Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association in Columbus, OH.

HORTISCOPE

Sagittarius: If Mom sends you to the store for Christmas bows, she does NOT mean the kind that require arrows. Be sure to target the right aisle.

Capricorn: Don't let 'em get your goat, kid. No other sign can caper like a Capricorn, no ifs, ands, or butts. And don't let 'em get away with a combination Christmas/birthday gift, either. It's not YOUR fault the heater conked out in March.

TRAY BON!

A Fine Feathered Thing

What makes gardeners and designers love
Nassella tenuissima? Let us count the whys:

Nassella is a growing presence in American landscapes. Don't be deceived by the nickname "Mexican feather grass." This beauty is hardy far north of the border, all the way to Zone 6.

It's a growing presence in our greenhouses, too. Our benchfuls will be yours to pot come February & March. So why book now? Because It sells out every year. (That's why we love it!)

EPILOGUE

I don't really mind that my firewood is in play. Heck, that's why I sawed, split, hauled and stacked it. There's something soothing, hypnotic and primal about a fire, outdoors or in. My western river-runner friends call campfires "Caveman TV." The analogy is even more apt when the flames flicker behind my stove's glass door.  

No offense to the Grinch, Ralphie, Rudolph, Tiny Tim and Clarence the angel, but I'll take a good fire any day. Don't change that channel, Ayla, I'm watching this show.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.