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Horticultural information, news, and discussion -
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Wisteria and other Flowering Vines

Here at Wayside Gardens, we always appreciate being mentioned by newspapers. I especially enjoyed this article in the San Francisco Chronicle, because it recommended us as a source for trumpet vines. I'm a great lover of flowering vines, so that put a big smile on my face. I suspect that my love for flowering vines comes from growing up looking forward each year to the Wisteria blooming all over town. Every spring pine groves all over town explode into purple, and the purple flowers hang thick on almost every tree up and down the older streets. They stick around for much of the summer, but here Wisteria and Daffodils mean spring has arrived, and all the flowers of the season will be following soon behind.

As I've grown older, though, I've grown to love all sorts of flowering vines. The hummingbirds love my trumpet vine (a Campsis 'Mme. Galen') that's happily climbing a sunny wall at my mother's house, and I've been lovingly tending some pink rose vines on an arching lattice for years now. Over the years I've had several Clematis vines (it's almost an addiction, with so much variety of both color and shape), but I think that my current favorite is my Clematis Bourbon. My sister loves to steal my flowers and float them in a crystal bowl of water as a centerpiece. Fortunately, it produces so many flowers throughout the summer that I don’t mind. Even after years of propagating flowering vines, though, I still get a thrill each year when I first spot those wonderful amethyst Wisteria vines for the first time, and it's still my favorite vine by far.

Starting your Seeds for Spring Planting

Well, I'm back from the holidays, and just in time. The most exciting time of the year for us is rapidly approaching, and we're all bustling to get ready for spring, and our seed starting kits are already flying out the door. Our Spring 2008 catalog is in the mail. For us this means that orders are going to start pouring in soon, and for you this means that it's time for my favorite part of gardening: choosing what to plant this year! It always works best to plan out what you're planting and where it is going in the garden before you start ordering seeds. Just remember when you're planning that the sun won't necessarily be shining on the same parts of your yard through from winter to spring. It's never fun to have your shade/sun mixtures turn out wrong after you've got a great crop of little seedlings ready to go. For my garden , I'm going to go a little crazy on the veggies this year. I've got a new space cleared, and I can't wait to get it full of all kinds of goodies. I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone, but I'm going to be making my own salsa this year straight out of the garden. That means that I get to try several different types of tomato, from Roma to Beefsteak, as well as all sorts of peppers.

I for one love to start my seeds early. It's great to have all of the neighbors jealous of my huge early-season tomatoes and peppers. If you're like me and will be getting your seed starter out of the garage in the next few weeks, don't forget to stock up on growing media refills before spring gets here.