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November 2, 2016
“Gardens will be the peaceful haven we all need.”
– Paul Tukey, American environmentalist
Do It NOW: Protect Iris and Peonies, Etc.
Garden Gate Says: You Need This Flower
Last Chance! Save 10-30% and MORE in Our Dutch Auction Sale!
Winter is coming – believe it or not – and it’s time to find the last of our bulbs a good home.
That means EVERYTHING is now on sale for 10% to 30% off.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll cut prices another 5% on whatever’s left. The next morning we’ll do it again, and we’ll keep on cutting prices another 5% every day until every bulb has left the barn. Choose from:
daffodils and other animal-resistant bulbs,
lilies, hyacinths and other fragrant bulbs,
crocus and other little bulbs you can tuck in anywhere,
easy forcing bulbs (and see our inspiring how-to),
and even a few wonderful tulips.
As with any Dutch auction, the longer you wait, the more you can save. But if you wait too long you may miss out on all the fun.
So go ahead, treat yourself to something special! See everything on sale here, order ASAP, and remember – when they’re gone, they’re gone!
Invite Your Friends to Our Big Sale
Share our season-ending sale with your garden friends by either (a) forwarding this newsletter to them or (b) sending them directly to oldhousegardens.com/BulbSale. They'll thank you for it and so will we!
Cover Your Walls with Mural-Sized Botanical Images
Imagine an entire wall in your home or office covered with a huge image of a Dutch flower painting from the 1700s, or a bulb catalog cover from the 1800s.
For less than you might expect, a British company called Surface View offers custom-sized murals of thousands of images ranging from antique maps and vintage comic books to abstract patterns and modern photography. Any good wallpaper hanger can install them for you, and shipping on most orders is free.
To see the 600-plus botanical images they offer, go to surfaceview.co.uk/shop/walls/mural/t/floral . There you’ll find 18th-century paintings of broken tulips, Victorian chromolithographs of daffodils, floral wallpaper by William Morris, close-up photos of ‘Snowbunting’ and ‘Rip van Winkle’, and antique catalog covers such as the one pictured here of ‘Pallida Dalmatica’. That image as well as several of our other favorites are part of a recently added New York Botanical Garden collection that you won’t want to miss.
Even if you don’t end up ordering any, it’s fun browsing through the wonderland of images. Enjoy!
Do It NOW: Protecting Iris & Peonies, Multiplying Glads & Dahlias, Etc.
With warmer-than-usual weather in much of the country, it’s still a great time to do some of the little things that will pay big dividends in your garden’s health and beauty next year.
Click these links for helpful tips from our newsletter and website:
how to do a simple fall clean-up to prevent iris borers and eliminate peony mildew,
how to get free bulbs by digging and storing your glads (later is better), dahlias, and crocosmia,
how to store – even without digging! – tuberoses, rain lilies, and crinums,
how to safely plant spring-blooming bulbs in outdoor pots,
how to force bulbs indoors for winter bloom – just add water!
For even more bulb care tips, check out the 47 other links at our complete Planting and Care page. Your garden will thank you!
Garden Gate Says “Your Garden Needs This Flower”
There’s an unlikely “cover girl” on the front of Garden Gate’s December issue: gladiolus!
Once scorned as hopelessly out of fashion, glads continue their rise back into popularity. Garden Gate’s headline touts their “Gorgeous Color, Dramatic Shape, Old-Fashioned Charm,” and adds “your garden needs this flower!”
To integrate glads into your garden – instead of just growing them for bouquets – check out the article’s excellent tips and photos in “Design Your Garden with Glads.” There’s a great section on non-traditional glads, too, with photos of our small-flowered, surprisingly hardy ‘Carolina Primrose’ (pictured here) and ‘Atom’ as well as the fragrant Abyssinian glad.
For a free copy of this issue, click the “Free Preview Issue” tab at gardengatemagazine.com. As long-time subscribers ourselves, we know you’ll find a lot to like in Garden Gate!
Looking Back: A Clickable History of Old House Gardens
As you can see in this snapshot, I’ve been fascinated with flowers for a long time.
When I was seven, my dad helped me plant my first garden, and although I soon learned that weeding is an endless chore, I was thrilled when I harvested my first radishes and I’ve been gardening ever since.
Eventually my love of plants led me to launch Old House Gardens, and now that I’m retiring in May, we printed a short history of me and OHG on page 48 of our catalog. Even better is the clickable version we posted online yesterday, with links to the “welcome” letter from our very first catalog, our dramatic 1996 debut in Garden Design, our friends at the Hortus Bulborum, me planting bulbs with Martha Stewart, and more.
I hope you’ll enjoy it – and then please help my crew (aka the new owners) continue the story!
And Don’t Forget Our Fabulous Facebook Page
With close to 15,000 likes, it’s one of the most popular Facebook pages for bulbs, heirlooms, and garden history. (Thank you, all!) See what you’ve been missing at facebook.com/HeirloomBulbs.
Did You Miss Our Last Newsletter? Read It at Our Website or Blog
October’s articles included “bulb therapy,” Scott interviewed on Cultivating Place, bulb protection from the dollar store, making all gladiolus hardy, historic Southern plants online, and more.
You can read all of our back-issues at oldhousegardens.com/NewsletterArchives – and we’re adding the best articles to our blog!
Share Our Gazette with a Friend
Please help us “Save the Bulbs!” by forwarding our newsletter to a kindred spirit, garden, museum, or group.
To Reprint Any Part of Our Gazette . . .
Simply credit www.oldhousegardens.com.