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Known variously as creeping phlox or moss phlox, early-flowering Phlox subulata is a familiar friend, a welcome harbinger of spring. Its cheerful five-petaled blooms blanket slopes and spill over walls. We hear you: It’s hard to even imagine spring, let alone plan for it, while the dog days are still raging, hot and humid. But this really is the time to do just that.A crop of Phlox subulata planted in late summer / early fall has oceans of time to fill its containers with vigorous roots. So

(We’re keeping it in the dark!)Sales Opportunity: Late summer/early fall market for fresh, flowering perennials.  Sales Barrier: Perennial fave Echinacea is flowered out, way past “fresh” by then.Winning Solution: Our short-day Echinacea program!Starting in spring, we delay the flowering response of a popular coneflower by manipulating (shortening) its daylength. The treated liners are like little green time machines: They make up for lost time in your pots, setting buds and blooming weeks

Known variously as creeping phlox or moss phlox, early-flowering Phlox subulata is a welcome harbinger of spring. Its cheerful blooms blanket slopes and spill over walls.It might be hard to think spring, or plan for it, when autumn chores beckon. But this really is the time to do so.Planted in fall, P. subulata has lots of time to form a vigorous root mass. Soon, cold nights and short days will shut down vegetative growth. That tough evergreen foliage will hunker down and wait patiently. Sleep t

What gives a grower the blues? Small plants and disappointed customers.Forget what the song says. There IS a cure: Plant this fall instead of waiting until spring. It’s not just for trees!It’s a simple equation: Build a firm foundation under that crown. When your plants go into winter with a bulked-up root mass, they’ll do three things quicker in spring: Fill out, look gorgeous – and sell.The principle applies to many genera, but we particularly recommend it for these three:AquilegiaThis early r

What gives a grower the blues? Small plants and disappointed customers.Forget what the song says. There IS a cure: Plant this fall instead of waiting until spring. It’s not just for trees!It’s a simple equation: Build a firm foundation under that crown. When your plants go into winter with a bulked-up root mass, they’ll do three things quicker in spring: Fill out, look gorgeous – and sell. The principle applies to many genera, but we particularly recommend it for these four grass families;