I had purchased a bag of Ladybugs two Summers ago and they have overwintered in my garden. I waited extra long this Spring to do my clean up because they hunker down in the debris in my containers for the winter and I didn’t want to disturb them.  I’ve accidentally unearthed them a couple of times. Whoops. But I think I am forgiven.

If you are interested in getting some Ladybugs for your own garden, we sell them in bags of 250. They munch on Aphids of course, but they also like to eat Soft Scale, Whitefly Pupa, Thrips, and Spidermite. 1 bag covers 10 medium plants or up to 3 trees.

Here are a few that we have done for around the store:

All I can say is… “Why didn’t I think of that?”

No tools required, easy to install brackets for planters, hanging baskets or anything you can think of!  They use the weight of the item to snug the bracket to the deck.

Not just for wooden decks!  There are adapters to fit all sorts of railings.

Rockit deck brackets are sold at all Potters locations.

Watch this video for instructions!

The video shows how to use all Rockit pieces available.

Here’s what’s in it:

3 x Non-Stop Begonias

Viola’ Princess Lavender & Yellow ‘

Carex siderosticha ‘Island Brocade’

Ligularia ‘Little Rocket’

Polemonium caeruleum ‘Snow & Sapphires’

Corydalis lutea

Epimedium x perralchicum ‘ Frohnleiten’

Campanula ‘Dickson’s Gold’

Pasternakia ‘Shiso European’

Palm trees, New Zealand flax, hardy bananas and roses are getting mulched and wrapped right now by gardening enthusiasts in the Lower Mainland.  Don’t forget about all your sensitive shrubs in this cold weather! 

Burlap is a very handy item to have around, it’s great for wrapping palms.  Make sure you also put a plastic bucket or bag over the very top of the wrapped palm tree to keep the rain from funneling down the center of it and freezing.  Don’t be afraid to wrap up the green palm fronds when you wrap it up.  You will lose most of those fronds anyways and you want to keep the plant going for next year, so be sure to wrap it all the way to the top.

It’s also getting a bit late to plant your Spring bulbs (tulips, daffodils, crocus, etc.) so make sure those are in the ground already. 

I have had lots of people in to buy vermiculite to pull up their Dahlia bulbs to dry and store over the Winter.  Also remember that Calla bulbs are sensitive and should be pulled from the ground, or if they are in a pot they can be put in the garage.  The worst place to put bulbs that you are storing over Winter is in the house!  The house is way too hot… they want to be somewhere cool and dry, like a cold garage or basement.  Make sure you have some wood shavings, peat or vermiculite to store them in to draw and moisture away from the bulb and keep it from rotting.

Good luck!

In my experience almost every gardener knows what pruning is but not that many understand why to prune things in the first place. So, why prune? Well, there’s many answers to this question but first and foremost you prune things to remove dead, diseased or damaged branches to ensure the overall health of the plant. But there are other reasons to prune as well. You can prune to keep your trees and shrubs in a particular shape, to stimulate plant growth, or to get more flowers and fruit. Whatever your reasoning for pruning, heed the following guidelines and your trees and shrubs should be that much happier.

Rule number one, don’t prune things just for the sake of pruning! You should only prune plants when you think it is necessary to do so. It would be madness to cut a flowering vine to the ground if it isn’t necessary to do so. Assess the entire plant before pruning and ask yourself, “Is it really necessary to prune this?” If it isn’t necessary, leave that poor plant alone! 

Make sure the season is correct for pruning. Fall can be a great time to prune for certain trees and shrubs but others may not enjoy it so much. Go to the effort of finding out when’s the best time to prune the plants in your yard. 

As a general rule, don’t make pruning cuts beneath dead wood. The plant has already made a natural barrier between live and dead wood and cutting into the live wood makes the plant expend more energy by creating another barrier further down the stem. 

Make clean cuts when you have to cut into live wood. A clean cut heals much faster than a rough wound.

Don’t make cuts larger than necessary. The smaller the cuts, the less energy a plant has to expend to heal the wound.

Hard pruning doesn’t necessarily limit a plant’s size… in fact it can have quite the opposite effect! When choosing plants at your local garden centre, choose ones where their mature height and width is the size you desire. Choosing a tree that will reach 40 feet for a 3’ X 3’ space and then pruning it like a mad(wo)man every year is usually not the best idea!

Get yourself a good book on pruning from your local bookstore. If you really want to know the best techniques and pruning tips, invest in a good pruning book such as The Cavendish Encyclopedia of Pruning & Training. A little bit of reading will go a long, long way when it comes to pruning!