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             Sweet Pea

              Asters

• Choose a sunny spot and hammer two stakes into the ground to make a row.
• Attach parallel wires between the posts, one at the bottom and one further up. Push canes into the soil every 22cm (9in) and secure to the wires.
• Plant sweet peas in front of each cane.
• Let plants grow to 30cm (12in) and then select the strongest shoot and remove the rest.
• Tie shoot to cane and regularly pinch off side shoots and tendrils.
• When plants have reached the top of canes, untie and lay stems on the ground.
• Re-tie stems to a cane further along the row, so the tip of the plant reaches about 30cm (12in) up its new cane. This way you will create the criss-cross network of stems and build up your screen.
• Tip: Sweet peas are easy to grow from seed, but you can buy ready-grown young plants.

Growing tips

• Once you've made your screen, dig a planting hole in front of each cane, making it slightly wider and deeper than the root ball of the plant.
• Allow plants to grow for four weeks until they are about 30cm (12in) tall, then select the best shoot and remove the rest. Tie it to the cane and regularly pinch of side shoots and tendrils.
• Make sure you wipe your knife or secateurs between cutting each plant to prevent diseases from spreading.
• Secure the sweet pea to its cane with string, garden twine or special sweet pea rings.

Aftercare

• When the sweet peas have grown too tall for their supporting canes, untie all of them and lay the stems carefully on the ground, taking care not to snap the brittle stems.
• Next, re-tie stems to a cane further along the row, so the tip of the plant reaches about 30cm (12in) up its new cane.
• Doing this will allow stems to grow longer and guarantee more flowers.

             Nicest Rose

1. First, find an area that receives full sun.
   If you have a bare root specimen, soak it in a bucket of water before planting. For roses that are potted, you can water the pot thoroughly and let it sit until ready to plant. Then, when you remove the pot from the plant itself, you will have a moist ball of soil to ease stress on the roots.
   
2. Dig a hole about six inches deeper than you will be planting the rose. You will need to add bone meal and compost to the hole before planting and want the crown (or area where the plant first starts growing above the ground) to be just at ground level when finished. Your hole should be twice the width of the pot as well. This ensures plenty of rich, soft soil to encourage vigorous root growth.
   
3. Add about three inches of soil, bone meal and compost to the bottom of the hole before placing the rose in the center of the hole. Be sure you chose the nicest side facing outwards if planting against an object like a house or trellis. Fill in the rest of the hole around the rose bush. You may need to hold the plant with one (gloved) hand to steady it as you fill it in completely.
   
4. Once you have filled in around the rose, tamp the soil down very firmly to remove pockets of air you may have missed.
   
5. Water with a slow steady stream to ensure deep penetration of moisture into the soil. You may want to tamp down the soil one more time after watering to see if it has settled in well.
   
6. You want to keep your rose's roots moist and cool but the leaves as dry as possible. Do this with mulch around the bottom of the bush once you have watered properly.
   

Tips:

1. Place at least three inches deep of mulch around the bush to allow the watering to remain on the roots and not evaporate.
   
2. A soaker hose system is perfect for roses. It will slowly water while keeping the upper part of the bush nice and dry.
   
3. Do not use a systemic chemical if you are planning in ingesting any part of the rose bush.
   
4. To avoid blight and black spot, keeping your foliage dry and avoiding splashing water up while you apply it to the roots is crucial.
   
5. Remove all cuttings and dead foliage from the area to discourage disease.

Aster plants will grow well in average soils. But, like all plants, they will reward your with bigger blooms and a healthier plant if you add plenty of compost. Also, add a general purpose fertilizer once a month.

Once your Aster are established, they should grow well for years. Soil should be moist, but not wet. They will withstand dry periods. Water them during dry periods, once or twice per week to keep growth vibrant.

Add mulch around the plants for appearance and to keep weeds down.

Around mid to late summer, your plants will begin to produce flowers and will continue to do so until frost. You do not need to remove dead flower blooms, except to improve plant appearance. For giant varieties, trim back any stalks that have become gangly in appearance.

             Lilies

Lilies will bring beauty, color and fragrance to your garden for many years; they only require you to plant them in the right place and provide for their simple needs.  Choose a well-drained location with at least half a day of sunshine.  If it’s too shady, the stems will stretch and lean towards the sun; trumpet lilies are the most shade sensitive.  Lilies love full sun, as long as the bulbs are deep enough to keep cool when temperatures soar.  They also enjoy a mulch.
Look for a spot that is the first to dry out after rain.  Lilies can be bothered by botrytis, a fungus that spots the leaves in prolonged cool, wet weather.  This should not be a problem in the home garden if you provide for good air circulation and space the plants so that leaves can dry out easily after rain.  If you do see brown spots on the leaves, use any fungicide recommended for roses.
The flowering times listed in our catalog are typical for western Oregon and Washington, so “mid-June” can be translated into “when the roses begin to flower” for your area.  Our bulbs are mature flowering size, grown for at least two years in our own fields.  The “ideal” bulb size varies with the type and variety of lily.  Many lily species and species-like Asiatics grow tall stems with many flowers from small bulbs; larger bulbs of these types are less adaptable to transplanting and “settling in.”  Trumpets typically produce larger but readily transplantable bulbs.  Orientals vary depending upon their ancestry.  We ship only flowering size bulbs, the size we would select for our own garden.
When you receive your lily bulbs, they are ready to plant and ready to GROW! In mild climates, they can be planted anytime the ground is not frozen solid and is dry enough to dig a hole without making clods.
Fall and early winter planting produce stems that flower at the "expected" time; planting late in the spring will produce later flowering stems, which may be a little shorter than usual if hot weather comes quickly. The following winter will reset the lilies' "clocks" and put them on "standard blooming time" again. The flowering times listed in our catalog are typical for western Oregon and Washington. Translate "mid-June" into "when the roses begin to flower" to provide a frame of reference for flowering time in your own area.
The sooner you plant your bulbs, the better they will grow and perform. If you cannot plant them right away, store them where they will stay COOL but not frozen-- above 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Your garage or refrigerator will be fine for temporary storage. Keep the bulbs in the dark if you can, for exposure to light will make them sprout quickly, and once they begin to show sprouts, they need to be planted.