'♦^- 



tend toward the more subtle {Arabis, 

 Aubriela) or old-fashioned {Lychnis — 

 Garden Pink). This year those over- 

 wintered were put outside ("we 

 would have to try this in the coldest 

 winter I can remember"), but nor- 

 mally they're stored in one of the 

 greenhouses under microfilm. 



Annuals offered can be unusual — 

 Lavatera (Tree Mallow) and Amaran- 

 thus caudaius (Love-Lies-Bleeding) are 

 two examples Anne gives. "When we 

 first started," she recalls, "an old 

 woman came to us and asked if we 

 had petunias that smelled." We 

 didn't, but we started growing them 

 and now they're one of our most 

 popular offerings." Scent is a quality 

 she looks for and other plants — both 

 annuals and perennials — are scented 

 as well. 



During a trip to England last fall 

 (They spent the entire time visiting 

 gardens in the Cotswolds), Anne and 

 Pooh were impressed with the num- 

 ber of people using simple hands-on 

 methods to grow a lot of beautiful 

 and unusual plants They brought 

 back ideas from a visit to a gera- 

 nium collection there and ordered 

 seed: various geraniums — some 

 scented, some zonal — fill benches in 



John and Flap houses. Mixed to- 

 gether, rather than separated into 

 types, they reveal possibilities of 

 texture and contrast. 



At the height of summer, there 

 are eight full-time employees — 

 weeding, picking, selling, hauling — 

 there's a lot of that — from house to 

 house, from gardens to stand. Lots 

 of hands-on labor. The natural ten- 

 dency is to simplify — particularly as 

 Edgewater continues to expand (the 

 Spragues recently bought ten more 

 acres of land — with a brook). But the 

 trip to the Cotswolds may inspire 

 them to remain somewhat funky (de- 

 fined in Webster's as "earthy, pleas- 

 antly unconventional") and hands-on. 

 And with lots of well-grown and un- 

 usual plants. 



The land, its fields — some in pro- 

 duction, some fallow, and the small, 

 evenly-spaced structures placed 

 upon it have created an unusual pat- 

 tern of intimate enclosures — a gar- 

 den of landscaped rooms. One 

 hopes that as Edgewater continues 

 to expand, Anne and Pooh can main- 

 tain some of this unique sense of 

 place. (B.P.) 



Anne and Pooh are al 2 River Road in 

 Plamf/eW— (603) 298-8391. 



from the Griffin Guru 



MEASURE TWICE; 

 CUT ONCE 



Want a watering system? 

 Where do you start? 

 No matter which of the various 

 watering systems would work 

 best with your growing operation, 

 any system starts at its source. 

 That is to say, it starts at the wa- 

 ter meter (heaven forbid) or your 

 pump and supply tank. A com- 

 plete overview of the entire sys- 

 tem should be done. That's 

 where you should be able to 

 count on your supplier to assist 

 you. Flow charts, friction loss, 

 and the type of nozzle or drip- 

 pers determine how you provide 

 the desired coverage. It's better 

 to do the work-up than to omit it 

 and find the system doesn't per- 

 form the way you wanted It to. ^ 



Improve 



Plant 



Growth! 





3-YEAR INFRARED FILM 



SAVE 10% 



Bigger blooms 

 and vibrant colors 



Less heat & water stress 



PAR light transmission 

 exceeding 90% 



Diffused light up to 64% 

 means no hard shadows 



25% energy savings 



For great light & savings 

 call 508-85 1-4346. 



GRIFFIN 



GREENHOUSE & NURSERY SUPPUES 



in July and 

 August 



24 



The Plantsman 



