The cold we experienced late April did more damage than we thought. The small size dissectum Japanese Maples are dead. The larger sizes will come back but will take a month or longer. Still waiting for the Raywood Ash, Walnuts, and other plants to send out new leaves. The local vineyards have been hit hard. Venezios Winery had half of their crop destroyed. The grape plants live, the grapes where killed. Other local vineyards are reporting like results. 2008 won't be a vintage many will want to remember.
A couple of commenter's asked if we could have done more to protect the plants. Being in the foothills we are constantly covering plants every night in the early spring, as we are known for our late frosts. Unfortunately we didn't think that the plants we hadn't covered would be hit so hard. My guess is 20% of the plants we carry we're hit hard enough to prevent their sale this spring.
We getting ready for our 4 anniversary celebration on May 17th. We do free BBQ, have sales, and give away two shopping sprees. I cannot believe we have been in business this long. Where has the time gone? Here is a truth that I discovered. When you look at the short span it seems that we are never getting to where we want. Looking over the long term I think we underestimate what we can accomplish. This type of business keeps you busy enough that you need to stop, smell the roses and realize just how far we have come.
Check out this post by Elizabeth at Garden Rant titled “Money Back, Replacement, or Tough Luck. It concerns nurseries and plant return policies. This is why I think its important for small nurseries to be involved in blogging and reading garden blogs. These are our customers and they are talking about us. Are we listening? Better yet, are we contributing to the conversation?