Results From Poinsettia Trails

A survey of 67 varieties of poinsettias was taken at our Open House on Sunday Dec. 4, 2011. We grew over 8,000 poinsettias. Approximately 379 people attended from 12:30 – 4:30. Attendance was up with the sunny weather. Three plants of each variety were labeled for judging. Judging continued until Dec. 10th by those who wanted to participate. The form for judging contained 5 lists – novelty, red, white, marble, and pink. The top five favorites in each category were voted for. This year we also had a fill in section for people to write in their 3 favorite over all.

To get points I gave each 1st place vote 5 points, 2nd place 4 points, 3rd place 3 points, 4th place 2 points, and 5th place 1 point.

Here is a link to the Results: http://mitchellsnurseryandgreenhouse.com/pdfs/2011POHresults.pdf

Thank you for helping our Poinsettia Open House to be a great success. We are one of two commercial greenhouses in the state to hold poinsettia trials. The information gathered each year helps the national poinsettia breeders decide which poinsettias they will release to the market in the future. Don’t forget to mark your new calendar for December 2, 2012 for next year’s open house. It will be from 12:30-4:30.

Plant A Row For The Hungry

What Is Plant A Row for the Hungry (PAR)?
Plant A Row for the Hungry is a people-helping-people program to help feed the hungry in local neighborhoods and communities.
Since 1995, American gardeners have donated over 14 million pounds of herbs and vegetables to feed the hungry in our local neighborhoods and communities.
Join our campaign.

We are asking Stokes County businesses, community organizations, and individuals to join us and help with fresh food donations by adding a row in their garden for those in need and donating the extra harvest to a local food agency, soup kitchen or hunger relief organization. Or become a community PAR sponsor through service or financial support.
Take the pledge and donate whatever you can.

Kick-off Event
April 30th
At Mitchell’s Nursery and Greenhouse starting at 9:30am

Free starter kits to the 1st 100 people to make a pledge.

Fun Gardening Facts!
A single cucumber plant can yield up to 15-20 cucumbers.
A single bell pepper plant can yield 6-8 peppers.
It’s easier than you think.

Support Plant A Row and help make a difference.

For more information contact us at Mitchell’s Nursery and Greenhouse
336-983-4107, email: info@mnandg.com or visit our website http://www.mitchellsnurseryandgreenhouse.com/ for more information.

Small Space Vegetable Gardening Demonstration

Come out in the spring to see how to put a small space to work for you at our demonstration garden. We have put in some winter and early spring plants. Our small space grows enough broccoli, lettuce, mesclun, and spinach for our family and others. Our broccoli grew 11” heads last year.

We also grow enough cucumbers, peppers, squash, and tomatoes to keep us supplied while they are in season. These vegetables are grown around our water tank and pump house in raised beds, straw bales, and a “Square Foot” garden. Come learn how to prepare soil, make amendments, and mulch plants.

We have cold hardy spring vegetables including broccoli, Russian Kale, collards, cabbage, kohlrabi, leaf lettuce (red and green), Swiss chard, mescclun mix, Buttercrunch lettuce, Romaine lettuce, and spinach ready for sell.

We also have some of our summer vegetables include pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, straight neck squash, crook neck squash, zucchini, red, yellow, and green bell peppers, hot and sweet banana peppers, cayenne peppers, jalapeño peppers, many varieties of tomatoes, okra, egg plant, 5 varieties of watermelon, and 3 varieties of cantaloupe.

Frost warning

Don't forget to take in your tender plants tonight if you have taken any out like house plants. Or cover up any tender plants - like tomatoes if you have already set some out. Cold hardy vegetable like lettuce and broccoli will be fine without covering. Cloth works best for covering, but if you do use plastic, don't let it touch the plants.

Blueberry bushes in the landscape

Blueberry bushes are a great addition to any landscape. Not only do they provide a delicious fruit, they are also beautiful shrubs. Best of all they are one of the easiest fruits to grow successfully without pesticides and are full of antioxidants.
Blueberries are great by themselves fresh, on cereal, in pies, and in Margaret Snider’s blueberry ice-cream. Blueberry pancakes, blueberry coffeecake, and fresh blueberry muffins were always my favorite way to eat them, but Sandy Laughter’s blueberry pound cake might be my new favorite.
The Rabbiteye Blueberries (Vaccinium ashei) are the best variety for our area, the piedmont. Rabbiteye Blueberries get their name from the unripe fruit, it a light color with pink on the end of the berry making it look like a rabbit’s eye. They produce large berries over a long season. When choosing a plant, choose two or more varieties to get better pollination (more fruit) and it can spread your season out.
When planting blueberries, you should always add compost to the soil. It is best to add about 4” of rotted pine sawdust, rotted pine chips, manure, leaf mulch or anything else that is fully composted to the area that you are planting in. This should be a 4’x 4’ or 4’ the full length of the row. The mulch needs to be tilled in about 8” deep. If this is not practical, you can add compost over a 2’ area and mix it in with a shovel buy turning it as you dig.
Blueberries can be planted in groups or rows. They also make nice boarders. My aunt planted a row between her and her neighbor behind her house. It is a beautiful boarder between the yards. They have nice white blooms in the spring and turn shades of red in the fall. She picks the blueberries on her side and her neighbor picks the other side. Just make sure when you plant blueberries you have a different variety within 100’ for good pollination. I recommend planting 3 varieties – an early season such as Premier, a mid season such as Tiff Blue, and a late season such as Brightwell. This will give you a longer season.
Don’t forget about the birds. If you enjoy watching bird around your yard, blueberry bushes are a great attractant for birds. Birds not only love the fruit, but the shrubs make cover for birds to hide in and are good nesting spots for some small birds.
Now is the time to plant blueberry bushes between September and April. Even if you don’t like the fruit, blueberry bushed are and all around great shrub to use in your landscape.

Results from our poinsettia trials

Our poinsettia trials went well this year. We have the voting results from the the poinsettia trials posted on our web site now.
http://www.mitchellsnurseryandgreenhouse.com/pdfs/2010POHresults.pdf

Winter Rose Pink

This is another poinsettia like the Winter Rose Red with tight curled bracts. another one of my favorites.

Free Wrapping

We are offering free wrapping with a hand tied bow of any 6.5" or larger poinsettia at regular price. This offer is for our customers who read our blog only. So you need to tell who ever is helping you that you want the deal you saw on our blog.

Thank you for supporting us.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Winter Rose Red

This is my favorite poinsettia. It is a Winter Rose Red. It has bracts that are pulled in to make it a much tighter bloom, more like a rose or camellia bloom

Open House Today!

Don't forget, our open house is today. Come see 67 varieties of poinsettias, and vote for your favorite ones.
We will draw for doorprizes,have hot apple cider, coffee, soft drinkss, cookies, homemade chicken salad, and pimento and cheese sandwiches, and other refreshments.
We hope to see you!

Fox 8 WGHP is featuring us tomorrow morning

Shannon Smith from Fox 8 WGHP is featuring us tomorrow morning on the news. It will air sometime between 5:00 and 9:00. If you missed seeing us on News 2 on the "Made in the Triad" segment Tuesday night here is the link to see it http://www.digtriad.com/money/made_in_triad/article.aspx?storyid=150794&catid=255

"Made in the Triad"

News 2 will feature us on "Made in the Triad" tonight on the 6:00 news.

10% CAMPAIGN PASSES $2 MILLION SPENT FOR LOCAL FOOD

News
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Nov. 23, 2010
Media Contact: Teisha Wymore, campaign manager, tlwymore@ncsu.edu or 919.515.0244
10% CAMPAIGN PASSES $2 MILLION SPENT FOR LOCAL FOOD
Since July, North Carolinians participating in the 10% Campaign have spent more than $2 million on food from local sources. The 10% Campaign is an effort to educate and encourage consumers to spend 10 percent of their food dollars on locally sourced food.
The campaign is an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, with support from N.C. Cooperative Extension and the Golden LEAF Foundation. Because North Carolinians spent $35 billion on food each year, if just 10 percent went to local sources, more than $3.5 billion would be available in the state’s economy.
"We are excited that the 10% Campaign has reached the $2 million milestone in its first four months. I believe this is a reflection of the true commitment that North Carolina consumers have shown for their own local food systems," said Teisha Wymore, 10% Campaign manager. "As campaign participation grows, the dollars spent on local food also will continue to grow."
"Businesses and individuals have responded enthusiastically to the launch of the 10% Campaign. As all of those businesses begin to report their local food spending, we will see that number continue to grow," said Nancy Creamer, CEFS director and horticultural science professor in the N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "The economic development and job creation potential of this campaign is huge."
Through the campaign website – www.nc10percent.com – North Carolina consumers and businesses sign up and pledge to buy local food. Each week, participants receive a campaign email, asking them to report how much they spent on local food that week. The results are tallied on the campaign website.
More than 1,700 individuals and 161 businesses have signed up for the campaign. The businesses and institutions that have pledged to spend 10 percent of their food dollars on food from local sources include restaurants, grocery stores and co-ops, universities, corporate food service programs and state agencies.
Cooperative Extension is supporting the 10% Campaign by providing an extension agent in each county office to serve as the local food coordinator, providing education and supporting businesses that want to participate in the campaign. N.C. Cooperative Extension is based in N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The Center for Environmental Farming Systems is a program of N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, N.C. A&T State University and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The center provides education, outreach and research related to sustainable agriculture and food systems.
-Written by Natalie Hampton, natalie_hampton@ncsu.edu or 919.513.3128.

Poinsettia Display

Melissa has finished setting up the poinsettia display. she put 3 of every variety on the ends of the benches, in groups by color. 67 varieties!!!!!!!!

Ruby Frost

Ruby Frost was a trial Poinsettia last year. It ranked 5th out of 19 in our novelty class, which helped to get it on the market this year. We only had a few last year because it was a trial variety, now that it is on the market, we order alot more cuttings last spring to have them ready for the Christmas season.

National Poinsettia Open House

Save the space on your calendars for our Poinsettia Open House (2010). It will be Sunday, December 5, 2010 from 12:30 to 4:30.We are one of two greenhouses in the state to hold poinsettia trials.

We are growing 9,000 poinsettias and more than 67 varieties. An ocean of color growing in one huge greenhouse! You will enjoy seeing new varieties, voting on your favorites, and free refreshments.

We are one of 33 greenhouses in the U.S. and Canada that grow these trials. The information that we collect will be sent to the national poinsettia breeders to decide which new varieties will be put on the market and which ones will be cut for next year.

Hope to see you there!
Jim, Judy, & Jay Mitchell

Tapestry

We have Tapestry Poinsettias again this year. They are a small short poinsettia with varigated leaves. We sold out quick last year, so if you have you heart set on Tapestry, you will want to get by soon.

Shimmer Pink

Stop by and see the poinsettias if you are in the area. They are beautiful this year. This one is Shimmer Pink. It is the first year we have carried it. It is a pretty dark pink, with light pink speckles.

Chad Tucker w/ Fox 8

Chad Tucker with Fox 8 News came out last night and had us on the 10:00 news. They also replayed it this morning along with some segments they didn't play last night.

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-story-plant-101115,0,2856921.story

Fall Leaves

Be sure to take advantage of the leaves in your yard. Use them to mulch your garden. As leaves fall, bag them up with your mower or you can use your mower to chop and blow them to the center your your yard to rake them. Your mower chops the leaves, allowing them to compost faster. you can either compost them or use them as mulch in your vegetable and flower gardens.