We have more than 30 new introductions this year and will be featuring a couple of them in each week in our newsletter. As always, these new varieties tend to sell out quickly, so make sure and come in early for the greatest selection.

For more information, pictures, and a complete description of every variety we stock, visit our online Day Lily Catalog at www.almadenvalleynursery.com or pick up your free copy of our 2005 Day Lily Catalog.

Always Afternoon: Evergreen 22" high, 5" blooms. Dusky rose flowers with plum purple eyezone and a green throat with thin buff pink edges. Repeat bloomer.

Wineberry Candy: Deciduous 22" high, 5" blooms. Fragrant, lightly ruffled soft orchid pink petals with a wine-purple eye and yellow-green throat. Repeat bloomer.

Peach leaf curl is a fungus that attacks only peaches and nectarines as their leaf buds begin to open in spring. Fungus spores are spread by spring rain, splashing them from the bark to the buds. If your tree becomes infected, the leaves will pucker, thicken, curl, and turn yellow from the time they appear in spring. It makes the tree look unsightly and can weaken it.

To prevent this disease, spray with Liqui-Cop plus Spray Grip in November at leaf drop, January when fully dormant, and February at pink bud swell.

If you forget to spray your tree and it still gets curl in spring, we recommend a highly effective, all-natural product called Norwegian Seaweed Extract.

Simply drench foliage twice, 7-10 days apart. After the second spraying, the curled foliage will drop off and the new foliage will come out clean.

A side benefit is that Seaweed Extract also promotes plant growth and a vigorous root system.

If you have any questions on spraying any of your fruit trees, please come in and pick up one of our Fruit Tree Care Guides or ask any one of our nursery professionals for advice. We'll be more than happy to help you with any of your garden problems.

This is the time to plant warm-season annual and perennial flowers outdoors either by seeds or transplants.  If you weren't able to take advantage of fall planting, fill all beds and pots with warm-season flowers now.

Continue to feed container-grown flowers with liquid fertilizer for growth and bloom.

Fertilize cool-season flower beds with a granulated fertilizer if you see a slowdown of growth or flowering.  Water it in well afterward.  Deadhead flowers to keep them blooming.

Though nurseries are filled with cool-season flowers such as primroses, calendulas, nemesia, and violas, wise gardeners remember that these are the flowers that should have been planted in fall.

Planted now, for the most part cool-season flowers will give only a short season of bloom — especially inland.  The height of their bloom season is April, though in coastal gardens some will last through May. 

Stock, snapdragons, calendulas, and Iceland poppies are not the best choices to plant right  now.  Heat or disease knocks them down fast. 

Pansies, polyanthus primroses, cyclamen, and violas  can be popped into blank spots, but don't fill whole beds.  Polyanthus primroses and small-flowered cyclamen will bloom through June in cool coastal gardens, however, and can be kept alive to bloom another year.  And newer varieties of small-flowered pansies are floriferous and heat tolerant. They may last into August.

If you're filling whole beds, prepare the ground thoroughly and choose mainly warm-season flowers. 

Good choices among annual flowers to plant now from pony paks, for color in sunny spots all summer long, include ageratum, marigolds, cosmos, sweet alyssum, verbena, salvia,  petunias, and nierembergia. 

An incredible amount of perennials can be put in now, including  achillea, agapanthus, perennial alyssum, campanulas, candytuft, carnations, columbine, coreopsis,  coral bells, daylilies, delphiniums, dusty miller, dianthus, marguerites, gaillardia, geum, penstemon,  perennial forget-me-nots, Pride of Madeira, statice, and Shasta daisies. 

Many of these perennials and  annuals make great cut-flowers as well, including cosmos, carnations, columbine, coreopsis, coral bells, daylilies, delphiniums, and Shasta daisies.  In semi-shade put in transplants of begonias, lobelia,  impatiens, coleus, and fuchsias.

Sunflowers are easy and fun to grow. Since they grow very quickly, children enjoy watching them grow and the large seeds are easy for small fingers to handle. And if you buy a good eating variety, when it goes to seed you can teach the kids to roast the sunflower seeds for a healthy snack!

• Plant in full sun, where they will not shade other plants, or plant shade-lovers around them.
• Plant the seeds 1 inch deep and about 6 inches apart.
• When the seedlings come up, thin them to about 18 inches apart.
• Water well after planting and keep fairly moist, but not soggy, until the seeds sprout.

Sunflower seedlings will come up in one or two weeks. They will start out slowly, then speed up their growth rate. Children can be responsible for watering them, weeding around them and adding mulch around the plants.

Harvesting of sunflower heads is quick and easy but you may need a ladder or stepstool. Watch the birds; when they start going after the seed heads, cover the heads with cheesecloth to protect the seeds. The seed heads will be ready to harvest when their backs are brown and dry and no traces of green remain.

Cut off the heads with a foot or two of stalk. Hang them upside down in a dry and airy place. When the seeds are dried, rub them off with your hand and store them in an airtight container. Don't wash them, as this could cause them to mold.

To roast sunflower seeds, place a single layer of raw dehulled kernels in a shallow pan. Roast in a 300 degree F oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until brown and crisp. Stir occasionally. Remove from the oven. One teaspoon of melted margarine may be added if preferred for each cup of seeds, stirring to evenly coat. Place the seeds on absorbent paper. Salt to taste. Store in tightly covered container.

For salted in-the-shell seeds, cover unhulled seeds with salted water in the amount of 2 quarts of water to ¼ to ½ cup salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. Drain and dry on absorbent paper. Seeds can also be soaked overnight instead of boiled. Then proceed as for roasted kernels above.

Brian was born and raised in San Jose and currently is a student at Mission College, where he is studying to become a firefighter like his father and grandfather before him.

Ever the prankster, Brian was once suspended from high school for a week after setting off a stink bomb in his science class and causing the evacuation of the classroom.

Always interested in science, he once broke his hand punching the ground to see how “hard” it really was. Fortunately, the incident didn't cause any permanant injury.

Brian enjoys four-wheeling, sleeping, watching movies, sleeping, hanging out with his friends and . . . sleeping.

My Celebrity Service staff and I look forward to serving you this year. We'll go out of our way to make your day!

Eric Wilder - President