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.

Country Melody: Deciduous, 30" high, with 51/2" blooms. Fragrant pink flowers with soft green throat, soft yellow halo, pale pink midribs and ruffled yellow edge.

New Falling Stars: Deciduous, 38" high, with 6" blooms. Soft cream petals with pale pink highlights and a soft gold throat and thin ruffled edges. Repeat bloomer.

Arbor Day was the idea of one Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician. Morton thought Nebraska's landscape and economy would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees. He set an example himself by planting orchards, shade trees and wind breaks on his own farm, and he urged his neighbors to follow suit. When he became a member of Nebraska's State Board of Agriculture, he proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees.

Arbor Day was officially proclaimed by Gov. Robert W. Furnas of Nebraska on March 12, 1874, and the day was observed April 10, 1874. Nebraska's first Arbor Day was an amazing success. It was estimated that more than one million trees were planted. In 1885, Arbor Day was named a legal holiday in Nebraska and April 22, Morton's birthday, was selected as the date for its permanent observance. Morton first worked to improve agriculture in Nebraska. He then did the same for the whole United States when he served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. But his most important legacy is Arbor Day.

In the years following that first Arbor Day, Morton's idea spread beyond Nebraska to other states. Today all 50 states celebrate state Arbor Days with dates that vary in keeping with the local climate — from Hawaii's first Friday in November to Alaska's third Monday in May. The National Arbor Day of the last Friday in April was chosen because many of the states celebrate theirs on that date.

Arbor Day is also now celebrated in many other countries, although they have different names and often weeks instead of days. For instance, it is called 'Greening Week' in Japan and 'The Tree-loving Week' in Korea. Planting a tree is a good idea anywhere in the world!

For the homeowner, National Arbor Day is a great day to look over the trees on the property and plan for the future. Check your trees for damage, disease and pests. Think about planting a new tree as a windbreak, for shade, or just for looks. If you are a parent, National Arbor Day is a great opportunity to share some family activity, by choosing a tree and planting it with your child (or children). If you have no space to plant a tree, consider a small, slow-growing tree in a pot — or give a tree as a gift to someone who needs some trees on their property.

All the recent rain we've had lately related to the El Niño effect has left a lot of our customers with lawn fungus problems.

The most prevalent problem is stem rust. The symptoms of rust are a lawn that turns light green to orange-yellow and begins to thin out. An orange powder coats the grass blades and will rub off on your hands. This disease, powdery mildew (white powder on blades) and brown patch (another fungus that causes circular brown patches in your lawn), are best treated with a fungicide.

Bayer Advanced Lawn Fungus Control for Lawns is a granular systemic fungicide that can be applied with a spreader. No mixing is required. Simply apply and water in. It is the best and easiest way to treat your lawn for fungus and disease, along with a regular lawn feeding program.

Bayer Advanced cures and prevents damaging diseases from invading your yard. The rainproof formula provides up to 2 months protection against the most common lawn diseases. For a healthier lawn, come in to Almaden valley Nursery and pick up a bag today. Controlling lawn diseases has never been easier.

If you grow vegetables year-round in an established garden you'll need to make space for summer crops. When you plant winter vegetables in fall you can usually pull up just about everything and start out fresh. But in spring when you plant summer vegetables it's not quite that easy, because the seasons for many crops overlap.

It's often necessary to plant among some winter vegetables that are still going strong and to pull out others — even if they aren't quite finished — in order to make enough room for summer vegetables.

The smaller the space, the more important it is to schedule your fall planting so that most cole crops — such as cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower — are finished by the time you are planting. If they're still going strong, plant them earlier next year. Peas are often getting ratty looking and mildewy by summer planting time, so pull them out and replace them with tomatoes and corn.

Onions and garlic stay in the ground to mature as the days lengthen. Be sure to weed your onions often; their small root systems can't compete with the roots of weeds. Replace parsley now or next month. A good place for it is east of a row of trellised cucumbers, where it will get some shade on hot afternoons.

By cleaning out most winter crops, and cultivating and amending the soil before summer planting, you help prevent a carryover of pests and diseases.

Have you ever sprayed your garden for insects, weeds or disease, only to find the problem hasn't gone away? More likely than not, the chemical you sprayed beaded up and rolled down the branches or leaves and dripped off, only killing part of the problem.

At Almaden Valley Nursery we add Spray-Grip to every application of spray we make. It is an adjuvant that you mix with your garden sprays to increase the activity and effectiveness of your sprays. It helps spread the chemical more evenly over the foliage and makes it stick better to the foliage of the plant.

A prime example of how good Spray-Grip works is on weeds. The weeds in your garden reflect eons of evolutionary change.

They have developed their own defensive systems and will not simply "throw up their hands in surrender" just because you spray them with a weed control.

Among these defenses used by weeds are pubescent hairs and small stomata (pores), which prevent the absorption of the weed killer. When hit with moisture from the spray, the small hairs curl over the spores and protect them from the spray. Spray-Grip helps defeat these defenses by making the hair stand on end, and expands the pores, allowing the weed spray to penetrate the leaf surface.

Here at the nursery, we can't imagine spraying anything without using Spray-Grip. It cuts our re-application rate down due to the increased effectiveness, and we use it with insect sprays and with disease control sprays. So get a grip on your garden problems today; it's the product you need to help you succeed.

Matt was born and raised in San Jose. After graduating from high school, Matt left San Jose to attend Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, where he received a degree in Ornamental Horticulture. Matt first worked as a foreman with a landscape maintenance company at the Stanford Research Institute and then at another retail nursery before joining us in 1993.

He is very active in the industry and has served as president of the our local chapter of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers. Matt also gives educational garden talks to various garden clubs in the area.

Matt once was an extra on the TV show "America's Most Wanted." His closest brush with fame was watching the 2003 Super Bowl in Las Vegas with William "The Refrigerator" Perry of the Chicago Bears.

Matt has an extensive wine collection as well as rock 'n roll art memorabilia. In his spare time he likes to go wine tasting with his wife Jenny and big game fishing with his friends in Mexico.

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