If you are looking for the perfect flower to bridge the gap between winter and summer, consider the primrose. Like a ray of sunshine on a damp and gloomy day, primroses (primula) provide early spring blooms in almost every color of the rainbow.

They prefer cool temperatures, and moist, rich, well-draining soil (with lots of compost). Primroses can tolerate full sun in spring but definitely prefer afternoon shade once temperatures get warmer. They can easily be grown indoors during winter, provided that you maintain cool night temperatures in your home (below 65 degrees), filtered sun and moist soil.

The most popular types of primroses include English primroses (Primula vulgaris/polyanthus), Fairy primroses (Priumula malacoides) and German primroses (Primula obconica). All are heavy bloomers and well suited for garden planting or in containers.

Originally from England, most English primroses now are grown along the Pacific Coast. They produce large clusters of flowers above the foliage, with dwarf varieties just a few inches above the foliage and taller hybrids growing up to one foot above the foliage. They are available in almost every color shade.

German primroses are often called perennial primroses, since they can often come back to re-bloom the following season. They have larger rounded leaves, up to 12 inches high, with taller flower stalks. The flowers come mostly in shades of red, rose and salmon.

Fairy primroses have a more delicate look, with smaller leaves and flower clusters on 6-12" stalks above the foliage. They generally are available in color shades of pink, lavender and white.

So if the winter blues are getting you down, chase them away with some perfect primroses!

The Lenten Rose--Helleborus (also known as Christmas Rose)--is one of the easiest and most rewarding plants to grow. It has the ability to bloom in the colder months of the year when other plants are sleeping, making it the star of any late winter/early spring garden.

This sturdy little evergreen plant originally hails from southern Europe and parts of western Asia. It grows 12-18" high and wide, with shiny, blue-green, leathery leaves and finely-toothed edges. It produces flowers from as early as late fall in warmer regions all the way to late spring in colder climates.

The Lenten Rose gets its name from its flowers that tend to be the most prolific around the period of Lent. Each plant produces many flower stalks that bear a single 2 to 4 inch single or double bloom. Thanks to an increase in hybridizing, the flower colors range from slate grey, near-black, deep purple and plum, through rich red and pinks, to yellow, white and green.

The outer surface of the sepals is often green-tinged, and as the flower ages it usually becomes greener inside and out, with individual flowers often remaining on the plant for a month or more. The inner surface of each sepal may be marked with veins, or dotted or blotched with pink, red or purple. Some even have a "picotee" effect.

Nearly every garden has a spot for hellebores, and the plants will thrive in many different environments. They are excellent for bringing color to garden borders, under deciduous trees, or between other shrubs. They can handle shady locations, but perform best if given morning sun. They are stout little plants and once established, become reasonably drought-tolerant.

Lenten Roses like rich, well-draining soil. Treat them just like any acid-loving plant and amend the soil with peat moss or an acid planting mix such as Gardner & Bloome Acid Planting Mix. Remove any old, tattered foliage each spring after blooming and feed them with an acid fertilizer like Dr. Earth #4 Acid Plant Mix. Then sit back and wait for them to put on another show of color the next year.

The increased popularity of wines and table grapes has led to a surge of interest in growing grapes in the home garden. Not only do they produce great tasting fruit, but they can also provide an excellent alternative to flowering vines on fences, arbors, and gazebos. If you have the room in your garden and lots of sunlight, you can even plant a mini-vineyard.

The most important factor in growing grapes is understanding the difference between table grapes and wine grapes. They are very distinct. Table grapes should be eaten fresh, while wine grapes are small berried and seedy, which don't make for good eating. You can't make wine from most table grapes because most don't get high enough in sugar content and the acids are too low to balance the wine.

It also helps to understand the growing habits and ripening dates of different varieties. This leads to a better understanding of when to harvest them and how to prune them properly for maximum health and fruit production. Many homeowners harvest too early, pulling grapes off the vine when they begin to color.

This is a mistake because coloring, known as veraison, occurs weeks before the grapes are actually ripe. Grapes need to attain a good sugar content and acid balance before they can be harvested. Many people harvest their grapes before they have reached this point and are disappointed in the taste or the wine made from these grapes. It pays to sample your grapes before you harvest them. If they aren't ripe, wait for them to develop.

For wine grapes, consider purchasing a refractometer to determine the sugar content of the berries. Wine grapes usually need a sugar content of around 22-24% sugar (or more) to be harvested and subsequently produce the right alcohol content of the wine. Unlike other fruit, grapes don't improve after harvesting, so don't pick them too early.

The highest maintenance part of growing grapes is the amount of pruning required. Although there is no hard and fast rule about how much to prune, cutting away more of the grapevine leads to stronger and more robust growth during the next season. On the other hand, if you are trying to shade a large arbor, you may wish to allow more growth to remain, but you will have less fruit. Here are some general pruning tips:

• First, keep in mind that the current season's growth produces fruit from last season's wood. If you prune too heavily, the result will be an abundance of foliage--but very little fruit. Pruning too lightly results in large yields of poor quality fruit.
• Basic pruning is simple. The coarser bark of old wood is easily recognizable. Follow the growing tip back to the older wood from the year before. Then come forward, leaving four to five buds, and prune the rest of the branch off. Remove all the weak, thin shoots and leave only the strongest shoots to develop. Flowers from these shoots precede the development of fruit.
• Grapes will grow on the new wood that comes from these pruned shoots. Keep your vine tidy throughout the summer. Prune shoots back to the third or fourth leaf after fruiting. Remove any new growth. Also, remove all leaves around growing fruit clusters to give the fruit maximum sun.

Growing grapes in the backyard or garden can be a rewarding experience if done correctly. We invite you to click here for a descriptions of the grape varieties we carry.

If you are a berry lover, you can't possibly have a garden without dedicating a space to growing delicious homegrown strawberries. Some people even go so far as saying they are the best of all the berries. What is unique about the strawberry (actually a member of the rose family) is that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside.

The delicate and great-tasting heart-shaped berry has always been associated with love, passion, purity, and healing. Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will fall in love with each other.

And speaking of legends and folklore, locals in some parts of Bavaria still practice the annual rite--each spring--of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to the elves. They believe that the elves, who are known to be passionately fond of strawberries (what good taste they have), will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.

Strawberries are also prized for their medicinal purposes and health attributes. Ounce for ounce, strawberries have more Vitamin C than citrus fruit; they have been associated with lowering cholesterol, easing symptoms of gout and digestion problems, and lowering the risk of certain types of cancer.

Strawberries are generally divided into three groups: spring-bearing, ever-bearing, and day-neutral. The fruits of day-neutral plants and ever-bearers are usually smaller than the fruits of the spring-bearers. Spring-bearing strawberries generally produce a crop during a 2-4 week period in the spring. Ever-bearing strawberries produce three periods of flowers and fruit during the spring, summer, and fall--while day-neutral strawberries will produce fruit throughout the growing season.

Strawberries prefer the sun but do tolerate some shade. Their major requirement is good drainage, so they'll benefit from being planted in mounded soil, terraced beds, barrels or other types of containers. They can also be used as an edging plant or a groundcover.

We base the selection of strawberry varieties on their dessert quality, preserving quality, disease resistance and bearing season. We invite you to discover the flavor of sensational homegrown strawberries! Click here to see our list of varieties.

Strawberry Planting and Care Instructions
Be sure to plant strawberry starts with their crown just above the soil level. Use a good soil amendment like Bumper Crop to help them get going well. We recommend spacing plants 12" apart. Remove all flowers the first two months to help with rooting and then remove runners so that the plant can put its energy into producing fruit.

Placing plastic sheeting underneath the foliage will help keep the soil warm and weed-free. It also deters slugs, snails and other crawling insects from feeding on foliage and berries. Water your plants using drip irrigation or by flooding trenches between the mounds or terraces. Keep them happy by feeding them with fish emulsion or Seaweed Extract, which will promote more bud growth and fruit.

Answer:

A fertilizer can be labeled as all-organic when it is completely composed of naturally-occurring ingredients. While people place an organic label on manures--and products such as bone meal, blood meal and "hoof and horn" are considered organic--most blended organic fertilizers do not contain these products. Most organic fertilizers use only plant and fish by-products as a source for their nutrients.

The majority of organic fertilizer blends contain a mixture of alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, kelp meal, feather meal, fish bone meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock phosphate and seaweed extract. Organic plant foods break down faster in meal form than in pelletized form, because pellets have a binding agent that needs to be broken down before the nutrients can become available to the plant roots.

Steve was born in Bakersfield, raised in Los Gatos. In 2nd grade he broke his Catholic school's strict dress code by not wearing a belt, and was promptly banished to playing hopscotch with the girls. When he moved in 3rd grade, the same nun moved to his new school also to keep an eye on him. Ever the one with women, he eventually transformed the ruthless nun into liking him and he became her teacher's pet.

His closest brush with fame was having his picture taken with Willie Mays in Pony League. Not one to shy away from an adventure, Steve and his high school buddies snuck into the high school Ag-science department at night to ride the giant pig and were promptly thrown into the fence.

Steve has been in the nursery and landscape industry for the past 18 years, having previously managed another garden center in San Jose. He has been a part of our family for the past 9 years.

Steve loves to play golf and go fishing and camping. He once got a hole in one while playing golf, which he followed up by landing the "big one" on the banks of the Klamath River. (Neither episode has ever been documented). Steve lives in Redwood City with his best friend Jeanne.

This week's feature recipe is one Jeni acquired through her cooking club. It's fantastic!

What You'll Need:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – pounded thin
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 6 slices bacon, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 dates, pitted and chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Dried thyme to taste

Step by Step:

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dredge chicken in flour to evenly coat. Brown chicken in the skillet for about 2 minutes on each side.

2. Set aside chicken, and heat remaining olive oil in the skillet. Mix in bacon, onions, and garlic and cook until onions are tender and bacon is evenly brown. Mix in dates. Pour in chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes.

3. Return chicken to skillet, season with chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and thyme. Cover, and continue cooking 15 minutes over low heat or until chicken juices run clear.

Tip: This is great served with or over Spanish rice.