Dahlias 

How many plants give you spectacular flowers from June until the first frost of fall and then come back to do it on an even grander scale next spring?  Ranging from dainty 2 or 3" blooms up to gigantic dinner plate size flowers, these plants bring lots of bright color to your yard for very little care or worry. 

Peonies    

We still have many varieties of planted peonies in large sized pots for lots of beautiful spring flowers.  These plants are easy to grow and require little care yet they reward you with gorgeous bouquets of beautiful and heavenly fragrant flowers for extended periods throughout the spring season.   Come in and check out these beauties.  Our robust vigorous tubers (the herbaceous type) in 12"  pots  retail for $39.99 each - a bargain for all the flowers you will get from these plants!  You can also find the new Itoh peony hybrids for a spectacular large and often fragrant flower.  Several varieties are still available.

   Varieties :                          Princess Margaret (above)

Francois Ortegat

                                                                   Georgiana Shaylor

Karl Rosenfield

Nick Shaylor

                                  Sarah Bernhardt

Herbs and Vegetables -

Herbs - You can find lots of herbs for planting out in the herb garden or even for growing indoors for kitchen harvest use.  In season we carry basil, chives, cilantro/coriander, fennel, mints, parsley, oregano, sage, savory, stevia, thymes, lemon verbena, taragon and even bay.   These are all grown to be used in cooking so you can feel safe in their harvest.

Mint: one of the most useful herbs known to man, the menthol (and carvone in the case of the spearmints) is probably used by all human cultures for a wide variety of purposes.  Some of the more obvious include teas, flavorings (toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.), and ointments, but this time of year many like to enjoy the flavor in cooling beverages.  One of the most popular of late is the Mojito.  These drinks call for spearmint leaves.  Some recommend the use of a particular spearmint: Kentucky Colonel Mint - a hybrid between apple mint and spearmint that was bred specifically for another drink, the Mint Julep!

Vegetables & Herbs for planting Some vegetable plants still available, call for availability

Great eating begins with great ingredients and we have what it takes to help you grow the best of all you can in this wonderfully productive climate. From our home garden as well as our P-Patch, we harvest great tasting lettuces and romaine along with Walla Walla sweet onions.  Last year we picked peas from late April through June and we started getting the real prize: fresh tasty tomatoes in late July.  Some of our tomatoes were planted in early April with the help of the Season Extender aka Wall-of-Water  and those plants were the first to produce ripe fruit.  The 12 tomato plants we had at the P Patch probably produced between 50 to 75 pounds of ripe fruit last year!  This provided us with lots of frozen tomato sauce filling up our freezer to eat till the next harvest.

Grafted Tomatoes To help with tomatoes we added grafted tomatoes to our selection.  These plants should yield better and perform better than the standard tomato plant.  Being grafted onto such a vigorous root stock will give these tomatoes an advantage in defending against pests, diseases, low temperatures, and poor soils while producing earlier, longer and more!

If you wish to start the plants from seeds yourself we have the seeds and all the various paraphernalia to help you grow good strong plants ready to go outside when it's time.  You can also try putting seeds outside for many of the salad greens.  Lettuce seeds will germinate in soil temperatures from 75F all the way down to 40F. The plants will tolerate light frosts and with protection such as a row crop cover can take even colder temperatures. 

Don't forget to Fertilize!

Its been estimated that food crop yields increase by between 40 to 60% by the judicious use of fertilizers!  Some think that "all natural" means preparing a garden using only great compost (like our Gardener and Bloome Bumper Crop - it contains 15% chicken manure, bat guano, worm castings and other good stuff for your vegetable growing needs) alone and then planting organic seeds or organic vegetable starts and then waiting for a great harvest. 

But by using the proper fertilizer at the appropriate time not only helps increase your crop size, gives you greater yield and also helps the plants' ability to fend off insects and disease.  To insure the best harvests apply a mild organic granular fertilizer like Dr. Earth or EB Stone when planting and then add liquid organic fertilizers during the growing season.  We have several very good liquid fertilizers specifically designed for food crops available for you to increase your harvest this season - Dr. Earth liquid concentrate, Mega Green Organic fertilizer concentrate and Alaska Fish Feritlizer. If you have any questions, nearly all of our friendly staff grow their own food crops and can give you great advice when needed.

Seed Potatoes (sold out till next year)

New packs of seed potatoes arrive in March.  We have many varieties, including some or most of the following: fingerlings - Russian Banana, La Ratte, Rose Finn Apple and French Fingerling;  Yukon Gold, Russet Narkoteh, All Blue, Kennebek, and Dark Red Nordland.  These are all raised in eastern Washington - the nations largest potato growing area!  

Garlic Now here for you to plant

All of the below information and photos are taken from the Irish Eyes website (irish-eyes.com) Plant garlic in the fall or in the spring.  Harvest the following summer. Click for more on growing, harvesting and storing Garlic.

Onions  - Walla Wallas available as starts in March

Walla Walla Sweet Onion starts are easy to grow.  Each bundle contains approximately 50 starts ready to get in the ground.  Plant them in March or early April so they can get to a good size before their growth period ends in late June.  We will also have other onion and scallion starts and will be stocking various starts through the spring and early summer.

Tomatoes - next year!

Seeds for starting tomatoes are available now so you can get set up for winter planting to get a jump on things.  The first tomato starts will be arriving for planting sometime in early April(?).

We stocked many varieties of tomatoes last year.  All of our tomatoes are grown in organic soil without the use of chemicals, pesticides or chemically-derived fertilizers.  We strive to provide you with the best quality plants to insure your growing success. 

Although it was very cool last spring, if you had used protection - such as Walls-of-Water or cloches your tomato plants would have yielded much better than your neighbors who didn't use any.   You can find all the supplies needed for early starts, including grow-lights and heat mats at Magnolia Garden Center.  We can help you get set-up and started if you need.

We  carry many varieties that grow well in Western Washington.  The following is a list of those varieties we carried in 2011.  Depending on grower availability we expect to carry many of the following varieties as well as a few additional varieties:

Hybrid Tomato - Momotaro                 (territorial seed photo)

Deep pink, firm 6oz. fruit are sweet with a delightful refined flavor.  Winner of several tasting contests in the Pacific Northwest.  Market growers like this tomato, noted for crack resistance, holding quality and heat tolerance.  65 days.  Indeterminate.

The Best Cherry Tomatoes!!!

In cool weather years like 2010 and 2011, cherry tomatoes may be the best and most consistent producers.  The following two varieties get our votes as the best cherry tomatoes for both taste and productivity.  The Sun Sugar is slightly more split resistant which means it also has a bit thicker skin.  Taste for both is fantastic and either should be in any tomato lover's garden.

    Hybrid Tomato-Sun Sugar

Orange-red cherry tomatoes with golden cheeks.  Fine flavored, tender fruits are high in natural sugars and crack resistant.  Vigorous vines need staking or other support.  This variety is getting new attention after ranking highly in a Sunset Magazine taste test.  Also won several Seattle area taste-offs.  62 days.  Indeterminate.                                             (Burpee seed photo)

   Hybrid Tomato – Sun Gold                       

Delectable fruity, tropical flavor is always popular.  Hard to keep from eating them all right off the vine.  Some of our customers tell us that their Sun Golds never even make it to the kitchen since they are so good right off the vine.  Bright apricot colored cherry tomatoes.  Great in salads or fresh.  65 days.  Indeterminate.

Hybrid Tomato - Oregon Spring (territorial seed photo - available as organically grown seed)

Northwest origin.  Oregon Spring is a compact plant with early tomatoes which are fleshy, frequently seedless and exceptionally fine flavored.  Enjoy their full-flavored succulence in July, when others of this size and quality are not available.  This exciting tomato is a cross between Russian Severianin and Starshot that is earlier than either parent.  60 days.  Determinate.

 Heirloom Tomato – Stupice   

Czechoslovakian heirloom has earned a devoted following in the Pacific Northwest.  Early, prolific variety with exceptional flavor.  Glossy red 2 – 3” fruit grow on compact 2 to 4 foot vines.  Potato-like foliage.  Even though vines are small, we recommend a trellis or other support for best production.  65 days.  Indeterminate.

Black Prince

Produces large quantities of rich, dark green to black fruit.  Last year we were picking these well into October and we able to bring some in that we used as late as December.  Very tasty.  Indeterminate.

Sweet Million

Probably the most popular of the cherry tomato plants.  Produces large quantities of sweet 1" tomatoes all season.  Starts early and goes late.  Indeterminate.

Other varieties available:

Black From Tula

Russian heirloom.  Large (3 to 4") black tomato, very dark color. Great rich flavor.  75 days Indeterminate

Celebrity

Champion II

Beefsteak

Brandywine

One of the oldest heirloom varieties, also considered one of the best  tasting varieties.  Regular winner of tomato taste-offs.  Pink color, potato leaf type producing 12 oz to 2lb. fruits.  80 days, Indeterminate.

Dr. Wyche's Yellow

The only yellow you'll need to grow!  Produces large (4 to 5") fruit with great taste.  Lower in acid but very flavorful and meaty with relatively few seeds.  Even in the cold summer of 2011, planted in early May, this plant produced 15 to 20 large beautifully colored and tasty tomatoes and was still producing in early October. 

Early Girl

Glacier

Goliath

Matt's Wild Cherry

Mortgage Lifter

Moskovich

A very early variety also doesn't mind colder springs.  Produces mid sized red tasty red fruit on a somewhat smaller shrub.  60 days. Plant this one now!

Oregon Cherry

Persimmon

Purple Cherokee

Striped German

A wonderfully flavored large multi colored fruit.  These can reach 2 or more pounds!  Slightly longer season, so plant in a warmer site.  I have had great luck with this type even in the past couple of cool summers.  I make sure to get it in the ground in April (with cold protection) so it has enough time to ripen.  The reward is some of the sweetest tasting tomatoes you can imagine. Indeterminate

Sweet Olive

Yellow Brandywine

A yellow version of the popular heirloom Brandywine.

Yellow Pear

Peppers - Many Hot and Sweet - next year!

Both sweet and hot peppers, including Pablano, Jalepeno, Habenera, Thai Hot, Banana, Bell, wax and more.

Tomatillos & Cucumbers-  next year!

Also Eggplants, green beans, broccoli, arugula, kale, beets, and more

Home Grown Mojitos

Summer is the time to harvest some of that mint you are growing in the herb garden and make some great tasting Mojitos.  In case you haven't got any mint going yet we've got lots of it ready to plant.  And in case you don't know how to make mojitos here are a few recipes to get you started: 1.) Traditional Mojito 2.) The Best Ever (traditional version)  3.) The Best Ever (with some added twists)  4.) Dos and Don'ts

Free Burlap for P-Patch Users

All out for the season, Sorry!

Magnolia Garden Center currently has burlap bags previously used for coffee or chocolate beans.  These make a good mulch for the winter garden that is lying fallow.  If you could use some in your P-Patch please come by with your P-Patch card and we'll see that you get some burlap!