Spring Shipping Starts April 1 (And Now is a Great Time to Order)

        Here in Michigan, we're still shoveling snow, and it's usually April before our night-time lows climb above freezing. So to protect your tender bulbs from getting frost-damaged in transit, we don't start shipping till April 1.
        Forgot to order? It's not too late to add some heirloom excitement to your summer with our fragrant tuberoses, fabulous dahlias, unusual glads, pastel cannas, tiny rain lilies, purple elephant ears, and garden-hardy St. Joseph's amaryllis.

Can't Decide? Try Our Easy "Intro to Heirlooms" and Other Samplers!

        If you're busy, new to bulbs, or have a "want list" that's way too long, our easy spring-planted bulb samplers can help simplify your life. With one click you can choose our ever-popular "Intro to Heirlooms" sampler or our dahlia, glad, or canna samplers, and in a flash you'll be on your way to a summer full of fun and beauty. Samplers make great gifts, too -- and did we mention they're EASY?

Link of the Month: America's Liveliest Old Cemetery

        Cemeteries don't often show up on lists of favorite vacation spots, but if more cemeteries were like the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, that could change. I spent last weekend there -- speaking at a sold-out garden symposium -- and loved it!
        Laid out in 1806, the cemetery has been revived as a multi-faceted community resource by an eager and ever-growing group of volunteers. There are guided tours year-round on everything from historic daffodils to "Lynchburg's Early Bawdy Ladies." There's a chapel that's popular for weddings as well as funerals, and four small, reconstructed buildings that house archives and museum displays. Larger-scale artifacts rescued from local sites ornament the grounds, including antique fencing, marble columns, and a huge iron pitcher that once poured water into the Lynchburg reservoir. Perhaps more surprising, there are bee-hives (with honey sold as "Died and Gone to Heaven"), goats (helping to clear invasive plants from a steep ravine), a composting education center, and an award-winning cookbook. To learn more and get inspired, visit gravegarden.org .

"Little Pots on the Front Porch" -- Rain Lilies in the Early 1900s

        The revered Elizabeth Lawrence in her classic A Southern Garden of 1942 writes with enthusiasm about pink rain lily, Zephyranthes grandiflora:
        "It is one of the hardiest species and is said to winter safely in Philadelphia. As a child I thought of the little rose-colored lilies as the sign and seal of summer. My grandmother in Georgia grew them in her garden, and my grandmother in West Virginia grew them in little pots on the front porch.
        "Those in my garden [in Raleigh] came from Georgia. They have been with me so long and have increased so much that their bloom makes a sea of pink. The season is in June, but there is scattered bloom in the late summer and even to the end of September. The flowers are large, to over three inches long, on ten-inch stems. They open out flat at midday and close in the afternoon; this is a characteristic of the genus. The shimmering leaves are grass green."

Historic Plant Labels: What Did George Do?

        Before the days of aluminum, plastic, and Dymo, how did gardeners label their plants? Here are two 18th-century methods reported to us by our good friend Wesley Greene of Colonial Williamsburg:
        "I have come across an interesting reference to plant labels in instructions from George Washington to William Pierce, his manager at Mount Vernon, written on Feb. 26, 1794. These instructions were meant to be relayed to the gardener.
        "'Let him number the papers which contain these seeds, and drive stakes with corrisponding [sic] numbers by each kind, when sown, that he may be at no loss to know them: Putting the papers as is usual, in a split stick by them, is apt to be lost; or so defaced by the weather as to become, after a while, unintelligible; and then the name will be forgotten. By the method I have proposed this cannot happen. On the papers too may be noted the places where they are sown.'"
        "In a second letter, written on May 18, 1794, he gives this advice concerning seeds recently received from Europe: 'He should set boards by them, with inscriptions thereon, similar to those which are written on the papers, containing the respective seeds.'"

When Perennials Aren't Enough: A Husband's New Love

        Can the right flower strengthen your marriage? Maybe! Our good customer Audrey Kilgore of Akron, Ohio, writes: "My husband is new to the 'Dahlia Affair' -- for what else can you call loving dahlias? He said none of our perennials lasted long enough and he wanted something tall that bloomed all summer into fall, so I thought about it. The only plant I knew that was easy to grow and filled this need was dahlias. I planted two tall ones this past summer. They were beautiful, and he counted the many butterflies and bees that visited them. He is hooked!"

Crocus for Kids (And a Tub of Boiling Oil)

        If you've ever found your front-yard flowers ravaged by persons unknown, this bit by Henry Mitchell, one of America's wisest and funniest garden writers, may help:
        "Though I have only a tiny yard, I have given a place of honor to the grand Dutch crocuses, not only because I love them myself, but because I know few flowers are so attractive to children. I do not expect to see many flowers; I expect the children to pick them. For this reason I have planted them conveniently near the sidewalk.
        "When children pick flowers, I do not like the word 'steal,' and the quickest possible route to hell, it has been said, is to growl at a child for picking crocuses. The child should be gently taught the curious customs of our society, that he should not pick flowers without permission, but it is also intolerable to think of a child's excitement over these wonderful sweet gaudy flowers all ruined by harsh reproaches. Now of course if the child gets into Lilium langkongense or the irises, well, that is something else again, and a tub of boiling oil is recommended."
        (If you move fast, you can still order crocus and all of our bulbs for fall planting at LAST fall's prices. Such a deal!)

Did You Miss Our Last Newsletter? Read It Online!

        February's articles included historic sewers, 'Bloodstone' for gladiators, our dahlia archives, stinky Narcissus, web-only rarities, and more. You can read all 71 of our back-issues -- by date or by topic -- at oldhousegardens.com/NewsletterArchives.asp .

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