Dayton Nursery News – Spring 2005
Released January 2005
Major changes have taken place at the nursery that will be ready to greet customers this spring.
The one change everyone will notice most is the addition of a gigantic new greenhouse that is over 23,000 ft² that will be used for nothing more than frost control in spring on certain trees and shrubs and for creating a light shade for the plants during those hot dog days of summer. (continued below…)
Since Daytons grows a lot of Azalea and Rhododendron, these plants need frost protection in May when some varieties begin to bloom as the flowers would be destroyed by frost since the vast open acreage of the nursery is prone to severe spring frosts.
In addition to frost damage on these flowers, many plants coming out of the winter storage houses are about a week or two “ahead” in growth with the new growth being susceptible to frost damage. The plants are not permanently damaged, but are not really marketable until they grow again.
To accomplish frost control, the greenhouse has 12 foot roll up sides all around the perimeter and a retractable roof that can be closed at night to keep out frost on a cold, clear still night in late April and May.
Conversely in the daytime, the roof may be completely opened and the sides rolled up to give the plants maximum ventilation and sunlight as they would have in your yard. With maximum ventilation, the plants wont be “babied” so that they’ll have a rough time in your landscape.
For shade in the hot summer, the sides may be rolled up and the material on the roof may be closed as much as up to 85% to ensure ventilation and at the same time giving the plants 30% shade.
It has been proven by experiment at some leading universities that this 30% shade will lower the temperature in the pot in a container-grown plant by as much as 20BF with the result of the plants growing and looking better when they are above ground in containers. The hot sun of our Ohio summers continually beats down on the plant container and raises the root temperature of the plants which results in the death of some of the plant roots or slower root growth.
Other environmental benefits of this house include its very low energy use since it is not heated and passive ventilation makes energy “hungry” exhaust fans unnecessary.
Another environmental benefit is that 80% of the runoff water from rain and irrigation of plants will be sent by gravity to the nursery’s one acre irrigation lake for storage for later use as needed instead of sending additional heavy runoff to creeks and streams which would contribute to stream bank erosion and flooding.
The 20% of the runoff water is captured in a lower pond because of elevation demands of the site and will be pumped up for the one acre lake for later use. The result of the gravity flow and the pumping of this water results in 100% of the runoff water being recycled!
The water is captured for reuse in this new house through an extensive system of drainage pipes and down spout drains in which an added benefit will be to ensure sales areas are not waterlogged and pathways are not slippery because of algae growth on sidewalks with standing water.
This greenhouse, with all of the above mentioned benefits, the fact that more plants may be viewed at once under one roof and the added benefit that the roof could be closed during heavy rains, we hope that greatly improved plant quality and customer comfort will lead to a better shopping experience in conjunction with our goal to make the nursery even more environmentally friendly.
Another improvement will be the addition of more detailed signs to our already existing picture signs. The detail on these signs encompasses many of the questions you have been asking all along about specific plant traits that our picture signs with their limited information never covered. Some of the topics covered are ones such as soil types, moisture requirements, problems to watch for, use in the landscape, peat moss use, trimming and so on.
We should have at least 300 different tree and shrub detail signs for the 2005 season with plans to expand it greatly for the 2006 season.
New walkways have been added that are much wider than before and covering more areas to make pulling a wagon, pushing a baby stroller and passing by other customers much easier. Unfortunately not all of the walkways have been improved this year. However, we’ve made a good start at it and hope to make all our existing walkways more customer friendly for the 2006 spring season.
In our greenhouse growing areas, we have added 4,000 additional square feet of growing area, improved and added more passive ventilation (roll up sides) and have refined a boiler system to get heat to where the plants are growing instead of heating the above air more which will result in better quality control with substantial savings on natural gas.
On the grounds, we planted an additional 5,000 daffodils and narcissus to an already thriving 20,000 that we have planted over the last several years. In addition, about 1,000 tulips were planted of various colors as well as Hyacinths, Crocus, Grape Hyacinths and Allium giganteum in a bed on a steep slope behind the old farm house near the entrance. Stopping by in mid April to early May will be like taking a trip to Holland!
With all these new improvements to the facilities is not all that’s going on at Daytons. New processes for growing, holding and marketing of plants will improve plant quality and new ideas from Dayton Nursery employees will result in better customer service.
Check out our plant encyclopedia on the web for more new plants at the nursery this year and come in and check out our new hard goods selection especially those that are environmentally friendly.
Perennials are ready about the last week of April, roses about the first week of May and trees and shrubs are usually displayed in early to mid April. Although we have many in stock now as we grow and store a wide variety of plants. The nursery will open for spring about March 1st.
Many people practice the old adages of “if it ain’t broke, don’t’ fix it” and “I’ll believe it when I see it”. At Daytons, we practice the opposite:
1. If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway
2. I’ll see it when I believe it!
Come on and check us out this spring for all the new and exciting things going on at the nursery. Hope to see you all soon!
Sincerely,
Tom Dayton