The last few winters have us spoiled! We’re so used to having mild winters with very little snow that we don’t know how to react to a normal winter snowfall. It may have helped if we hadn’t been bombarded with two snowstorms in one week! As far as the garden is concerned, though, we should be greatful…we definitely needed the moisture after last summer. Plus, the garden now has a nice, insulating blanket of snow.

While it is far from gardening weather, we are getting geared up for the coming season. It is shaping up to be incredibly busy, at that! The Landscape & Garden Expo is returning to Cedar Rapids Exhibition Center again this year. Last year was the first for the Landscape & Garden Expo and it was like walking into Spring in the dead of winter! Our log cabin and waterwheel were the talk of the show last year. We’ve got another special treat in store for this year!

A wide variety of seminars are scheduled hourly throughout the weekend. Show hours are as follows:

Friday, March 5, 4 pm to 8 pm
Saturday, March 6, 10 am to 8 pm
Sunday, March 7, 10 am to 4 pm

The Cedar Rapids Exhibition Center is located at 4500 Wilson Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, IA.

Next on the schedule is our annual Spring in the Country Open House which will be on Saturday, May 1st. As always, it will be a day of fun and learning. Keep watch for more details within the coming weeks.

This is definitely going to be an exciting year for Iowa hosta collectors. Both the American Hosta Society National Convention as well as the Midwest Regional Hosta Convention will be held in Iowa. If you’re a hosta nut, you should definitely try to make one or both of these events…talk about hosta heaven!!! The American Hosta Society National Convention will be June 16-19 in Des Moines and the Midwest Regional Hosta Convention will be July 8-10 in Dubuque. We plan to be a vendor at both events and would love to see some of you there!

If you haven’t already noticed, our 2004 Hosta Listing is now online, so you can check out the new varieties we’ll be offering this year.

We’ve got some really cool new plants coming this spring. The rock garden/alpine/trough plants continue to be popular, so we’ve increased our selection. We’ll again have a few choice annuals, including the Wave petunias and ornamental sweet potatoes. Perennials are always in demand and we’ve got some exciting, unusual perennials lined up.

Of course, we can’t forget about the water gardeners! Once again, we’ll have the amazing Victoria water lilies as well as a whole host of hardy and tropical lilies and bog plants.