Blueberry cuttings should be taken in late February/early March, and they are immediately packed in damp peat moss, put into plastic bags, and then they go into a standard refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks. When they come out of refrigeration, they will be showing sign of budding, but they will not be leafed out. They will not have roots. These cuttings can then be dipped in rooting solution, and placed in pots filled with peat moss or similar growing medium. They should be kept in indirect light, and watered, until they develop roots, at which time they can be potted up and allowed to develop until they are ready for transplant into the ground. Too much light will cause the cuttings to develop leaves and this will result in metabolic demand on the roots, beyond what the roots can supply, leading to failure. This is also true of transplants. When possible, transplants should be set out it damp overcast weather, light rain is OK. It takes two or three days for the roots to begin working well. If the weather is sunny and windy, the roots must immediately begin to supply moisture to the plant, and they will not be able to do this. The likely outcome in this case is excessive wilting, and/or brown leaves.

I just watched your slide show. Wow, that was wonderful. What a lift. I really loved the fern areas. I'm not usually much interested in bonsai but it's quite amazing how old those tiny trees are. What are the thorn looking things on that one tree? How weird. You are great at doing these slide shows. I'm going to go back in a bit and see what else I can look at on your site. Thanks for doing this, Myrle

I live in Lakeville/Farmington and other than that sale, there are no "specialty" nurseries down here. There's a few general nurseries like Bachmans, Pahl's and Terra Greenhouse.

Nancy, Well, the club you join will depend on your interests. Some garden clubs are very plant-specific while other garden clubs are not. Yes, you should join a garden club because you will meet people with the same plant-passion that lives inside you. My friends think I'm nuts because of my passion for plants, and my friends don't understand my passion, but the people in the garden clubs DO understand and it's nice to be able to talk plants with someone and not have them look at me like I'm from another planet. (:o) You will also have access to plants unavailable to someone who is not in a garden club. There is quite a bit of plant trading that goes on in garden clubs and sometimes some of the plants that are available are quite rare or unusual. I believe that the Minnesota state horticulture society has a listing of all of the garden clubs in the state with their respective contact people. I think you will be surprised at the number of garden clubs that exist in MN. The MN Landscape Arboretum has a day during the spring (March or April) where they invite garden clubs to pass out literature (and sell plants) to let the public know that these garden clubs exist. You might want to contact the arboretum to find out what date this event will take place during 2006. Good luck, Mike