Tips & Hints

Bos Greenhouse and Farm is pleased to bring you seasonal tips for your gardening pleasure.

If you have a specific question for Dr. Bos, please email ASK DR. BOS. We will make every effort to answer your question in an upcoming post.

Or drop by, and our friendly staff will help you directly.

I want to plant a Butterfly Garden but don’t know which plants I’ll need.

April 26th, 2013 by Bos Greenhouse

A Butterfly Garden is a beautiful addition to any home and a great pastime for families. But before you begin, you must understand that you cannot use any pesticides on the plants in your butterfly garden, as they are fatal to all stages of butterly development. You also need enough plants to serve as hosts and for nectar to support the butterfly life cycle.

Here are some candidates:

Host plants: Butterfly weed; Daisy; Dill; Holyhock; Lilac; Milkweed; Mallow; Nettle; Snapdragon; Thistle
Nectar plants: Ageratum; Bee Balm; Butterfly bush; Coreopsis; Daylily; Heliotrope; Lilac; Nasturtium; Petunia; Phlox; Salvia; Sedum; Snapdragon; Spirea; Viburnum


Your containers always look great. What is your secret?

April 26th, 2013 by Bos Greenhouse

The secret of great containers is partly the quality of planting, the compatibility of the plants, and giving them custom care. We’ll help you get container gardening down to a science at our Spring Container Planting Workshops. You can custom create the look you want for a summer haven populated by great containers and window boxes. Read the rest of this entry »


I confess that sometimes I pick up a few bedding plants at the supermarket tent. Even if they look great, I get them home and they die. How do I tell a good bedding plant from a bad?

April 26th, 2013 by Bos Greenhouse

We don’t like to see a plant or a few dollars wasted, wherever it came from.

One of the reasons you can trust Bos for quality plantings is because we understand the importance of consistent and accurate watering. Often, particularly for the kind of temporary nurseries that you see suddenly spring up each year, the plants are bought wholesale and transported for hours unwatered. They’re not actually grown by the operator. Then they sit on hot asphalt, wilting, and a vicious cycle sets in. The plant that has been resurrected a few times from stressful transport or inattentive staff becomes weakened and more vulnerable to disease and pests. It might look good at the moment, but it will not perform as well. So never, ever buy a wilted plant. Better yet, buy all your plants at Bos, where your satisfaction is guaranteed! Trusting your grower is paramount. Read the rest of this entry »


Are there things I should do before buying bedding plants once you open in April?

April 26th, 2013 by Bos Greenhouse

You bet. Great gardening is 99 percent preparation, one percent inspiration!
At Bos, late winter and early spring is like getting ready for Opening Night on Broadway. We’re staging and rotating, preparing soil and checking the PH, starting seeds and otherwise coaxing our seedlings into starlets to dazzle your garden in spring, summer and fall. Read the rest of this entry »


 
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