Back in 2016, I was breeding a large number of new Colocasia hybrids, and some truly interesting plants began to emerge. From those seedlings, we selected a few with standout traits—Pharaoh’s Mask, Pharaoh’s Mask Red, and Redemption. Most of our selections are chosen to be nice, medium-sized Colocasia, typically reaching around 4 to 5 feet […]
Construction on Greenhouse 3 at the farm is in full swing! This week we were able to dig trenches for water drainage, level the side boards, and square up the frame. These first steps always seem to take forever, but they’re some of the most important to ensure everything fits together correctly. Tomorrow I’ll be […]
A new routine is forming at the Brian’s Botanicals house. It’s always been a moving target, but especially now with Phoenix in the mix. This week we have family in town who got to meet the little dude for the first time—I think he was a big hit with the cousins. The good home cooking […]
This is the time of year when Brian and I divide and conquer. He spends most of his time at the nursery, taking care of all the customers and managing the six greenhouses there. I, on the other hand, spend my time at the farm reorganizing the greenhouses here! Things have been pretty hectic around […]
Most people wouldn’t believe it, but we’re already deep into planning for next season. This is the time of year when our evenings are filled with searching for exciting new plants to add to next year’s offerings. I have to admit—we love this part of the process and look forward to it every year. The […]
Alocasia Kuching Mask! Alocasia Kuching Mask The plant that started all of this was Cyrtosperma johnstonii. Brian fell in love with this massive aquatic plant. He always describes it as alien—and it certainly lives up to that description with its massive, colorful leaves that stand upright and are deeply ridged. Brian says it looks like […]
It’s been a busy but exciting week over here! We’ve been working hard to get out this week’s orders — plus catching up on last week’s shipments that were delayed due to the heat. On top of that, we’re celebrating our third wedding anniversary, Axel’s birthday, and the 4th of July all in one go! […]
This year, I’ve been focusing more on trees since we bought the farm. Now that we have more land and no shaded areas, adding trees will help create much-needed shade. Once we have more coverage, I plan to start incorporating shade-loving perennials. Most of the trees I’m focusing on are either prehistoric, ancient species or […]
The short and long of it is that it’s been hot all week!That means watering the greenhouses has been our number one task all day, every day. It might not sound like much, but with eight greenhouses, most of them over 100 feet long, it takes a good hour to get just one completely watered. Needless to say, we’re […]
Yesterday, we made a mad dash home after work because we were under a tornado warning. The storm was expected to hit between 6 and 10 p.m. The forecast was calling for 70 mph winds, hail, and up to three inches of rain. It was important for us to get everything secured at the nursery […]
Inevitably, this time of year we start a massive clean-up of all the plant displays and greenhouses. No matter how much you clean throughout the spring, there are always messes in the greenhouses that get overlooked. Each year, we pick a greenhouse and clean it out completely, which is a feat in itself. This gives us a chance to look at the greenhouse with fresh eyes and to fix any problems. This year, we have one side of our “twin” greenhouse already down to the bare table. Now we will be able to clean under and behind everything!
Many people don’t know, but I have a collection of variegated agaves at the farm. I used to keep them in my greenhouse at the nursery, where I ship the boxes. This year, Brian built tiered tables to display them in our greenhouse at home. I love having them all looking their best in the […]
Cultivate is a trade show in Columbus OH that we go to every couple of years to see what is new in the plant world and to catch up with friends. This year my main focus was to find new aquatics and trees. What I found was some agapagthus that are hardy to our zone. They have a wide grass like leaf with blue flowers in the summer. Blue is such a rare color in the garden so I couldn’t resist them.
Cultivate was this week. Brian and I make the pilgrimage to Columbus, Ohio, every couple of years to find supplies and see old friends. It is always hard for us to leave the nursery since it is like our baby. It never fails that as soon as we leave, something stops working. This trip, the watering system went down, the A/C quit, and Axel got sick. We were able to limp the water along while we were gone, but as soon as we got home, we grabbed what we needed to fix the water and headed back to the nursery.
July is when our plants really start to shine. The heat and the cool summer rains cause them to start putting out larger leaves quickly! I took a walk around the nursery on Saturday, which is my custom, to see how all the plants were doing. It was a beautiful day and so were the […]
The end of June and the beginning of July are a special time for us here at Brian’s Botanicals! Brian’s birthday, Axel’s birthday, and our anniversary fall within two weeks of each other. With all this celebrating, we thought we would have some fun by putting some of Brian’s hybrids on sale! These hybrids have […]
This week has been spent working on our hybrid fields at the farm. We added a new irrigation system to keep the plants happy in the 90-degree temperatures. This is our first time using drip tape, and it is amazing! Our rows are 200 feet long, and the drip tape is able to build up […]
Summer time has come to Kentucky with hot days and cool nights! This is such an awesome time of year to watch all the plants thrive. Everything in our garden has started to bloom, each day there is something new to see. Brian and I have gotten into the habit of taking an evening ride […]
Flat Lick Falls We’ve been putting in quite a few hours this year and decided to take a small break for a day. Most people would relax and laid around, but not us. We jumped in the car and drove three hours south to Flat Lick Falls, part of Daniel Boone National Forest. Over the […]
Brian and I have been spending our evenings planting in our gardens. After working all day in the greenhouse you would think that we would head for the AC at the end of the day but nope we head for our garden. We have a large bed at the front entrance of the farm that […]
