Posted 1/12/2022 Plant Police

This photo is from 2008 and shows us with the plant police.  We are required by patent law to place tags in all pots with flowers that have been patented.  In 2008 the plant police showed up and the smile on my face shows no violations as I hold the tags in my hand.  There really is no point to this photo.  I can tell you my knees worked better in 2008!

April 24th, 2021

Opening 2021

We are open and ready for season 2021.  We will use this weather blog to update all our customers on current hours.  Since we are open air, we will alter our hours due to very cold temperatures or pouring rain.  If we see freezing, close to freezing, or subfreezing temps during the night we will cover all product.  When we do this it forces us to wait until temperatures rise the next morning so we may need to open later than 9 am.  At times, we see torrential rains and we will close if this occurs.  It is usually only a very temporary closing.  Once the rain stops we immediately open again.  Light rain, we're always open.  I'm talking pouring rain.  My dad always said, "Like a cow pissing on a flat rock".  That's the rain I'm talking about.

Thank you for your support. 

May 21st, 4:30 pm

We have had torrential rains in Shelton and have closed for the balance of today.  We will open tomorrow at 9:00 am.  If you are traveling through town today and want to pick something up you can give us a call and we will meet you at the nursery.  Our number is found on our contact us link.

Thank You
Clark and Kelli

Prepping for winter.

Prepping for winter takes a lot of planning.  We've ordered new rolls of plastic covering for our greenhouses.  We use only Warp's Plastic and have for 30 years.  We did try a different variety one year and it literally sucked.  Warp's plastic is tough as nails.  If you get a hole in it you can pull pretty damn hard before it expands.  When you cover thousands of dollars of plants with a double layer of plastic - you want the very best plastic.  We really need to stay ahead of our plastic needs because a 200 foot roll length is a special order and it takes them several weeks to make it and a week longer to get it.  We try to keep five rolls on hand at all times.

We attended our buying show in Denver with GardenWise distributors in September.  We did buy a lot of garden and yard décor.  A big expense and hoping it will sell well.  Our plastic pots, inserts, and trays will arrive the first week of January.  Our soil arrived last month and we have much of it stored inside to keep it from freezing.

Our first shipment of plants will arrive the second week of January and I haven't even started to clean and prep the buildings for their arrival.  There is lots to do.  We do have one small building running as we have our cordyline growing so it's large enough to use the middle of February.  Our perennial building is full.  Daytime temps of about 45 to 50 degrees and nighttime temps of 35 to 40 degrees.  This allows us to overwinter a perennial with good success.  We'll clear this greenhouse out the middle of March and fill it with bump up pots.

We have just had our first major snow storm of the season.  Nine inches of snow and 35 mph winds have created some nice drifts and required about 3 hours on the tractor to clear a path to work.  I'm hoping winter it kind as last spring was a tough one.  We are due for a season with less grief and stress!

March 24, 2019

2019 has been a tough spring.  We had one greenhouse that was a victim of the flooding in March.  This greenhouse was built seven years ago and we did some work with a transit and grading to assure the water would run away from the building during a typical rain.  What we had in March wasn't rain and definitely wasn't typical.  We have a four acre alfalfa field to the south of this greenhouse and when the snow melted and the rain came there was simply no place for it to go.  As the ground was frozen and could not penetrate the alfalfa field, it started heading north and one bay of this building was in the way.  We had approximately 1000 bump up pots that sat in water for a very short time.  We hung them as fast as we could in every place we could possible hang a pot.  When the water drained, I placed a call to my Ball Horticulture rep and asked him to find the best horticulturalist he knew and ask what the best systemic fungicide was to use in this situation.  We ordered it and applied as quickly as we could.  We had little to no damage from the flooding.  I believe we were lucky the flooding happened when it did.  Mature plants can take more abuse than young plants.  I believe if this flood would have occurred two weeks earlier we would have lost plants.  Interestingly enough, we learned that succulents love flood water.  A few days after the flooding, we had some succulent bowls that absolutely looked spectacular.  I checked this building at 5:00 am and there was no water in it.  At 8:00 am the building was flooded.  It was amazing how fast things can change.

Sunday April 29th, 2018

The wind will blow today but the one thing we do have at Open Air Nursery is great wind protection.  Our fence and structures really make it nice to shop for the customer on a windy day.  However when you leave the front gate and enter the parking log, grab your hat and hang on.  We will run regular hours from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.  Next week will be a better week for me personally as my wife will be back from Minnesota's dance competition.  You don't realize how much you need and miss your business partner until she leaves for four days.  Please come home Kelli and Breanna!!!!!!

April 24, 2018
12:30 pm

Due to the rain and cold conditions Open Air Nursery will close today at 12:30.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.  However, we do want to preserve the quality of our plants by keeping them dry and warm.  We will resume normal business hours again tomorrow for 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.  See you then weather permitting.