Over the last few years a lot of the plants I have talked about are some of the new perennials. A close relative to poinsettia that looks NOTHING like a poinsettia is Diamond Frost Euphorbia. This is a new perennial from Proven Winners a organization thatm specializes in introducing new and interesting perennials.

from proven winners

I have one of these at home and it has been blooming for the last 3 months. As I get more experience with this I will report back. It likes the sun, is compact growing to about 12 or 18" with flouffy white blooms. A Poinsettia relative?? It hardly looks like one.

For those of you that knew my mother Mary Rogers, I want to let you know she passed away last week in her sleep. We that knew her will miss her. She was an important part of Scenic nursery for over 40 years.

She and my dad started Scenic Nursery in early 1949 and she worked doing everything in the nursery: watering, stocking flats, loading humus and what she enjoyed the most helping customers. She was the second Woman in California that got the California Certified Nursery (wo)mand certificate.

She retired in the late 1980's but still came around and kibbitzed. I will miss her and the many people that she knew will miss her.

Mary Rogers 1919- 2006
Sid Rogers 1912- 1999

Some things that have just arrived include natural garland and wreaths and living Christmas trees including blue and green spruce and sheared redwoods. Stockton red onions are also in for the onion lovers among us. We expect our shipments of roses in mid December and fruit trees in early January.

Now is a wonderful time to look around at the trees with the best Fall color. Some trees I especially like include Pistache Keith Davies. Keith Davies is a grafted form of Chinese Pistache. Why is this important? Well reason one is that pistache come male and female on different trees. Female trees as you might expect are the ones that form berries. In addition to the mess they tend tom slow down when they start producing fruit. The second reason is that Keith Davies was chosen for the showy fall color.

There are several Red Maple varieties that we are starting to see now. The grafted forms are all noted for their red fall color. Red Sunset, October Glory and Autumn Blaze are a few of the varieties you might see here.

Seiryu Japanese Maple is my favorite large growing Japanese Maple. I find it the most sun tolerant and It colors up with a combination of yellow orange and red colors.

There are also several Ash that color up in the purple tones, Ginkgo that color up golden yellow, and crape myrtle that color in the orange and red tones.

In any case now is a great time to plant trees before the cold weather of winter. By planting now you get root development that allows more growth in the spring.