Blizzard At Logee's

Like everyone else in the Northeast, we had a genuine Blizzard. The old-fashioned Nor'easter that dumped a lot of snow on us at Logee's. This is the day after and except for a bit of snow on the roofs, we were amazingly fine! Take a look!

Our sign is just about covered from the 22 inches of snow.

A day later and we are open for business.

Our Lathe House under a blanket of snow. In the springtime, hanging baskets and flowers galore will be bursting forth with color.

Next to the Lathe House is a bush covered with the heavy snow. The two snow lumps in the lower left of this picture are the hardy bananas that we are wintering over. We'll see how they do in the springtime.

The lattice sides on the tool shed serve as a climbing structure for our goji berries and honeyberry plants in the springtime.

Inside one of our retail greenhouses, the snow has covered the panels and is preventing light from shining through.

This bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst' is usually in a bright spot, but until the snow melts it is getting a bit of shade today.

The snow you see is actually covering our under ground greenhouse called the Herb Pit. Once it warms up a bit, we will carefully shovel the snow off the glass.

This branch of our greenhouse is known as the Potting Shed and that layer of snow is bringing shade to our plants.

Inside the potting shed, it is rather dark for this "Golden Trumpet Vine" (Allamanda Cathartica 'Williamsii'

Our camellias in the big house still poking their heads out with lots of brilliant color.

Another Colorful surprise in the Big House called Tibouchina urvilleana "Edwardsii'

Empty snow-filled benches.

Pallets of soil will need digging out.

Another burst of color in the Greenhouses.

Clerodendrum Quadriloculare "Fireworks Plant"

An Angel Wing Begonia called 'My Special Angel' in the darkened Greenhouse.

The white plastic wrapped statue in the left is a fig wintering over.

Another fig wrapped in black plastic.

Horticulturist Byron Martin with a hot cup of green tea in one hand and his cell phone in the other.

The old range, emptied of plants but giving way to the blue sky through its metal ribs. In the spring this propagation house will be dismantled.

The outside of our new propagation greenhouse.

Lots of life inside our new building.

At the top of the photo you can see the shadow of snow, which will continue to melt in the gutters.

A christmas cactus Schlumbergera 'Cristen' at our grower's desk.

The seven circuit labyrinth resting 'til springtime.

Logee's Tropical Plants Prepares for Martha Stewart Show

Last week, we were invited to NYC as guests on the Martha Stewart Show. (see logee blog- How to Grow Tabletop Citrus Jan 13, 2010). We love sharing our tropical plants with Martha and her audience. The week before the show, we choose the plants. We work with the producers and send them pictures, growing information and highlights of each plant. Getting ready for the show is a company wide task and our growers were all hands on deck the day before.

Rick Logee, our greenhouse manager, Laurie Robillard and Napa Howe, greenhouse growers are pictured polishing leaves, repotting specimens and grooming the plants. We rank what plants would be the best but mostly Mother Nature chooses what plants ultimately go on the show. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which plants will be in bloom or fruit in 4-5 days.The morning we left for NYC was filled with activity. I picked up the white rental van (non-commercial) so we could drive on the Merritt Parkway, while Byron gathered eighteen different mother plants into one warm spot.

We had to have a warm vehicle waiting to minimize exposure to the elements while loading our weather sensitive plants in our Northeast Connecticut freezing climate.

Three and half-hours later at 4:00 we arrived at the NYC Studios. We unloaded our plants and broke them into two groups- the segment for citrus (see blog Jan. 13) and the segment for Flowering Winter/Unusual Plants. The Winter/Unusual Plants that ultimately went on the show were Coffee (Coffea a

rabica)- the coffee of commerce; Bougainvillea ‘Vera Purple’- a colorful, everbloomer ; ‘Desert Rose’ and ‘Uranus’ (Adenium obesum) two unique plants in flower with an unusual caudex form; “Golden Brush” (Burbedgia scheizochelia) - a ginger with brilliant orange flowers; and 'Yerbe Mate’ (Ilex paraguariensis)- the foliage that’s famous for Mate’ tea.

We had to be at the studio by 8 am the next morning for the 10:00 am live show. During those two hours Byron rehearsed with Barbara, one of the producers. Martha and Byron have great charisma together and were like old friends catching up on the horticultural scene. We left the Sunquat for Martha since she didn’t have one in her collection. After the show, I dropped Byron at Laguardia airport. He was on his way to a tropical plants show in Florida and I drove back to Connecticut with a warm van filled with tropical plants and flowers.