We have an excellent selection of pines and spruces.

You don’t have to make do with dried or frozen herbs just because it is winter. Some herbs such as mint, chives, parsley and marjoram, can be potted up to grow indoors or in the greenhouse for a fresh supply of winter leaves. The supply will be modest, but no less welcome.

Mint is an easy plant to force indoors, or in a cold frame or greenhouse. Lift an established clump to provide a supply of roots to pot up.

Be careful to select only pieces with healthy leaves (diseased leaves are common by the end of the season). You can pull pieces off by hand or cut through them with a knife. Plant the roots in a pot if you want to try to keep the plant growing indoors for a month or so longer. Fill an 8-10 inch pot three-quarters full with soil or potting soil; then spread the roots out and cover with more soil.

If you want a supply of tender fresh leaves early next spring, cut off the tops and put the roots in seed trays or deeper boxes, then cover them with soil. If you keep them in a greenhouse (or even a protected cold frame) you will be able to harvest new mint much earlier.

Chives also respond favorably to lifting for an extended season. Lift a small clump to pot up. If it’s too large, you should be able to pull it apart into smaller pieces. Place the clump in a pot of ordinary garden soil or potting soil, firm well, and water thoroughly. It should continue to provide leaves after those outdoors have died back, and will produce new ones earlier next spring.

We all love to see daffodils showing their faces in spring. Customers come rushing in wanting to plant the bulbs of yellow flowers. But we are forced to tell them, "Sorry, it's too late." Fall is the time to plan ahead for spring bulb color.

Tulips, crocus and daffodils are the traditional standby bulbs. But for those that like the unusual, there are many spectacular varieties to choose from. They can be layered in containers or in your flower bed so that the colors just keep popping up. Crocus are the earliest blooming. Throw them into a flower bed and plant them where they land. Tulips are great in containers to show off your favorite pot in early spring. For a great show and color display, plant 8-10 daffodil bulbs in the same large hole.

Lilies, narcissus and hyacinths need to be planted in the fall as well. Don't forget that hyacinths and Oriental lilies are fragrant. Plant them where your nose as well as eyes can appreciate their beauty.

And last but not least, fall is the time to plant garlic. Planning ahead for a summer garlic harvest requires putting the bulbs in the ground in the fall. For a mild flavor try elephant garlic. The bulbs are larger but just as easy to grow as regular garlic.

Don't be disappointed when your neighbors have daffodils and crocus popping up in the yard next spring and you have bare ground. Plan and plant ahead! Choose your bulbs now and plant in the fall.

No, we haven't gone mad! And we aren't turning our newsletter into a tabloid magazine. It's actually time to announce the new rose selections available for the 2008 season. We just wanted to make sure we had your attention! Some great new varieties of bush and miniature roses are out this year and we'd like to tell you about them.

Apricot Candy (Floribunda)
The delicate rose fragrance adds to the classic shape of this new soft apricot rose. It has excellent flower shape, and the ruffled petals contrast nicely with the soft green foliage. 25 petals

Classic Woman (Hybrid Tea)
This new rose combines pure white, old-fashioned blooms with good fragrance and exceptional foliage. The blooms are long lasting and perfect for the vase. 60+ petals

Falling In Love (Hybrid Tea)
This rose makes your heart pitter-patter with its big classically-formed fragrant flowers of warm pink and porcelain white reverse that are regally carried atop sturdy stems, just waiting to be cut and enjoyed. 25 petals

Julio Iglesias (Floribunda)
This striking rose is as bold, spicy and suave as its namesake, with exceptional colors of deep rose pink splashed with white stripes and a great fragrance that makes a strong statement in the garden. 25 petals

Laura Bush (Floribunda)
Generous clusters of dusky orange buds burst into ruffled, cinnamon-orange blooms splashed with yellow centers and a delightful fruity aroma with glossy dark green foliage. 20-25 petals

Lovestruck (Floribunda)
'Lovestruck' blossoms are a work of art, with hand painted, glowing hot pink-brushed cream petals and soft white reverse.  The long-stemmed flowers open into cupped, ruffled blooms on a hardy, compact plant. 25 petals

Coffee Bean (Miniature)
This caffeinated cutie percolates in the garden, popping up one shapely smoky red-orange bloom after another, revealing a bright eye set against deep glossy green leaves. 15 petals

1. Plant groundcovers.
2. Plant a basket of narcissus for holiday bloom.
3. Finish filling flower beds with pansies, Johnny Jump-ups and violas for winter and spring blooms.
4. Cut back roses to about 24” and mulch the base up to 12” with loose soils or compost
5. Plant flowering kale.
6. Continue to plant winter vegetables, including garlic.
7. Prune pine trees and other conifers now through February.
8. Prune cane berries.
9. Cut back chrysanthemums after bloom; clean up the ground.
10. Fertilize cool-season bedding flowers.
11. Mulch, mulch, and mulch some more.
12. Plant tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses.

Spread Nature's Guard Soil activator on your lawn along with ferti-lome winterizer to insure a beautiful green lawn in the spring.

Soil Activator is a granulated form of humates, one step away from humic acid, and the most broken-down form of organic matter available.
Humic acid is immediately available for your soil microbes to use, improving your soil ecosystem. Various types of microbes (micorrhizae) form a relationship with plant roots that is mutually beneficial and improves plants' ability to absorb nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. Humic acid also chelates (traps) positively charged ions, such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, so they aren't just washed through the soil or tied up by the soil mineral complex.

What applying Soil Activator does for your plants and lawn:

• Increase nutrient uptake
• Increase drought tolerance
• Increases seed germination
• Increases root growth through microbe stimulation
• Aerates the soil
• Lowers PH
• Flushes high salt levels out of the root zone

Are you considering a new landscape for next year? If you're tired of your old garden look or have a brand new yard that needs landscaping, consider our team for all of your design and installation needs.

Millcreek Gardens are experts in landscape design. We know which plants grow well in our area, and our design team is knowledgeable in all of the latest plant introductions and landscape techniques.

We work with you to design and create a look that is unique for you and truly reflects your needs and desires. But many people make the mistake of contacting us in spring when we are already booked up for most of the year. It takes time to design a landscape plan for your home, and we invite you to plan ahead and let us design your landscape plan now so we can add you to our work schedule when the weather warms in spring.

Give us a call today at (810) 487-4131 . We're here to make sure all of your garden dreams come true!

Many of the plants we call bulbs aren't bulbs at all. It's become common to lump together under this term not only true bulbs, but all plants that grow from a thickened or bulbous storage organ. (Plants like daylilies, clivia, and iris are in a shady area between bulbs and perennials, so you find them discussed in books on bulbs and also in books on perennials.) Here's how bulbs differ so you can tell them apart.

True Bulb

A modified subterranean leaf bud, the true bulb has a basal plate, above which are food-storing scales (rudimentary leaves) surrounding a bud that contains the magic makings of a plant. Some bulbs, like onions, tulips, and daffodils, are tunicate — they're covered with a papery skin. Others, like lilies, are imbricate — they have overlapping scales.

Corm

A thickened subterranean stem that produces a plant. The inside is just a solid piece of tissue. The buds are on top. After bloom the old corm is used up, but new ones have grown on top or at the sides to take its place. Gladioli, sparaxis, and freesia grow from corms.

Rhizome

A thickened stem or branch that grows on the surface of the ground or horizontally underground, such as bearded irises and calla lilies.

Tuber

A thickened stem that serves as a storage chamber but is usually shorter, thicker, and rounder than a rhizome. It grows totally or partially underground. Tuberous begonias, cyclamen, and potatoes grow from tubers.

Tuberous Root

Growing underground, this differs from a tuber in that it's a swollen root rather than a thickened stem. Tuberous roots have growth buds on top in the old stem portion, from which spring the plants. Dahlias and sweet potatoes grow from tuberous roots.