Valentine’s Day is next Wednesday

Wegman’s will be open until 6:30pm.

Wegman’s has a large selection of plants and gifts. The plants will be already gift wrapped in foil with bows ready for you to just dip in, make the perfect selection and be on your way. We even have cards!

If you aren’t sure about the perfect gift—how about a Gift Card?

Wegman’s is proud to be a member of CANGC (California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers). Our affiliation with trade organizations and buying groups is part of what sets Wegman’s apart from the competition. Wegman management and employees are active members of the Peninsula Chapter. Here is some history about CANGC. Next week we will be sharing with you information about our staff that has been certified as nursery professionals and what that means to you.

CANGC was founded in 1911 as a nonprofit, trade organization, guided by a state board of directors made up of representatives from its geographical chapters. The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC) membership includes grower and retail nurseries, businesses allied with the lawn and garden industry, individuals employed by members and students in horticultural education, researchers, colleges and garden writers. CANGC is a driving force behind California's lawn and garden industry. Unlike many other industries, the nursery business is not dominated by a handful of players. It is comprised of hundreds of entrepreneurs, in the business because of horticulture. CANGC is the forum for those in the horticultural field to exchange information and generate support for marketing, research and legislative and regulatory advocacy.

The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers is made up of 18 geographical chapters. Wegman’s is a member of the Peninsula Chapter. Each chapter has a set of officers and a board of directors. Mark Wegman serves as the President for our local chapter while Erhard Wegman is a Board member. The Peninsula chapter generally meets monthly with a dinner meeting with a speaker focused on product education. In this way, our staff is kept informed on industry and new product information.

Being a locally owned and operated business gives Wegman’s a commitment to reach out to other locally owned and operated businesses within our industry and our neighborhood. Over the years, Wegman’s has been an advocate of increased product education for our employees as well as a commitment to excellence in providing the best quality plant materials and garden merchandise.

Native to Japan, Bleeding Hearts are excellent perennials for the shade garden. They are very attractive with their light transparent green color, deeply divided and fern-like foliage and blooms borne on arching flower stems above the foliage. Their 1 inch, heart-shaped flowers have rose-pink, red or white outer petals with strongly reflexed tips, and the inner petals are white and exerted. The Bleeding Heart is fine for the border or margins of shrubbery. There is a variety with white outer petals and an exerted red flower-like inner petal.

Bleeding Heart requires average, medium wet, well-drained, organically rich soil in part shade to full shade. Beginning to flower now through August. Available in pink and white.

Fuchsias, often called “Dancing Ladies” because their many petals resemble the tutus of tiny ballerinas, are making a comeback in the Bay Area. All of the brightly colored flowering forms are hybrids of the native plants growing in South America.

Since the 1850’s, the San Francisco Bay Area with its ideal fuchsia climate was the center for fuchsia breeding, growth, flower shows and landscaping. Unfortunately, in 1981, the minute fuchsia mite entered the United States on contraband plants from South America. It quickly spread throughout the Bay Area, and infected plants developed unsightly galls with twisted stems, leaves and flowers that rendered the plants almost unrecognizable. Many gardeners and landscapers gave up trying to control the mite and tore out their plants in the ground and dumped those in hanging baskets.

Since then, growers working with horticulturists from the University of California have developed a list of mite resistant fuchsias. Originally, most of these were the plants with attractive but tiny flowers: Fuchsia minutifolia and F. thymifolia. More recent hybrids have larger, more recognizable flowers: fanfare, Dr. Mahoney, and Dr. Godroson. So the good news is--one way or another fuchsias are back to stay in the Bay Area.

Fuchsias grow best in a cool moist environment, a rich, organic, well-draining soil, with filtered sun and regular feeding. If you grow large fuchsias in the ground, they will probably need a trellis or espalier support in addition to soil well amended with organic compost. Leaf mold or conifer compost was the organic mulch of choice in the past but both are now largely unavailable. Redwood or fir compost to which a dash of ammonium sulfate has been added is an acceptable substitute. Fuchsia bushes should be trimmed to shape each spring.

Most gardeners still enjoy seeing their fuchsias in hanging baskets. These basket fuchsias should be repotted every year and treated as follows:
• About President’s birthday, cut the top of the plant back to the edge of the pot, remove dead or crossing branches, knock the plant out of the pot and trim one or two inches of root off the root ball (sides and bottom).
• Repot the fuchsia in a suitable soil mixture (such as eight parts Gardeners Gold Potting Soil, two parts Gold Rush and one part perlite); water thoroughly.
• Fertilize your fuchsias once a month with Master Nursery Water Soluble Bud and Bloom (10-52-8 plus trace elements) or half strength twice a month.
• Water to keep the soil moist and until the water runs out the bottom of the container. This may be once every two weeks in February or once a day in August.
• When the new leaves emerge in March, pinch off the tips when two pairs of leaves are showing. Do this two more times to produce a bushy plant.
• If your plant is an old fashioned fuchsia and not one of the new mite resistant varieties, U.C. recommends spraying it with carboryl (Sevin) once a month starting as soon as you transplant it if you had had any mite damage last year. Otherwise, start spraying when you see flower buds. The mites are so small; they can be spread by wind, insects and humming birds.
• Hang your basket in a place with filtered or morning sun, sit back and enjoy!