Welcome to Plant Talk
February 15, 2012
Click here for a Printable Version I’ve heard it said a hundred times, "in life, timing is everything". I believe this is true in life, love and horticulture. Success or failure depends on it. In my life, if I hadn’t met my love, Lori, when I was a 21 year old, wide-eyed hippie working at Locker’s floral and greenhouse, I would have had a completely different life. You wouldn’t be reading these words right now because I wouldn’t be working at Johnson’s. It’s not unlike the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, only substitute Menomonee Falls for Bedford Falls. If I had met Lori earlier, when I was a bit less outgoing, we probably wouldn’t have talked. I probably wouldn’t have met her later, because I would have taken a job in Texas. Timing is everything. Things have to happen at the right time in order to succeed. This is true in Horticulture as well. Success or failure is often determined more by when you do something, rather than how you do it. Pest control, plant...more
January 4, 2012
Click here for a Printable Version Native plants seem to be gaining in popularity as each year passes. I remember when I first started working at the nursery in 1980. Native Oaks were hard to come by. Few nurseries carried them. Musclewood was a cool little plant that grew down in the woods at the edge of our property but not in our nursery. And I didn’t know that Hairy Wild Petunia even existed. Things have really changed. We get more and more requests for native plants and have continued to expand our selection of both seedling material and cultivars of native plants. We now have a whole line of restoration natives in #1, #2 and #5 containers as well as the B&B material we’ve always carried. Much of the work that I am doing with new plant development is in the realm of native plant cultivar selection. I went to a presentation a little over a month ago by a guy named Douglas Tallamy. He’s a professor in the department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University...more
November 3, 2011
Click here for the Printable Version Well, here’s the second newsletter. The first edition of Plant Talk caused a grand total of six e-mails and two phone calls. So I’m confident that at least ten of you read it. If you didn’t, I’m glad you got this far in this newsletter. Now stick it out and finish this one. I promise you, you’ll learn something or at least get a laugh, and there is still a chance to redeem yourself and read last month’s issue. This month’s topic, "Native Junipers You Should Know- Juniperus virginiana and Juniperus communis," was chosen because we have a boatload of these plants and they are really nice! I remember growing Juniperus virginiana and Juniperus communis years ago and they didn’t look like these. Honestly, they were ugly. The bottom needles would turn brown and the plants wouldn’t let go of them. Persistent brown needles is not a characteristic that you want in your Junipers. They did make great kindling for our burn pile though, igniting as fast...more
October 6, 2011
WelcomeClick here for the Printable Version Welcome to the new Johnson’s Nursery Wholesale E-newsletter. I will be your host for this adventure, as long as you and Johnson’s will have me. I have been working at Johnson’s Nursery for 31 years now. I’ve learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and have been fortunate not to be fired over that considerable amount of time. You see, sometimes I have a tendency to talk a little too much, like the first year I was at the nursery. Johnson’s hired me back in 1980 to be a propagator as well as help with harvesting (digging), sales, and writing marketing materials, among other things. I was 23 and I could do it all, or so I told them, and so they thought. My problem was I talked a little too much. One weekend in 1980, this lady came into the nursery to look at plants. She said she worked at the Horticulture Extension office answering questions from the general public (probably a master gardener). She really liked plants and wanted me...more
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If you have questions, comments, or would like Mike to write on a certain subject, feel free to email him at mike@johnsonsnursery.com or make your comments on any of the articles.
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