Your Ornamental Arsenal

Are you ready for spring yet?  Even if there is still snow on the ground, it’s a great time to look ahead to what products you will need to provide great ornamental services to your customers and their landscapes.

ATS is here to make sure you are ready to battle insects, diseases, mites, and poor soils. We have a couple of new products that will help make your job easier. Pageant (boscalid & pyraclostrobin) does a great job on fungal leaf spots and powdery mildew on annuals, perennials, and woody ornamentals. We also have a new fertilizer perfect for ornamentals, Healthy Grow 2-4-3 with Holganix. It is a great organic fertilizer, without the high cost. Not only does this product add and encourage soil microbiology, it also helps create better water holding capacity by adding organic matter back to the soil. In addition, it helps stimulate healthy plants.

Thankfully, this winter has not been as harsh as the past 2 winters. There were a few weeks of above normal temperatures, which may make flowering spring shrubs inconsistent this spring. Remembering the few warm weather periods that occurred this winter, may help you explain to your customers why certain shrubs did not bloom as well as past years. This can be a good time to check flower buds on magnolias, forsythias, lilacs, crabapples, hawthorns, and flowering quince (to name a few). Look for flower buds that have started to expand; they may turn black and drop in the next few weeks. If the flower buds stayed tight, then there is a good chance for a great bloom come spring.

Bridget Bergey
Warehouse Manager