We hope you’ve all had a great winter – whether snow plowing, attending lectures, getting the business organized or just staying warm inside!

We’ve been busy inside and out all winter preparing as we have done for the past 44 years:

In the greenhouses Dan, Ben and company have been super busy potting up container stock. Look for some new and exciting plants like these groundcovers – Sagina subulata (Irish Moss) and Fragaria ‘Lipstick’ (Ornamental Strawberry) seen here.

Peter and his crew have been sticking cuttings, potting liners and trimming. They just received a nice load of bare root trees and shrubs for container stock – most of which will be ready for sale later this year.

Darryl, Ross and Jeff have been attending trade shows and industry conferences and were up this week as exhibitors in the Ecological Landscape Association’s Winter Show in Springfield, Mass this week.

Mark was busy giving classes to prepare people for the Custom Grounds License (3-A) exam (six Tuesdays jam packed with information!), organizing the barns for fertilizer deliveries which started arriving last week. As a licensed arborist and former owner of a tree care company, he was quite qualified to take down the three Locust trees opposite the barn in Newtown to give everyone more room for entering and exiting the sales yard!

Drew has again done a great job with the new catalog and will be sent out next week in time for you to start planning your spring jobs! The biggest change is the designation for container sizing going from, for example, a 3 gallon to a #3. You can read the whole story behind this on the yellow page right before the beginning of Nursery Stock. (And for you graphic geeks – check out the catalog’s new font!)

Up in Watertown Duane and his crew have been winter pruning – quite a challenge this year – plus busy cutting and clearing the field borders for space and light. Roger has laid irrigation pipe for the expansion of the new perennial area.

And lastly, this past week a new roof was put on the big barn in Newtown! (It might be interesting for you to know that this post and beam structure dates back to the late 1800’s)

So get ready for another season of news from Planters’ Choice in your Friday’s Inbox officially starting next week!