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Philadelphia Flower Show 2017 America’s Greatest Horticultural Tradition: The Philadelphia Flower Show This week the 190th Philadelphia Flower Show is underway. If you visit, the doors of the Pennsylvania Convention Center will swing open and visitors will flood through the gates and HALT! because as they enter the main floor of the Convention Center Hall, they will be greeted with a floral fantasy creation that will be like nothing they have ever seen before. It will take their breath away. It will stun their senses. It will intrigue even the most artistic of talents. Sometimes this entrance floral display soars 75 feet up to the rafters of the Convention Center. Sometimes it leads the mesmerized visitors across a gently arching bridge under which flows a river of 10,000 tulips. Sometimes
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Heirloom Hot Peppers To Purchase Heirloom Hot Pepper Seed click this link The 6 Most Beloved Hot Peppers of All Time Sweet and hot peppers are indigenous to Central and South America. They have been cultivated since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have found chili peppers at sites dating to 7000 BC. The Aztecs, Incans and Mayans all cultivated peppers. The Aztecs had at least seven different words for hot peppers. We derive the term chili pepper from some of the Aztec words for hot pepper. The Incas used peppers as a form of currency. Columbus named the peppers he saw growing in the West Indies, pimiento, because he thought they were the pimienta, spice pepper, grown in the East Indies. He was painfully surprised to find out that the West Indian
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The Paste/Plum Tomato To Purchase Heirloom Paste/Plum Tomato Seed click this link The Paste/Plum Tomatoes- Good for Everything! Of the three morphological classes of tomato – cherry, slicing/sandwich and paste/plum – the paste/plum tomatoes are the least popular. This is unfortunate because paste/plum tomatoes are, literally, good for everything. Cherry tomatoes are too small for making sandwiches and roasting and too much work to put in sauces, but they are great in salads and for popping in your mouth straight from the vine. Sandwich/slicing tomatoes are great for sandwiches, but they are usually too watery for sauces and salads. Paste/plum tomatoes have it all. Like cherry tomatoes they are small enough and firm enough to be eaten in salads and right off the vine. Like sandwich/slicing tomatoes they are just
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Dinnerplate Dahlias Dinnerplate Dahlia Emory Paul To Purchase Emory Paul Dahlias click this link It is the middle of February and many of us have had a horrible winter and are longing for spring. This newsletter is dedicated to each of you. For those of you who routinely read this newsletter, you will note that there are many, many more photos than usual. This newsletter is designed to stimulate your imaginations for the gardens you will have this upcoming season and engage your memories of your beloved gardens from the past. Dinnerplate Dahlias are large plants which produce the biggest blossoms. The plants grow to at least 36 inches high, but more commonly 48-60 inches. The very first blossom each season will be the largest, and it is often
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The Heirloom Eggplant To Purchase Heirloom Eggplant Seed click this link The 4 Greatest Heirloom Eggplants of All Time Eggplants originated in China and India and have been cultivated there for thousands of years. The Spanish Moors introduced the eggplant into southern and Eastern Europe where it became very popular. The early explorers of the New World introduced eggplant into the Americas in the 1500s, but the plant never caught on. For many years, Americans were suspicious of the plant because it belonged to the Nightshade family, of Deadly Nightshade fame. Eggplants, tomatoes and potatoes all belong to this family and many Americans thought the vegetables were poisonous. In a mid-1800 American seed catalog, two varieties were listed Large Purple and Early Purple. At that time, egg plant or melongena
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Fingerling Potatoes An Ancient Vegetable with Modern Nutritional Value - The Fingerling Potato View the Harvesting History videos on growing potatoes at our YouTube site POTATOES CANNOT BE SHIPPED IF THE TEMPERATURES ARE BELOW FREEZING. WE WILL SHIP TO THE WEST COAST WHEN WE HAVE 5 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ABOVE FREEZING TEMPERATURES. WE WILL SHIP TO THE MIDWEST AND EAST COAST WHEN WE HAVE 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ABOVE FREEZING TEMPERATURES. The fingerling potatoes are long, finger-shaped potatoes. They are thought to be some of the most ancient varieties. Like many of our potatoes they are indigenous to the valleys of the Peruvian Andes. In the 16th century, they were discovered by Spanish sailors who introduced them into Spain. In the 1800s, the French began to develop fingerling varieties, and it was from European
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Check Out The Harvesting History Collection of Plant Videos on YouTube Giants of the Tomato World- The Sandwich/ Slicing Tomatoes The tomatoes in the photo above starting from the top left and moving clockwise are Pineapple, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Mortgage Lifter, Red & Yellow Stuffers, Black Krim, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Big Rainbow, Green Zebra and Great White. All are heirloom varieties. All produce sandwich-sized tomatoes. All are DELICIOUS! We know that most tomato gardeners will grow a few cherry-sized tomato plants, maybe a few paste tomato plants, but for tomato gardeners, their passion is the sandwich/slicing tomatoes, and we would be remiss if we did not dedicate a newsletter to these wonderful fruits. Sandwich/slicing tomatoes do not occur naturally. They are the result of traditional breeding practices that began more
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Growing Beets - It Rarely Gets Easier Than This Heirloom Beets To Purchase Heirloom Beet Seeds Click This Link Check Out The Harvesting History Collection of Plant Videos on YouTube For most of the US it is now time or will be in the next 45 days to plant beets. Before you turn up your noses in disgust at the mention of beets, listen tow hat we have to say. I disliked beets so much that I didn’t eat them for 40 years. Then someone introduced me to roasted beets and someone else showed me the glorious beet chip with seasoned salt, and now I cannot get enough beets. Beets are closely related to Swiss Chard. The tops of the beet (commonly referred to as beet greens) have been consumed by man
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