Heritage Perennials® are grown by Valleybrook Gardens, an innovative and leading producer of over 1500 varieties of perennials, hardy ferns and ornamental grasses. Our distinctive blue pots of HERITAGE PERENNIALS® are available from independent retailers and dealers in many parts of Canada and the USA. We're passionate about perennials! We hope this newsletter helps you to enjoy your perennial gardening even more.

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Our best-selling book, the Perennial Gardening Guide is a handy reference used by gardeners across North America — written by our own Horticulturist, John Valleau. Released March/2003 in a new 4th edition!

I'd like to mention a couple of excellent websites for seed starting. Growing Plants from Seed (Colorado State University) is a really good basic site for sowing seeds indoors, in coldframes or directly outside. If you've never grown seeds before it's a great place to begin. For more advanced gardeners, the Tom Clothier Germination Databases give specific germination directions for hundreds of kinds of seed, many of them being the tricky-to-grow kinds, including perennials, trees, annuals and biennials. This site includes articles on damping off disease, choosing soilless seed-starting mixes and all kinds of other stuff.

Our own How-to Page has an article on "Saving and Starting Perennial Seeds" and another on "Where to Get Perennial Seeds", both with handy links. With perennials, bear in mind that most named selections don't breed true from seed and must be increased by dividing the plants, taking cuttings or other more complex methods. New gardeners are often puzzled as to why 'Stella de Oro' Daylily seed, for instance, is never offered for sale. Save and grow seed from 'Stella' and you'll end up with all kinds of offspring that don't resemble their mother at all. It could still be fun to experiment and see what happens. So... have a seedy spring!

Responses this month were extremely varied. Garden journal keepers have so many different reasons, approaches and styles up their sleeves, ranging from a simple 3-ring binder to fancy hard-cover ten year journals. Some people take photos or clip things from magazines; others dutifully record the weather or make detailed maps of every single garden bed. Journaling can be as simple or as complicated as you wish! Below is but a small sampling of the many excellent comments that came in:

The gardening journal is wonderful for researching what happened in the past... when to expect the crocus to pop up -- that way I don't get too anxious -- when to pull the plants out of the garage, when to pot plants up so they flower at earlier or later times, when I sprayed the Brugmansia so I can check for aphids in advance the following year, etc. It is especially interesting to read my garden journals when the weather is cold and miserable and winter has us in it's grasp; it lets me make plans for the coming seasons and to revisit last year's gardening experiences." WINNER: Sue -- Toronto, Ontario

I try to update my journal every two weeks during the season, just to keep an eye on how everything is doing.

In my notebook garden journal I keep diagrams of borders, tips and hints given to me from family and friends. I write down how much I spent on plants, soil, gardening tools, etc.

Sometimes we go for long drives and I always have to stop at a garden centre, so I usually take my journal with me to record the addresses and names of garden centres that we liked. I clip out pictures from magazines of gardens I would love to have as a future reference. I keep dates and names of plants that I have had success with and ones that I haven't had success with." Janice -- Bowmanville, Ontario

QUESTION: "We have a large bed of Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) in front of our home. Our front faces north and is very shady. Last summer all of our Bugleweed just died off. We can't figure out what happened. The bed was probably at least five years old." Mike -- Merrillville, Indiana

ANSWER: This happens relatively often with Bugleweed. It seems to be a root-rot problem, probably caused by a fungal infection. I suspect poor drainage and wet soils during fall and winter contribute to the problem, particularly in heavy clay soils. I'm not surprised that summer was when the patch went downhill. The plants were likely stressed already from winter and a particularly wet spring, and once summer heat arrived they just packed it in.

A perfectly good patch can become a scruffy mess within a few weeks. About all you can do at that point is try to salvage any live scraps of plants to renew the area. It's a good time to add more organic matter to the soil -- maybe dig up the whole area, temporarily relocate the live pieces (or pot them up for a few weeks) then replant again. Using a fungicidal drench could help the salvaged plants to get back into health again. I'm not really sure if there would be residual fungal spores left to reinfect a new planting, but my guess is that if you improve the drainage your new planting will be healthier and more immune to infection down the road.

Full contest details are on the Sunshine Farm & Garden website.

• March 3 - 6 Stratford, Ontario. Stratford Garden Festival. "Out on a Limb" is the theme.
• March 6 - 13 Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia Flower Show, celebrating "America the Beautiful".
• March 9 - 13 Toronto, Ontario. Canada Blooms, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building. Discount tickets available online until March 5. This year's theme is "Garden Party".
• March 16 - 20 San Francisco, CA. San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, "Where Gardens Meet Art".
• March 17 - 20 Henrietta, NY. Greater Rochester Flower & Garden Show, featuring "Enchanted Gardens".