Plants returned and brought back to life.

Our customer service staff in our office has become the new plant doctors for returned plants. Plants that are returned to the office are usually sent to undeliverable addresses. Sometimes, the boxes have been on the road for two weeks or more and it’s amazing how resilient many of these plants are. Take a look!

Kim, one of our customer service representatives pays close attention to the plants.

Sometimes Kim re-pots the plants into a terra-cotta clay pot, but first she lets them acclimate from the stress before doing anything. Although, watering the plants is usually the first action after unpacking the plants from usually crushed boxes.

Kim holds a Crown of Thorns “Gerold’s Spurge” (Euphorbia geroldii)

Recently unpacked from its long postal journey, this nearly indestructible plant has a few leaves left and even a flower on its stem. It will eventually look like this.

Crown of Thorns “Gerold’s Spurge” (Euphorbia geroldii) full grown specimen.

Ashley, our customer service supervisor hides behind this Aloe Plant.

Aloe vera plant thriving.

The Aloe plant has been repotted since it was in a 2.5 inch pot and is in an 8-inch pot now. The little plant in the 4-inch pot is Crassula lycopodiodes and is also doing quite well.

Max Fisher, our graphic designer is even caring for plants.

He has an Angel Wing Begonia in hand called ‘My Special Angel’. This Begonia is in need of more light, evident by the leggy appearance. Plus, it is in need of more fertilizer to darken up the leaves. The light green color of the leaves usually means a lack of feed.

Shawn, our accounting assistant, has several plants on her desk.

The green leafed plant is Scarlet Leadwort (Plumbago indica) and the silver leaf with red is Begonia ‘Raspberry Swirl’. The Begonia is in need of higher light levels so the color of the leaves will intensify. Look at what the mature specimens will turn into.

Scarlet Leadwort (Plumbago indica) is a vigorous grower and likes full sun.

Begonia 'Raspberry Swirl' does well in dry conditions and likes higher light levels to achieve better leaf color.

Agave 'Black Widow' and Agave 'Porcupine' survived the postal stress with ease.

Agave ‘Black Widow’ on the right and Agave ‘Porcupine’ on the left grow on an office desk far away from any window. Although, succulents like full sun, these are still thriving in less than optimal conditions.

Valerie, another one of our customer service representatives cradles a Christmas Cactus.

She’s hoping it will look like the Christmas Cactus in our retail office and with all the tender loving care our office gives, these renegade plants have a great chance of not only surviving but thriving.

Christmas Cactus (Schulmbergera Cristen) full grown in our retail office.

Enjoy the recap and thanks for all your feedback. We are bringing back several plants because you asked. Take a look!

How to wrap your hardy fig for winter is highlighted in this informative video. However, any fig, whether hardy or not, can be wrapped and wintered over in the garden. This is very exciting that you can take any fig, hardy or tropical and winter it over with the right wrapping techniques.

At Logee’s, we continually try different techniques to winter over plants in New England. The ‘Chicago Hardy’ Fig in the video is three years old. The first two years, we let the fig die back to the ground with only leaves for mulch. It survived the New England winter but then each spring it had to sprout out and grow from the ground up.

This third year, we wrapped the Fig as seen in the video so the next Spring we will get a Breba crop of figs, which is the first crop of figs ripening in the summer and then we will get a second crop of figs in the fall. Take a look and see what you think.

A final comment on the fig video. We unwrapped the fig this past spring but we were shocked that the fig did not survive. What happened? It wasn’t the winter weather that killed the fig. It was the New England rodents (mice) that got inside the fig and made their home. The mice girdled the stems and the fig was dead by the time we unwrapped it. So, if you are going to use this technique and you live in the country, please think about using mice bait to prevent the girdling of the stems.

Look at all the lush green foliage, perfect for cuttings.

Our hibiscus grower, Kory shows the difference between a soft growth cutting and a more mature or woody growth cutting.

He first sterilizes his pruning shears with isopropyl alcohol.

Isopropyl alcohol is sprayed on the pruning shears which helps cut down on plant disease.

Then, he takes soft growth cuttings and woody growth cuttings.

Soft growth on the left, woody growth on the right.

Although, he uses both, his success rate is better with the woody growth cuttings. However, if the soft growth cuttings root, they are just as vigorous.

A close up of a cutting that has woody growth on the bottom with soft growing tips.

Next, he dips his cuttings in a rooting hormone or root gel.

Root gel or rooting hormone is used to help form a callus. Callus is needed before new roots can form.

Once the cutting is dipped into the rooting hormone, then it is put into the oasis tray.

A cutting covered with rooting hormone.

Cutting off some of the foliage helps reduce the stress on the new plant trying to form but also leaving some of the leave allows just enough chlorophyll to support the new growth.

The leaves are cut and the sticks put into an oasis tray.

Kory has a full tray of hibiscus cuttings and about 90 percent of the cuttings will form roots and grow into viable plants.

Kory and a full tray of hibiscus cuttings.

SUCCESS! Measured by the amount of white healthy roots.

After several weeks, roots form in the oasis.

This new plant will be upsized into a 2.5 inch pot and will leaf out in about 3-4 weeks.

We propagate over 1000 varieties of plants at Logee’s. Here is another popular category. Geranium (Pelargonium ‘Empress of Russia’) pictured here has many cuttings waiting to be harvested.

'Empress of Russia' is one of many geraniums that we propagate.

Our geranium grower, Roger takes cutting at the end of our growing season to produce more plants.

Roger propagating our geraniums

For the home gardener, if you are limited on indoor growing space, we recommend taking cuttings as a great way to down size your plant and winter it over as a small plant.

Whether doing a 72 plug tray or one single pot, remember to water the soil medium before sticking the cutting.

Watering the 72 plug tray in preparation for the geranium cuttings.

Again, we dip the cutting end into a rooting hormone to assist the process of propagation and then stick it in its growing tray.

Geranium cuttings in a 72 plug tray.

After several weeks, roots will appear and you can upsize the plug into a 2.5 inch pot.

One of our fragrant Passion Flowers!

A geranium with a swirl of color.

At this stage, we were known as Logee’s Greenhouses. This name served its purpose but as our business expanded across the country into mail-order, people who didn’t know us thought we sold greenhouses.

Over time, Logee’s focused on tropical plants with a certain criteria. First, the plant had to  perform well in a pot, which was somewhat self serving since we are northern growers and we couldn’t grow plants outside year-round. Logee’s also wanted anyone, in any living space to have access to plants.

Second, beautiful flowers was a must.

Epiphylum 'Vista Sun'- Orchid Cactus that bursts with color!

Third, fragrant flowers became desirable.  This was enough to call for a name change.  In 2004, we became Logee’s – Growers since 1892 with a bi-line of Tropical Container Plants for Home and Garden. Our first book, Logee’s Spectacular Container Plants reflected our name and gave beginning gardeners the secrets to growing our tropical beauties.

The Desert Rose, Adenium 'Little Genius' is an easy to grow tropical.

For the next seven years, we remained consistent with a small tweaking and became, Logee’s Tropical Plants with a bi-line of Tropical Container Plants for Home and Garden. We wrote another book about Growing Tropical Fruit in Containers called “Growing Tasty Tropicals in any home, anywhere.” This book is chock full of information about how to grow fruiting varieties in pots, such as dwarf bananas, kumquats, lemons, limes, coffee, chocolate, etc.

Growing Tasty Tropicals highlights growing tropical fruit in containers.

However, the demand for our plants was increasing beyond the scope of purely tropical plants. The past several issues of catalogues we even had a category for Hardy Garden Plants. We can’t compete with the big growers nor want to but we could stay true to our criterion, which is growing plants that do well in pots and if they aren’t in pots, like our hardy garden plants line, then the plant had a new criterion to meet.

A Logee plant now has to be unusual, rare or have a really great story and serve our gardening customers.

So as of, Our Fall Issue 2011, we have another tweaking and name change. We are now officially “Logee’s- Plants for Home and Garden, Specializing in Rare and Unusual Plants.”  And on the front  cover we are highlighting an intoxicating fragrant White Champaca (Michelia alba). Our new name  is a mouthful, but the overall gist is that we’ve been growing plants since 1892 and we are pretty darn good at it.

We also don’t want to limit ourselves to just tropicals but definitely want to offer the unique, rare and unusual. We hope you like the new name change and will continue to enjoy the wonderful world of plants. Here is a sampling of what is in bloom today in the greenhouses.

Honey Bee on Borage Plant

Byron Martin and His Bee Hives that he hand-made this year!

What better place then at Logee’s to keep bees. Byron Martin, owner and horticulturist at Logee’s Plants has a weekend hobby. He’s a beekeeper. And, for those of you who know Byron, when he has a passion for something, it always shows in a big way!

Last year, Byron worked only two hives. Last year, his two hives produced over 50 pounds of honey.

Two Hives which will produce over 100 pounds of honey this year.

He wanted to see if he could re-kindle his love for bee-keeping that he had in his early twenties. Well not only did he re-kindle his love for bees, he ignited an interest that blazed a trail in at least four adjacent towns.

Swarm Boxes, which are used in hopes of collecting feral bees.

Before I knew it all of our friends had swarm boxes on their property.

Then, of course, being plant people, we planted bee, hummingbird, and butterfly plants to attract the honey bees.

Notice the dragon-fly enjoying the Borage flowers.

Hissop (hissopus officinalis)

Small-leaved Basil is another winner for honey bees.

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) an abundant roadside source of pollen.

Now going on his second year, Byron has expanded his bee hives to 20 more boxes.

Lots of Hives with aluminum roofs to reflect the sun.

His passion and enthusiasm for bringing back the pollinators and bringing a natural balance to our world was contagious.  We planted over two-hundred pollinator plants and filled the Labyrinth at Logee’s with pollinator plants.

The Labyrinth at Logee's is filled with pollinator plants

In the Labyrinth- the inner ring has Holy Basil (tulsi), then borage, sweet clover,buckwheat, hissop, and calamentha.

Hissops, Sedum ‘Autmun Joy’,  Agastache and Calamentha have long blooming periods, attract butterflies, solitary bees, bumble bees, honey bees and beneficial insects that are good for predators. He likes these flowers for the pollinators because they bloom late in the season and when flowers are waning these plants still give a source of nectar.

Anise Hissop 'Golden Jubilee'

Echinacea 'Hot Summer' - this colorful coneflower adds cheer to any garden.

What’s most important to Byron is to raise Bee’s without chemicals and treat them naturally. He wants to get the genetics of the bees strong to re-colonize the honey bees. If you would like to talk with him further about honey bees, you can contact him at ByronsHoneyBees@gmail.com

More of Byron's Hives on a Southern Slope

At Logee’s, we have an extensive collection of Tropical Hibiscus. Simply put, you can grow these floral beauties in your home year-round. Most of the varieties we grow are everbloomers and this week they were blooming their heads off – one after another with rich colors and swirls of delight!

Caring for Hibiscus is easy. If you are not in Zone 10, then you will need to bring your Hibiscus inside when the weather drops below 60 degrees F. Otherwise, grow in full sun and give a balanced fertilizer once a week. Interpreted that means use 7-9-5 or 15-15-15 and give 1/4 tsp. per gallon of water during the highest light of summer.

As day length shortens and the weather isn’t as warm cut down on the fertilizer frequency. So maybe every other week in the fall and then when winter comes, stop feeding altogether. Unless of course you are able to grow these tropical hibiscus in warm year-round weather. Then, keep up with fertilizing regularly.

Hibiscus 'High Voltage' - The deep burgundy center and soft pink to dusky lavendar rings demand attention.

One final tip: Bring the soil to visual dryness before watering. If you grow these outside for the summer, remember that they are also susceptible to white fly and spider mite and you may have to treat them when they come back inside for the fall and winter.