The nursery is now open on Saturdays from 8:00 - 5:00 for spring.  These spring hours will be in effect during March, April, and May.  

Saturdays: Winter Farmers Market
100% Oklahoma produce and products.  Open every Saturday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm (closed December 30th).  Greenhouse grown produce---soil grown and hydroponics, baked goods, orchids, salsas and relishes, herbal soaps, beeswax candles, fresh cut flowers and more.  John E. Kirkpatrick Horticulture Center, 400 N. Portland, OKC, OK. Visit www.osuokc.edu/agriculture/farmers/ to find out more information including what's fresh this week!

If you did not apply bulb food in the fall, top dress the area with bulb food or a high phosphorus fertilizer so that after the blooms have faded, the foliage can replenish the bulb for next year's flowers.  Remember not to remove the foliage until after it begins to yellow and fade away.

It's time to remove the old foliage from your perennials so that this year's new growth won't grow up into it.  However, this leaves the tender new growth exposed, so it's a good idea to have some mulch ready to throw over them if a hard freeze is forecasted.  

When your green thumb starts itching and you are ready to start planting, remember that the frost danger is not over yet.  On average, we get a frost as late as mid April.  For your first plantings, choose perennials that are not in lush growth and frost-tolerant annuals (petunias, dianthus, primula, pansies) that are being grown hardened in cool conditions.  

Apply weed preventer on your lawn to prevent summer weeds such as crabgrass. Weeds that germinated in the fall are now showing up in the grass and the flower beds as they begin to grow quickly in the warm spring sun.  This is an important time to weed the flower beds before the weeds get too big. A stitch in time will save you a lot of work. After you weed an area, apply weed preventer and renew your mulch and you will not have to go back to that area unless you're adding flowers.

Bulbs are up and getting ready to color your garden. 

Fragrant honeysuckle is blooming and filling the air with lovely fragrance.  If you have a spot for a large shrub (10 ft.), fragrant honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, will surprise you in early spring and bloom for 4 to 6 weeks.  

Winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum, breaks out in bright yellow flowers on every sunny day beginning in February.  The plant grows mounded to 5' and has green stems and small dark green leaves.  

Another popular yellow bloomer pops out in March: Forsythia or Yellow bells, Forsythia x. intermedia. This shrub grows to 10' but can be pruned after flowering to control its size.  There are some dwarf varieties as well.  

Flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa, is early blooming and a good source of lavish flowers. It is available as red, orange, pink, or white on shrubs from 4' to 8' in size.

The average date for the last frost in Oklahoma is about mid April. But remember that's average, so be prepared!