|
The rain cleansed the garden. Plum buds on ornamentals burst forth in a flurry of white and pink shades. Tender green young foliage follows suit. The whiff of blooming pink jasmine (Polyanthum) and the fragrant, pea-like, white long clusters of wisteria fill the senses. These are the days of spring in Southern California.
|
 For
Frank Burkard, Jr., as with gardeners all over, spring is
full of promise: plant vegetable seedlings now and reap a
bountiful reward in the coming months. Leafy salad vegetables,
such as lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and the cabbage tribe
love the spring weather. Roots and onion-family plants fall
into this category too as do woody-stemmed garden plants,
such as raspberries, blueberries and apples. So do herbs of
man stripes. Yet, what always excites Frank Burkard, Jr.,
are tomatoes. Over the course of the growing season, the Nursery
will carry well over 450 varieties.
Burkard
Nurseries will help you anticipate the new season. The choice
of fragrant lilacs, budding dogwoods, yellow-flowered Clivias,
and later-blooming magnolias, and many more ornamentals and
perennials will amaze. Tender petunias, young heliotropiums
and other spring bedding plants wait their turn to shine in
flowerbeds. The constant refrain that gardeners will hear
is the reminder not to neglect to amend the soil and add organic
compost or manure. After all, organic matter and its nutrients
are as necessary to a fruitful garden as the plants themselves.
As is customary, Burkard Nurseries emphasizes season-appropriate
plants as well as garden furnishings, the useful and the exotic,
and the reliable amendments. Here gardeners will find all
the basics, and more. On their way to the perennials and the
trees displayed outdoors, they will be astonished at the varieties
of orchids and houseplants that have taken over the shop interior.
A family-owned nursery that was opened for business in 1937, Burkard Nurseries is well known
as the nursery with a personal touch because of the wide selection and the quality of its plant inventory, and because of the service that a customer may rely on. As ever, the quality of seasonal stables, from vegetable seedlings, bedding plants, seeds, citrus, fruit trees, to perennials, will convince the gardeners of the wisdom of their choices. Tags and information labels answer basic questions. Additionally, the staff's horticultural knowledge is particularly useful to the gardeners uncertain about the caring of a certain plant or interested in the finer points of companion planting.
Burkard
Nurseries is located at 690 North Orange Grove Boulevard in
Pasadena. The Nursery opens from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday
to Saturday, and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Telephone:
626/796-4355. |
