We returned last night from a weeklong camping trip with our boys on Turtle Island in the Lake George ‘Narrows’ in the Adirondack Mountains of up-state New York. We take our 19-foot bowrider along and use it to get from the marina in Bolton’s Landing to our campsite on the island. This is our eighth trip to ‘The Narrows’. Our son and his girlfriend stayed two nights in the beautiful and elegant ‘Sagamore’ Resort Hotel located in Bolton’s Landing. Near our campsite we found white oak, red oak, maples, pitch pine, white pine, thuja, birch, hop hornbeam and shadbark hickory. The weather was cool but mostly good…a couple nights we slept on our cots under the stars.

Genotype seed in a couple weeks.

Last week Kristine and I spent a couple days at the OFA show in Columbus. This show has become indispensable for us as we navigate all the new offerings for garden centers. The breakthrough ‘true red’ geranium calliope dark red now has a companion, calliope burgundy!

Summer reading…

I just started ‘Tipping Point’ by Malcom Gladwell. This book is several years old but my sons and I enjoyed ‘Outliers’ so much that I want to read everything by him.
My wife just ordered ‘American Canopy’ for me from Amazon, Recommended by Jim Searcy, ONLA President, it takes a historic look at great trees and great forest in American history.
Somehow Kris gets used books from Amazon for several dollars. She also ordered ‘The Experience Economy’ for me, which was recommend by Jenn Gray, ONLA Assistant Director. It’s also been out for a number of years, but it talks about businesses creating an ‘experience’ for their customers, rather than becoming commoditized through price competition. This is an approach my wife and I have been trying to take with our garden center, creating a local ‘brand’ based on our history and our community outreach.