Hey friends today on Gardening with Creekside we are potting up tons of beautiful proven winter
annuals we got a fantastic shipment of these gorgeous annuals from our friends at Pleasant View
Gardens yesterday and so today it is a production mode and things are moving fantastically smoothly
quickly could not be happier So today we're just going to give you a little bit of a snapshot on
what it is like to be a grower retailer that means we bring plants in as small babes and we grow them
up and then we sell them directly to our customers we are in Dallas North Carolina a Zone 7B and it
is a go time here at the nursery this was actually our second delivery of The Proven winter annuals
but this was the first of our largest orders so the first round is down at the retail Greenhouse
they are growing and are very happy then this round has like all of our hanging baskets so that
is what we are doing right now we are in hanging basket production mode and we are almost complete
if you will remember of course if you're a faithful follower you know that we recently
just got a new potting machine our very first one and it has taken so much manual labor out
we had already gone ahead and prepped the hanging baskets they are just a few of them are left way
over there and that's all that we have left to do you can see that the cocoa liner baskets are
already planted and they are hung and ready to go we decided to go ahead and hang them up and
those rippers are in them because we can have of course the drippers and it will irrigate and it
will also fertilize these plants everything that we're doing right now are the proven
winter annual excuse me recipes so you can see let me explain a little bit of our system here
so Alyssa was just popping out the this was actually the Goldilocks rocks bidens so this
is what they look like and in every hanging basket there are two of each kind of plant so
Alyssa now she has the verbena so before she pops out the verbena she knows that there are
um those two need to go into a new pot so Josh found the pot put them in there
you can see here we right now have four plants so we have two of the Goldilocks rocks and then there
is a petunia now Alyssa is popping out the Verbena and then we will go back and put all the verbena
in there you can see that this is a very vigorous happy plant because look at all those roots
this is the super being a white which is a very vigorous happy grower so Mimi is plugging those
in so once each of these containers has all six plants then we will come back and put the hanger
tag on those because with the proven winners of course they have the complete package where you
all the proven winter plants either have to be in a proven Winter's container obviously there
is no Proven Winners hanging basket but they do have the tags so that is like since it's a recipe
that came from Proven Winners they have the tags so each of these hanging baskets will have a tag
we started out with close to 500 hanging baskets filled and this is all that is left Jackson is our
main mover we've got these great rolly carts and so once these hanging baskets get potted up and
the tags on them then he they all load them up onto the cart and they wheel them in he Wheels
them in to the greenhouse house next door so I'm going to show you those and we're going
to let them kind of hang out there and grow so as the season progresses and once we know that
those plants are nice and established and rooted then we will come back and finish hanging them
up a little bit higher between those cocoa line baskets and all right here we like to keep kind
of an eye on them until that point because I mean these are there's six right new little baby plants
in there and we just need to keep an eye on them and make sure that they are rooted in getting the
nutrition that they need then once they're good to go then we can hang them up and you
don't have to have your eyes on them and then in here we are in production number one and you can
see where Jerry's taking a business call and so we've gone ahead and hung up some of the baskets
that Emily and Meredith worked with yesterday and then this is where Jackson is putting all
of the recipes that have been made so this will we'll use this a little bit as a holding Zone
um because again this greenhouse as you can see there's obviously
drippers that are not being used so between all those green baskets there'll be one additional one
up a little bit higher right here between each one and then going across all of the purlins so it is
once you get these hanging baskets done and in the past it's honestly hanging baskets is probably the
most dreaded of the production area just because it seems like it takes forever like it would take
forever to fill the pots it took forever to put the hangers on and then to go through and get them
all potted up and then moving them so we are all typically really happy when the hanging baskets
are done but this will be all of our hanging baskets for the whole season we will not grow more
and right now we're kind of a little bit limited on we do hanging baskets that we have enough
drippers for so Here Comes Here Comes Wild Man uh having having a good time but this is the tag
so you can see this was the Rock and rush so so it has the Goldilocks rocks bidens the raspberry
Rush petunia and then the superbino white out so be really pretty first time we are doing this one
so we only have I think maybe one more round of recipes to go pot it up and then we're going to
start on filling the Grande's and getting them all nice and happy in their new homes we will have to
move the potting machine they got the ceiling that finished yesterday because so they had to move the
potting machine down that way so that they could finish the ceiling down this way so we're going
to get it filled up with some soil get it moved back get everything in place and then we're going
to start feeling Grande's with lots of gorgeous of those sweet little babies from proven winners
all right my friends we are in the thick of getting the Grande's potted up show you right
quick what we've done so far um we had to work out a few Kinks before I started filming and you
know I am the film crew here and I am working too so I had to like okay Jerry take my spot I gotta
get some Photography in here so we have a each of these trays there are 10 Grande's in a in a
tray and so we are three trays deep we know that is a perfect spot so that way when we walk down
we can still get access these hanging baskets if we need to so we're going to go all the way down
this side then when this side is filled then we will move over to the right and do the same
thing start here and move all the way down once the two sides are filled in then we start with
the center and basically we will have a footpath right here that is maybe two feet wide three feet
wide just long enough wide enough rather that we can walk down it so everybody is in it is uh you
know takes a minute when you've got a new system going this is first time doing this many Grande's
right here and so let me show you what we're doing we've got Rosie this is Mimi and Poppy's Doberman
so she is hanging out with us today Brenna is at the house it's a little just a little too much so
we're going to start in Reverse so Jerry is pulling them off of the conveyor making sure to
shake off that extra soil so that way we don't end up with a bunch of soil on the greenhouse floor
he's loading them up in the rack when one rack is full he will take that and then unload them onto
the floor while when he's unloading then Mimi kind of takes over that spot and will load up the next
cart so it's just kind of a you know routine just keep moving on down now here um Alyssa and Mimi
are doing tags and shaking so Mimi Jerry just left so you'll be the got it and then Randy and Roman
are plugging the plants so they're getting them in there they have little Tupperware containers that
Megan fills them up with and they're popping them in to the holes so yep so they have to go back and
forth because sometimes the containers aren't exactly even and then Josh has a very important
job and I'm not being I'm not being silly it really is an important job isn't it Josh yes yes
so he is poking the holes and but it's important because notice they're right in the center he
has to have the hole in the center he cannot have it off to the side because that's where
that plant is going to reside until it gets sold the dibbler still not quite working we
would have to take this plate off but that would take Josh's job away and then over here Mr Mann
there he is himself Action Jackson is now feeding the machine with the trays and the pots he's also
if we need to stop the machine then he will be the one to make any adjustment as necessary but
going through all of these trays and then there is one more job I slightly skipped over and that is
Megan's job which is again all these are hugely important so what Megan is doing is she's the
one prepping the plants so right now they're doing the blue my mind Excel of ovulus so she's the one
that takes them out of their trays so right now she's got getting euphorbia so that'll be next up
so she gets the trays she gets the tags she preps them so she gets it out of the tray fills
up the tubs so as soon as Roman and Randy are done they're like you know we need more plants so then
she hands them the pots and then she hands Alyssa and Mimi the tags so it is a well-oiled machine
she has her tags all organized these plants so she has the trays she's the one that has to double
triple check that the tags match up with the plant so that's diamond mountain we only have one down a
mountain we have two Diamond Frost and two Diamond snows and with the euphorbia man y'all it is hard
to tell them apart slightly you can tell them apart but it can be really easy to get these
mixed up so it's very very important that the right plant goes with the right tag so yeah it is
it is it has gotten to be a very well-oiled machine around here so I am going to hop off
because it is my job too to help what Jerry's doing as far as loading the rolling carts and then
taking shuttle them down and putting them down so we are rocking and rolling just remember that each
of those trays that I showed you roughly holds like 84 84 plants like the nursery trays that
we got from Pleasant View and then each of the white proven winter trays holds 10 plants so we
are rocking and rolling uh with these plants today so okay back to work okay all right my friends so
we have taken a little bit of the uh break we had lunch and now we have gotten all of the Grande's
completely done for today and we have moved on to gallon of production so just to give you a little
heads up here now we're on the other side of the greenhouse and you can see all of those sweet
babies that are done lots and lots of gorgeous plants some a flip around ever so slightly
uh we had nine trays of vermillionaire so that's 700 and something of them so everything starting
right here all the way down to those grasses is Oliver millionaire vermillionaire is a fantastic
plant to attract hummingbirds into your garden and pollinators and bees and honeybees here we
have the tut family we've got Prince tuts and queen tuts so these are all done we do have a
section here that you will notice that are not the white proven winter pots these are angel
wing begonias Proven Winners doesn't do angel wing begonias so we have to bring those in from another
source so we have the red and the pink love those because they're just gorgeous beautiful nice huge
begonias you can see all the Grande's finished up here and then we've gone into gallons so here are
grasses we've got vertigo grass purple fountain grass fireworks and then the gumfrina so we do
the True full of pink in both gallons and Grande's on this round we're doing them in gallons because
obviously if they come in first and we put them in a gallon they have longer to grow and get full in
a gallon so certain plants like that we will put in both a gallon and a grande because long term
a gumfrina the truthful of pink can't stay in a grande very long like it will just outrun it
very quickly that's why we go ahead and put all of our grasses in these nice gallons because in
a grande it is not going to last very long at all before it gets root bound and then
just we just cannot get enough water on it so that is what is happening here now what we're
going to do is we have a little bit left over of Petunias so supertunias are going to go also in
gallons you can see that these trays are half full half empty however you want to look at it
the half that is missing is what is in a grande and then these halves will go into gallons so
uh the fellows are over here readjusting the rails because this will be a a little bit of
a smaller bigger sorry that's what I meant uh a this would be like in the premium gallons is
what we do like our um perennials in so you can see Jerry here making sure that the rails you
want the rails just to kiss the edges of the pot because if it's too tight then they'll get stuck
if it's too loose they could tickle top all over so that's what we're doing and we're going to get
these petunias in here and then what we're doing is Josh and Roman and Mama are all three working
together doing the tag the whole the tag and the plant and then it comes to me and I'm standing
here on the end with the carts behind me so I will load up the carts and then because we've lost a
good bit of our help as the day goes on we've lost our help just because of scheduling like
we knew that was going to happen so we're having to kind of adjust to say well once I get both
carts full we have to stop everything and then we all work together to get it unloaded so anyway we
are getting it done it is 4 15 in the afternoon we started with the hanging baskets at like 8 30
9 o'clock this morning so we've had a nice full day but we are I think determined to get all of
these done so we will have um all of these plants done in one day I think that's insane so anyway
oh so the conveyor belt is starting so I'm gonna have to hop off here because I got to get to work
all right my friends so I am going to sign off for today we have got I believe a hundred more
plants to go and then we will be done for the day but the kiddos have a uh weekend away with
the church and so I have got to make sure that my 12 year old son is packed and packed properly
if you are a mama of teenagers especially boys you probably understand what I need to go do
um so everybody has said we're going to stay here and finish up so bless their dedication
so appreciate them if I didn't have to take the kids to church then I definitely would be
here but we've got like I said 100 more to go but massive huge day here really nice and productive
let me come down here so that way I can give you a full view of what we really have gotten done today
here in the greenhouses so we are in production at number two this is where we'll fill all of
the Grande's up first so we have got both sides of the greenhouse have been completely filled
with Grande's and then gallons the gallon petinias are actually going to go in in next door because
we grow those a little cooler we've got all the hanging baskets have been potted up and hung so
that is amazing we do have a little section down here that um that we're waiting on hanging baskets
to come at the actual physical basket itself so all of these will go into hanging baskets it is
going to be 22 degrees tonight so after they get everything potted up they're going to have to move
the conveyor belt because they've got to be able to close this up really nice and snug because we
don't want to go from all that work and then it'd be 22 tonight and we have little plants that get
fried so that is not fun and then I'm walking over here to production one and then you can see um how
nice and full this one is getting as well hanging baskets up hanging baskets on the ground and then
the gallon the thing is they started putting down here at the end and they will finish up
I believe filling all of those in so just a very very very very productive day people I have asked
us how much time this potting machine is saving us we did a hundred trays of plants so roughly
there was like 80 in a tray some of them had 50 like the grasses they weren't quite 80 in there
so let's just say you know 8 000 plants right so we did 8 000 plants in a day whereas before
it would take us uh three or four days to do that um especially because of the
hanging baskets so we're not talking about our saving us we're talking about days that
is saving us on labor and then of course we're not like our backs are not killing us you know
because we're not having to lift those big heavy bags of soil so massive huge worth every penny
for that machine so I've got to go make sure everybody's packed y'all have a great day as
always thanks so much for Grand Creekside we'll see on the next video bye friends