As the snow starts to melt and the temperatures begin to warm, spring fever sets in, in full force.  We are anxious to see pretty flowers growing. But because we live in Nebraska with unpredictable weather, it is not uncommon to have a late freeze or a random snow in April. Many annual flowers can’t be planted this early because of their sensitivity to the cold. Thankfully, there are early spring annuals that are cold hardy, such as Pansies, Snapdragons, Petunias, Dusty Miller, Viola, Osteospermum, Dianthus, Alyssum and gorgeous Ranunculus.

    Starting around mid-April, we begin potting up early spring annual planters. We make custom planters as well as smaller planters we sell at the garden shop. For custom planters, we can fit liners to your pot. A liner is simply one of our black plastic pots we use in the garden shop. Once we find a liner that fits your large planters, planting, transporting and replacing the planting are made much easier. Lifting out the liner and bringing it to the shop is both smaller and lighter than bringing the pottery to the shop, or installing it on site. Especially getting a planter ready after the winter, filling a liner with thawed soil is easier than fighting frozen soil in the pot. The soil needed to fill a liner is significantly less than filling the entire pot with soil. Using a liner can also increase the life of your planter. The danger of keeping concrete or ceramic pottery outside in the winter, is that the soil in the pot will freeze and thaw throughout the winter. This is what wears down the pots and could eventually cause them to break. However, an empty planter will have much less wear-and-tear if left outside during the cold.

    Our custom planters are made specifically for each client. We can customize the color of flowers used to compliment your pottery, house color, or just to fit your personal preferences. We can change the overall shape of the planting, making it to the height and width that fits your space. We can deliver the liners to you, or you can pick them up at our store. If you have any other specific requests for your planter, we will get you taken care of.

    Custom planters are for everyone, whether you have a smaller property, or you haven’t found the perfect pottery for your porch yet, and you are just rotating seasonal planters. We have various options of pre-made planters for sale at the nursery. We have different color themes as well as different sizes and price ranges to fit every customer.

    For the DIY gardeners we also sell our early spring annuals by the flat. Stop by the garden shop to pick out your favorite flowers. One of our staff could also help if you wanted to make a mixed planter for yourself. Bring in your pot or liner, and we can help you construct your planter at the store. This saves you time and keeps the mess at our place, so the clean up is super easy for you.