If you are looking for a way to add some color to your garden in the winter, consider planting sasanqua camellias. They produce an attractive show of flowers from early autumn into late winter, blooming long before their better known (japonica) cousins.

Add to that, bright glossy green leaves and interesting growth habits and you have a "must" for your winter garden.

Sasanqua camellias can be planted in containers and in shrub and tree beds with equal success. This allows you to place them on patios and decks, or near walkways for greater enjoyment. They can also be used for bonsai specimens, espaliers, informal hedges, screens or graceful focal points in the garden.

Their natural growth is either upright or a graceful willow-like form. Some have single, semi-double, or fully double flowers that can be small, medium or rather large, and they come in shades of pink, rose, red, white, and combinations.

One of the outstanding characteristics of sasanqua camellias is that they will tolerate more sun exposure than spring-flowering types of camellias. Most varieties don't grow nearly as large as their cousins, enabling them to make perfect understory plants. Like all camellias, they need to be planted in locations with good drainage in a hole amended with an acid planting mix such as Gardner & Bloome Acid Planting Mix.

Kumquats don't need to be peeled to enjoy, but rather can be eaten whole (skin and all). This allows one to savor the contrast of flavors that include lime (limequats) and mandarin (mandarinquats). The fruit is considered ripe when it reaches a yellowish-orange stage.

In addition being eaten fresh, kumquats can also be preserved in sugar syrup; they are often served as dessert in Chinese restaurants. For candying, the fruits are soaked in hot water with baking soda, cut open the next day and cooked briefly each day for 3 days in heavy syrup, then dried and sugared. Kumquats are excellent for making marmalade, either alone or combined with other citrus. Kumquat sauce is made by cooking chopped, seeded fruits with honey, orange juice, salt and butter.

The kumquat tree is slow-growing, shrubby and compact, reaching a maximum height of 6-10 ft. The glossy dark green foliage produces white flowers that are sweetly fragrant before setting the oblong fruit that normally ripens from late fall through mid winter. The fruit is showy particularly in the winter months when there is so little color. They make excellent container plants in addition to being planted in the garden.

We have a great selection of kumquats just waiting to find a new home. Once you try one of these tasty morsels you'll want one of your own. So come on down, have a taste, and take one home today!

Please click here to see our gallery of some kumquat varieties.

Rabbits will devour a wide variety of plant material, especially in the spring when young, succulent new growth is present. Small flowers and vegetables can be ripped right out of the ground and, other damage can be identified by chew marks on older woody growth, clean-cut clipping of young stems, and rabbits' distinctive round droppings.

What makes controlling rabbits so difficult is that they reproduce quickly and often. Although a rabbit's life expectancy is 12 to 15 months, they can produce up to four litters per year, with as many as six young per litter. The young are born in shallow nests in the ground but are able to leave the nest in two to four weeks.

Although baby bunnies can look cute when they are young, they will quickly establish their feeding patterns and favorite places to visit. Making matters worse is that most rabbits are random eaters, taking a nibble here and there every night until most of your landscape has been damaged.

While some people have success trapping rabbits using traps filled with carrots, fruits and other vegetables, the easiest way to control them is to make your garden undesirable with the use of repellants. We recommend a two-pronged approach that odorizes not only the soil but the plant foliage as well.

Dry soil-type repellants, such as Deer Away can be shaken out right onto the soil surface; we recommend applying around the garden perimeter. Liquid plant-type repellants, such as Ropel Animal Repellant can be sprayed directly onto the foliage of their favorite (damaged) plants. It is important to re-apply the repellents according to package directions until you have broken the feeding patterns of the rabbits. Signs to look for are new growth appearing on plants and a decrease in droppings.

Rabbits have many of the same plant tastes as deer, so another solution is to plant deer-resistant plants in your landscape.