Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 11 · column 5 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
refuse to sell me market packs in the non-blooming stage. Any serious gardener knows that a robustly flowering,' 3-inch-tall annual has been unnatural-! ly food forced into this condition to look good on the show counter. Once! in the garden, the plant has to recover' from the stress and usually fails to thrive for quite a while...” 1
Readers asked for more-complete information. There is a “lack of corn-1, plete botanical names on plants; a tag! saying ‘Astilbe spikes’ does not tell me! enough; A return trip to the garden center to determine whether this Astilbe was 12 or 36 inches tall was a waste of time”;
“Why do we let pesticide compa-. nies get away with making the public; think that every insect should-be sprayed into oblivion? As a Mastef! Gardener volunteer with the Virginia! Beach Growline (a gardening hotline),'! I routinely answer calls on how to kill! every insect in sight. Last week, !; received a call from a woman wanting5 to know what to spray on a Luna moth; that was hanging on her windowscreen. Last year, I had a call asking;! how to get rid of earthworms.” , '!
Finally, a word of concern about !a! problem that is not as common as-if! once was — allowing staff who have! not been properly trained to answer; questions that require sound horticirt-1 tural knowledge. Bad horticultural;' advice means more failures, less satis-! fled customers, and fewer repeat sales.!
Dr. Diane Relfis an environmental! horticulturist with Virginia Cooperative Extension and is a mem,-' ber of the faculty of Virginia Tech ,
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