Monday, November 19, 2012
Candles, fresh flowers, supplies, a step-by-step guide for creating a stunning holiday centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table.
Thanksgiving brings families, friends and neighbors together, reminds us to be grateful for all we have and to be generous toward others. One way to make guests feel special is to include a Thanksgiving centerpiece on the dinner table. Lori Treffens, floral designer at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center, 170 S. River Road in Des Plaines, has 30 years of design experience. Treffens showed Patch step-by-step how to create a beautiful Thanksgiving “long and low centerpiece” with candles, fresh flowers and other products that will add a festive decoration to your party, and give your guests one more thing for which to be thankful. The same concepts and techniques presented here about how to create a Thanksgiving centerpiece can be applied …
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Find out what works best for plants.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Andy Cuautle, sales associate and plant analyzer at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. Cuautle said he regularly answers customers’ questions about watering, especially when temperatures are as high as they have been recently. He shared these watering tips with Patch. Stay connected: Receive an email from Des Plaines Patch with headlines in the morning. Many plants including annuals, perennials and hanging baskets should be watered once a day if it is 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and twice a day if the temperature is 85 degrees or more. Avoid watering foliage; water the ground. Water that sits on leaves may act like a magnifying glass, and burn the leaves. Also, water has chlorine in it, and it can …
Monday, June 11, 2012
Share your favorite pictures from the community; click the green “Upload Photos and Videos” button.
A customer walks through the aisles of flowers in a greenhouse at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center, 170 S. River Road, on Friday afternoon. Pesche’s has a wide variety of plants for sale including flowers, vegetables, herbs, bushes, trees, grass and hanging plants. Earlier: Teens can read for Starbucks gift card. Pesche’s has been contributing garden tips on Des Plaines Patch. If you would like to contribute on Patch, click here. Related: Check out all the photos of the day. The last one was of the River Road bear. Stay connected: Stay connected: Receive an email from Des Plaines Patch with headlines in the morning for free. Adding Events and Announcements to Patch is a breeze. Simply click, type and click again. Join the …
Sunday, June 10, 2012
What to look for to detect the four-lined plant bug.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. Many of our customers have brought in plants covered with ugly, purple spots. The spots look similar to fungal disease spots, and can be misidentified as such. The damage is inflicted by the four-lined plant bug, also known as “little thugs.” Earlier: Six Metra railroad crossings scheduled for repairs this summer, click to find out when and where. Poecilocapus lineatus is easily identified by the four black strips running down its back. The little thugs have a wide range of hosts including fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and cucurbits. With piercing-sucking mouthparts, the four-lined plant bug removes the plant's chlorophyll…
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Customer’s mealy bugs misdiagnosed at chain store.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. Several of our customers have come in with insect problems improperly diagnosed by garden departments in chain stores. For example, one customer came in with mealy bugs. The customer had a tropical Jasmine houseplant covered with a sticky white substance called Honeydew, which is a secreted liquid the mealy bugs draw out of the plant. The salesman from a chain store recommended a fungicide, which had no effect on the problem, and it got progressively worse, finally ruined the plant and spread to several other houseplants. Earlier: Willows Academy girls’ soccer goes undefeated in regular season, ends season as ISL champions and …
Monday, May 28, 2012
Natural, organic solutions and insecticides.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. The beetles are coming, and not the ones from Liverpool! Right now Japanese beetles are pupating into beetles. They've done some turf damage as grubs and as beetles they consume plant materials. When beetles emerge in June, they begin feeding on the growing plants and then move to tree leaves. Adults skeletonize leafs, eating the tissue between the veins. Attacked leaves are laced and soon wither and die. Earlier: Multi-talented celebrities are on Dancing with the Stars and library shelves. Adult beetles feed on over 400 species of broadleaved plants but they prefer about 50 species. Beetles also enjoy eating flower bulbs and …
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Fungus can take over roses, lawns and other plants.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. With the cool damp weather fungal problems are growing, and it’s important to understand how fungicides work, and exercise some curative caution, so you don’t burn your plants. Roses succumb to rust, including “knockout” roses, black spot, and powdery mildew. Ninebarks and currants can be covered with downy mildew and lawns can become inundated with powdery mildew. Make sure the plants you intend to treat with fungicide are hydrated the day before you spray to avoid burning the tissues of the plant. It takes a while for the water to go up through the plant and be absorbed by plant tissues. Related: Check out all the garden tips…
Friday, May 4, 2012
Two-week window is ideal, after the lilac flowers and the flowers dry.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. Last fall we aggressively pruned our lilac bushes; this spring they didn't flower! What happened? This question is frequently asked. If you prune your lilacs in the fall or late winter and they will not flower the following spring, or possibly for a couple springs. Lilacs set their flower buds on old wood in the fall, which will bloom the following spring. There is a time frame of about two weeks after the lilac flowers and the flowers dry to accomplish this chore. Lilacs pruned in this manner will flower robustly the following spring. Broken branches or limbs that rub against each other can also be pruned at this time. Earlier…
Saturday, April 28, 2012
What to do with daffodils, tulips and hyacinths when they’re done flowering.
This week’s garden tip was submitted by Wally Schmidtke, sales manager at Pesche’s Flower Shop and Garden Center. A frequently asked question from our customers is, what do I do with my daffodils, tulips and hyacinths when they're done flowering? A common mistake is to cut off the green foliage after flowering which causes the bulb not to flower next year or possibly to expire. When the flowers fade and begin to dry, cut the flower's stem off at the base of the plant. Flower heads left on the plant will go to seed, robbing important energy that should stay in the bulb. Related: How to make your own drip watering system and more watering tips. Leave the foliage on the plant until it turns yellow and dry. Then cut off the leaves at soil …
The family-owned business has been in operation for more than 80 years.
The winner for best florist in the 2012 Readers’ Choice, taking the title with 63 percent of the vote, is Pesche’s Flowers and Garden Center! Pesche’s flower shop, greenhouse and garden center, a family-owned business founded in 1923, is a Des Plaines classic. Whether you need grass seed and flowers in the spring, or pumpkins and Christmas trees later in the year, Pesche’s is a full-service store for flowers and plants for every occasion, season and landscape. Earlier: Click to find out which martial arts program took the Readers’ Choice title for 2012. Pesche’s also offers how-to seminars, and contributes garden tips on Patch. Check out all of the Garden Tips by Pesche to turn your thumb green. C.R. Flowers, 1932 S. River Road, also drew …
