Monday – Friday
9am-7pm

Saturday – Sunday
9am-6pm

The beautiful Oakleaf Hydrangea is an easy to care for and low maintenance shrub.  It’s an ideal plant for a partial sun location. The Oakleaf Hydrangeas are 20% off this week.  Hurry in while supplies last and get several of these perfect shrubs for your garden.

Hydrangea ‘Snow Queen’
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Snow Queen

The Snow Queen Hydrangea has large creamy white blooms in June.  Then the leaves turn burgundy in the fall for a striking affect.  This wonderful Hydrangea grows to 8 feet in height and 10 feet in width.

Hydrangea ‘Alice’
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Alice

The lovely Alice has large white blooms in June and the foliage turns burgundy in the fall.  This Hydrangea grows to 6 feet in height and 8 feet in width.

Hydrangea ‘Sikes Dwarf’
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Sikes Dwarf

The Sikes Dwarf Hydrangea has pure white blooms in June through July.  The foliage of this smaller Hydrangea turns burgundy red in the fall.  This Hydrangea grows 3-4 feet in height and 3-4 feet in width.

All clean and dirty dogs are welcome at America’s Best Flowers 3rd Annual Dog Wash on Saturday!  A cool refreshing bath, a nail trim and a professional picture are all a part of our fund raiser for the Dane County Humane Society. 

Your four-legged best friend will be in the loving and gentle care of volunteers from the Dane County Humane Society (DCHS), Tabby and Jack’s Mobile Grooming and Talbot Photography. 

For a suggested $10 donation (or more if you choose) Dane County Humane Society volunteers will shampoo and rinse all those intriguing (?) summer smells from your dog.  All proceeds go directly to the Dane County Humane Society. 

If Rover or Daisy has a very special bath towel, please feel free to bring it on Saturday and have the volunteers use it to dry your dog.  

The DCHS is always in need of towels!  If you have any old and clean towels that you could bring to the dog wash and donate to the humane society it would be greatly appreciated.

Stop by and visit Kelsey, a professional groomer, at the Tabby & Jack’s Grooming booth.  Kelsey can trim those doggie nails either by the traditional method or with a drummel.  The cost for a nail trim by the traditional method is $10 and for the drummel method is $15.  Did we mention that Tabby & Jack’s is donating all proceeds to the Dane County Humane Society?  How great is that!

Here is a helpful tip from Tabby and Jack’s for owners of long haired dogs; long haired dogs should have a good brushing before a bath to remove any matting or knots.  This will allow for a more thorough rinsing of shampoo. 

Don’t forget the brush!  Poochie Portraits, from Talbot Photography will be here to photograph your best four-legged friend.  How about a picture of the two of you together? Look at these two sweeties that posed for Terry at his studio on Atwood Avenue.

Poochie Portraits will be set up in an air conditioned area, so both you and your dog will be cool, calm and comfortable for your photo experience.  Fifteen percent of photo proceeds will go directly to the Dane County Humane Society. How picture perfect is that!

What’s a dog party without prizes!  There will be door prize drawings during the dog wash.  You must be present to win.  We will provide water and treats for the dogs and, ah, those necessary plastic bags (we’ll even do the picking up!)

Bring your darling dirty dog(s) in for a day at the spa and help us reach our goal of $2,000 for the Dane County Humane Society.

Please check the website www.giveshelter.org for a list of much needed dog and cat items.  We will have collection bins for your generous donations.

Let us paws a moment here and ask Mother Nature for a beautiful day!  In the event of lightning, thunder or hurricanes, it will not be safe to continue with the dog wash. However, we would move Tabby & Jack’s indoors to join Talbot’s Photography and everything else will continue as planned.

Please sign up for your dogs’ bath and nail trim upon arrival at the registration table in front of the main greenhouse.  

For safety reasons all dogs must be on a leash.

Remember to mark your calendar for Saturday, August 17^th, from 11am – 3pm.   It’s clean dog day at America’s Best Flowers!

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Back by popular demand!  Our July 13^th flea market went so well that we are going to have another one!   

You have another opportunity to clean out your garage, basement, and cupboards and bring your treasures out to our Flea Market on Saturday, August 24, from 8am-3pm. 

To participate we require a non-refundable registration fee of $20.00.  After you arrive and have your space set up on that morning, America’s Best Flowers will present you with a $20.00 America’s Best Flowers gift card.  Each vendor will be allowed two parking spaces, which equals one booth, to display their wares.   

More vendor space is available for an additional $10.00 for each parking space.  Additional space must be requested at the time of the initial registration.  Each vendor is limited to only one $20.00 America’s Best Flowers gift card regardless of the number of parking spaces.

Rain or shine! Set up time is at 6:30am and the starting bell is at 8am.  This event will end at 3pm.  Vendors will need to bring their own furnishings, tables, awnings, chairs, etc.

For safety purposes all vendor vehicles must be parked in a separate area and will not be allowed in the market area until after 3pm.  Space is limited.  Don’t wait to register! 

To register please send a check to America’s Best Flowers for the number of booths you would like to reserve.  In the memo section of your check please put ‘Flea Market”.  For clarity include a short note stating how many booths you are registering for, a telephone number and/or email address for contact purposes.

Our mailing address is:

America’s Best Flowers
4311 Vilas Hope Road
Cottage Grove, WI 53527

There are a few restrictions on what may be brought to the flea market at our greenhouse.  They are as follows:

• No firearms or ammunition,
• No live animals,
• No flowers and/or plants,
• No alcohol or tobacco is allowed on America’s Best Flowers’ property.

Remember, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.

If you are interested in joining us contact Shirley at abfscimino@yahoo.com or call the greenhouse at 608-222-2269.

From now until September 15 is a great time to plant cool season vegetable crops.  Fall gardens are easy to grow, and it’s a delightful time to work in the garden – there are fewer bugs and it’s not too hot.  To get you started we have cabbage, kale, broccoli and Swiss chard plants.

Because they mature in progressively cooler temperatures, fall crops have a wonderful flavor.  Much better than spring crops.

Cool fall weather actually holds the crops for you right in the garden so you can enjoy your harvest well into October.  Fall garden care is similar to spring gardening, except you don’t have to water as much.  All you do is dig in a little compost at planting time.  If you don’t have a compost pile available, we have it in ready-to-use bags.

Our 4th Annual Art in the Garden event is right around the greenhouse corner. 

Over 40 talented Wisconsin artists will be at our greenhouse displaying their unique creations.  Some of the items available include: jewelry, paintings, weavings, carved gourds, pottery, woodworking, textiles, photography and much more!

Remember to mark your calendar for our 4th Annual Art in the Garden event on Saturday, September 14, from 9-3.  What a great opportunity to get a jump start on your holiday shopping!

For Art in the Garden Vendor Information please go to this link: www.americasbestflowers.com/newsletter/2013/26/index.html#article1326

America’s Best Flowers wants to help you succeed in your gardening efforts. If you have gardening questions send an email to Al Lunde, at abflunde@yahoo.com. Al will get back to you promptly.

Lucy has the Floor
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Shhh, Lucy doesn’t know it yet, but she is going to have a bath on Saturday!  Hubby and I love this.  Lucy gets a nice refreshing bath and Hubby and I stay dry! 

At 1:30 Dr. Sara, from Northside Animal Clinic, is going to do an acupuncture demonstration on Lucy.  This will be just a short demo as a normal session usually takes about 45 minutes.  We are not sure how Lucy is going to react to having people and dogs watching this.  You know what I’m saying?  She is used to being at Dr. Sara’s nice quiet office with just the three of us in the room.  So, please keep your fingers and paws crossed that Lucy will be okay with the change of venue.  If all goes well, then Dr. Sara will do another demo at 2:00.  Space will be limited, so if you are interested in being present for this please send me an email at abfscimino@yahoo.com.   If Lucy isn’t comfortable with having the actual procedure then Dr. Sara will just point to specific areas and discuss the affects and benefits of acupuncture.   Dr. Sara will have handouts available for you to take home. 

By the way, Hubby has a new expression for Lucy.  He refers to her as our roundabout.  Can any of you figure out what it means?  Send me your guess at abfscimino@yahoo.com.  You never know, your response may go in next week’s Chapter 19 along with Hubby’s definition of the term.

`til next time,
    ~ Shirley

If any of you other dog people want to share a dog story send it to abfscimino@yahoo.com.