Garden Center

Metzler's Garden Center announces promotionsJohn Metzler, president and chief executive officer of Metzler's Garden Center & Florist, has announced several promotions in the Columbia-based company.Katrina Metzler-Bellofatto has been named second vice president of operations for the two-store business. She will oversee the floral and gift departments, as well as general operations.Hans Metzler has been named chief financial officer. He will continue to supervise the stores' ornamental trees and shrubs, evergreens and deciduous trees.

Metzler's Garden Center and Christmas Shop will have a grand opening celebration from 8: 30 a.m. to 7: 30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday in its newly renovated quarters in Winfield.The family-owned and operated garden center includes 10,000 square feet of greenhouses, a full-service florist and a 3,000-square-foot Christmas shop.The Metzler family, John and Dotty and children Hans Metzler and Katrina Bellofatto, have owned a center in Howard County for the past 30 years. The center is on the site of the former Rolling Hills Farm and Garden Center at 935 W. Liberty Road.

St. John Baptist Church gets ready for anniversaryPreparing to celebrate its 26th anniversary Sunday, the congregation of St. John Baptist Church is already looking to the future, its pastor says."

Having mastered perennials and ornamental grasses, borders, bulbs and ground covers, gardeners are moving up -- literally. The fashionable yard now features an arbor or trellis draped with graceful vines like ivy, climbing roses, trumpet creeper or clematis.Check your garden center or gardener's catalog. The simple whitewashed fan trellis your grandmother used for her roses has been joined by European-inspired designs made of cedar, powder-coated steel, wrought iron, tree branches and vines, even recycled plastic.

Garden tools and softball equipment worth nearly $1,400 were stolen from the bed of a truck parked in front of a Pasadena garden store Wednesday, county police said yesterday.John D. Slitzer, 27, told police he parked in front of the Garden Center in the 600 block of Mountain Road shortly after 10 a.m. and went shopping.When he returned 2 1/2 hours later, his lawn mower, hedge trimmer, gas-powered weed trimmer, softball bat, softball glove and other items were missing from his truck, police said.

Dotty Metzler remembers when the closest grocery store was in Ellicott City, Route 29 was just a two-lane road and Columbia addresses still were considered part of Ellicott City."

After a decade of providing the supplies that helped Severna Park residents landscape yards and grow their gardens, Wentz Garden Center and Florist Shop is closing its doors.For now, anyway.Owner Bob Wentz said last week he plans to close the shop Dec. 26 or 27. He has found several potential buyers who probably would continue running a nursery at the site on Ritchie Highway, he said.But if they don't come through by March, he said he would reopen as a limited, seasonal gardening center.Mr.

Cutting back or eliminating expensive gifts, holiday trips and other luxuries is almost a given this Christmas, as families tighten their belts and try to weather a relentless recession.But how many families will forgo a Christmas tree?Not many, according to Carville Akehurst, executive director of the Maryland Christmas Tree Growers Association."The economy, per se, is not a big factor in the sale of all Christmas trees," he says. "People are not going to stop buying Christmas trees because of hard economic times.

A HOLIDAY WEEK in Israel consists of a mixture of half working days and complete holidays, so the plant where I work solved the problem by closing for the entire week. As always happens when I have a few days of leave, it coincided with the maturation of a long list of household chores that my wife had been nursing for just such an occasion. I had planned on doing a little reading and writing, but before I could settle in I was dragged off to the shops.First call was the garden center. It's autumn and time to fertilize, turn the soil and plant the winter bulbs and seeds.

SPLURGE OF THE WEEK MADE INTO A SHADE This lightweight tool, called the "soil scoop," handles a number of jobs in the garden. It can lift soil out of tight places, like pots and bags, without spilling. Its serrated edges are handy for opening bags or scoring soil away from the roots of new plants. Its pointed tip is perfect for digging furrows, and its bright colors make it easy to find in the garden. Visit your local lawn and garden center or go to createagarden.com. Suggested price: $17.95.

A former employee of Homestead Gardens went on trial Wednesday, accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the high-end Davidsonville garden center over several years in a complicated scheme involving gift cards. Virginia Lee Christian, 46, of Davidsonville, helped with the 2005 switch from paper to plastic gift cards and then used the new system to siphon off funds, Assistant State's Attorney Michel Cogan told an Anne Arundel County jury in his opening statement. Internal audits in 2007 showed discrepancies between amounts that an electronic payment company was recording in plastic gift card use and sums in the garden center's purchases, he said.

Not every garden project is a raging success. If you have been a gardener for more than 10 minutes, you know that. The ladybug project is one of those not-a-raging-success stories. The cool and rainy spring brought with it plenty of garden pests, including the aphids that were chewing on my roses and the white flies that were attacking my herbs. At the suggestion of one of my colleagues, I decided to try the ladybug cure. Her husband had great success releasing ladybugs in his garden.

Carroll Gardens a quaint and slightly ragged cinder-block garden center at the end of a dirt road in Westminster, is closing at the end of this month after having been a resource for gardeners since the 1930s. Alan Summers, who has owned Carroll Gardens since 1984 and hosted a garden talk show on WCBM-AM for nearly as long, announced his decision Saturday on the show, stunning customers and disappointing longtime employees who had hoped against hope for a reprieve. Though Carroll Gardens is having a very good season, last summer was the worst in memory and the debt has finally overwhelmed Summers, he said.

The stone courtyard, which covers the space between street and front door of Leslie and Blake Goldsmith's Roland Park home, makes the house look as though it's firmly planted on earth and rock. But walk out back and it looks more like the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. Perched at the apex of an acre and buttressed by vine-threaded decks, it clings to a hillside so steep it makes you want to yodel. Some gardeners would have thrown up their hands at this vertical challenge. Not the Goldsmiths.

For years, we relegated gardens to the back yard or to discretely planted aprons around the house. But lately, gardeners -- hungry for beauty and eager to embellish any bit of earth available -- have begun to create curbside gardens. "People want to see some color when they pull in," says Kelly Williams, manager of Kingsdene Nurseries and Garden Center in Monkton. Many also want to make a personal statement. "They want their house to stand out," Williams added. Curbside gardens can enhance the strip between curb and sidewalk, the napkin of ground around the mailbox, or even the dirt around street trees, which can host a gorgeous collection of tough shade-lovers like hosta and coral bells (Heuchera)

A broken water main that temporarily shut down a portion of York Road continued last night to affect traffic in the Cockeysville area. The early morning break closed York Road in Cockeysville from Wight Avenue to Beaver Run Lane, and traffic was detoured. One lane of the road was reopened during the afternoon to northbound traffic, but other lanes remained closed as repair work continued into the night. Officials said they were hoping to open one side of the road to two-way traffic. The 12-inch water main in the 11000 block of York Road broke about 3 a.m. yesterday, Baltimore public works officials said.

SPLURGE OF THE WEEK MADE INTO A SHADE This lightweight tool, called the "soil scoop," handles a number of jobs in the garden. It can lift soil out of tight places, like pots and bags, without spilling. Its serrated edges are handy for opening bags or scoring soil away from the roots of new plants. Its pointed tip is perfect for digging furrows, and its bright colors make it easy to find in the garden. Visit your local lawn and garden center or go to createagarden.com. Suggested price: $17.95.

Tradition takes a holiday this season when it comes to the look of plain poinsettias. Garden centers and florists wanting to separate themselves from the red, white and pink poinsettias discounted at stores such as Wal-Mart and Lowe's are featuring the plants in decorator colors -- everything from lavender and blue to orange and pink. "People either hate or love them, there's no middle ground," says Devin Trippe, head grower at Anderson's Home & Garden Showplace in Newport News, Va. He's created a few of the novelty plants, using floral spray paint and silver or gold glitter to give them added sparkle.

STORE OPENING GREEN FIELDS 5424 Falls Road, Baltimore / / 410-323-3444 Good news for gardeners. Green Fields at Falls Road and Northern Parkway has almost finished a major renovation. It doubles the interior size of the nursery, adds a pavilion with more climate control, and creates a layout that's easier to navigate. When everything is done in mid-January, Green Fields will be more of a garden center, selling not only plants and fertilizer, but also garden tools, books, gift items and even cut flowers.

Sometimes all it takes is an eye-catching accessory to spruce up an outfit. Same with gardens. "The right piece can make the yard," says Sandy Gamble, buyer for American Plant Food in Bethesda. The "right piece" can be anything from a metal, wood, cement or ceramic wall plaque to a gazing ball, a statue, bust or sculpture, a whimsical fence post topper, or even an antique gate. Options abound at garden centers, antique and collectible shops and artists' studios. The object can even be homemade.