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1011 N. Woodlawn

Kirkwood, Missouri

63122

314-965-3070

MailSCG@aol.com

Up close and personal with Tina Paletta, horticulturist

Hi -- I'm Tina Paletta, and I've been lucky enough to have worked at Sugar Creek Gardens for eight years.  I have worn many hats on my way to my gardening career.  Married 35 years with four grown children and suddenly with an empty house, I needed something to do.  Over the years I’ve tried my hand at office management, antiques, interior design, and a decorative pillow business.  Having been a gardener all my life, horticulture and garden design were a natural fit for me.  Our local community college offers an associates degree in horticulture.  From there you can go on for a full degree if you are so inclined. I was grateful for everything I’ve learned and the friends that I have made, but I was very anxious to get to work!

Sugar Creek Gardens allows me many opportunities.  During the early spring, we pot up thousands of bare root and our babies (small plugs).  It is a great way to reacquaint ourselves with the plants, both old and new.  Then we get to sell all these wonderful creations and interface with all of our clients.  It is always exciting in the spring when all the familiar faces show up. It’s like welcoming old friends.  I also do garden consultations at homes all over the city and county. 

I love the field of horticulture because it is constantly challenging.  I take several classes a year at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  I also feel that my many clients contribute to my education. On any given day I am presented with gardening questions and design challenges.  Gardeners love to share their knowledge, and our Sugar Creek customers are a wealth of information.

As I walk down the aisles I may exclaim that this is my favorite daylily, or that is my favorite rose, but the truth is that I have many favorites.  Sometimes, too many to fit in my gardens!  Time to kill more grass and make room for flowers!

I will confess to cutting the blooms and bringing them indoors.  In the spring, I can't wait for the peonies to open, and the rest of the year I cut the peony leaves to add to my bouquets.  Everything in the yard is fair game.  Shrub roses, phlox, daylilies, daisies, geraniums, dianthus, coreopsis, clematis, rudbeckias, echinaceas, kalimeris, iris, hostas, alchemilla mollis, astillbes, heucheras, grasses, tiarellas, lobelia, ligularia, nepeta, lamb’s ear, and stokesia are just a few of my perennials.  There is also a long list of annuals that keep the color going all summer long. When I finish with the gardens I start on my containers.  I usually re-do the containers three or four times a year.  To me, each flower is like a little face.  Sometimes they are precious little darlings or brazen little hussies, but they are all a delight.

Speaking of delight, I have been waiting for the Virginia blue bells to open.  The plants are big and lush with all the rain we have had.  With a little sun, they should pop open.  However, this year some wretched rabbit has chewed them all the way down to the ground!  The little pig!  I sprayed Plantskydd throughout the flower beds, but missed the blue bells.  Now I must wait another year.  As the rabbits merrily chew away at the innocent plants, I await the arrival of the Japanese beetle, another destructive visitor.  These insects may be smashed with your gloved hands or tossed into a bucket of bleach and water.  Now the garden is becoming a violent place -- it is every man or bug for himself!  Rabbits beware! I may get a cat -- a garden cat that is, not a house cat.  Just another day in the garden.

Thanks for visiting us at Sugar Creek Gardens.  We greatly appreciate your support.

Take the Guess Work Out of

Plant Selection

At The Perennial Garden Shop at Sugar Creek Gardens you will discover supplies for the serious gardener and nature lover, along with fun and unique items for your home and garden.  Click here to see What's New.

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