Dave Fox prepares to open his Pajarito Greenhouse April 26. Photo by Bonnie Gordon/ladailypost.com
When Pajarito Greenhouse owner Dave Fox enters the room, the conversation immediately turns to plants. “When are you going to open that greenhouse?,” a woman asks. “Do you have any pansies?” He advises another woman to spray corn gluten on goatheads or puncture vines to suffocate the seeds so that they can’t germinate.
The answer to the most frequently asked question once Spring arrives in the area is that Pajarito Greenhouse in White Rock will open at 9 a.m. sharp Wednesday, April 26. Fox said once you enter Pajarito Acres, it only takes 180 seconds to get there.
“Just take a left onto Monterrey and a left onto Rio Bravo,” he said.
Fox and his wife, Anne, moved to their three-acre homesite on Rio Bravo in Pajarito Acres in 1994. There was an existing greenhouse on the property and back then he sought gardening advice from his mother and a friend from high school, Jim McMillan, who operated Rolling Ridge Nursery in St. Louis, Mo.
Over the past 19 years, Pajarito Greenhouse has grown from less than 300 square feet to more than 4,000 square feet of open area filled with plants of all kinds, including some 250 perennials, hundreds of bedding plants, and “anything you can put in a garden”.
“The key thing is they are all selected because they are proven to thrive here … they start growing as soon as they’re put in the ground,” Fox said. “And we carry lots of perennials that do well at our altitude and in our arid climate. But the petunia is still our top selling plant.”
Fox explained that Pajarito has 20 varieties of deciduous, evergreen and fruit trees. Certified arborist Laural Hardin, an accomplished horticulturist, has joined Fox this year.
“Her family operated a nursery in Prescott, Ariz., and more recently spent eight years at Petree’s Nursery in Taos,” Fox said. “Her vision adds to what is already a strong business.”
Return visitors will notice that everything is much more open now at Pajarito Greenhouse. What used to be tucked away in nooks and crannies is now out in the open and Fox said the amount of color will amaze people.
“Everything except the vegetables and tomatoes, which are in the greenhouse, can be seen at a glimpse. All organically grown, with nothing genetically modified,” he said.
“Customers will benefit from onsite expertise in the selection, propagation and care of all kinds of plants, most of which were raised from seeds in Taos thanks to the long association of Laural with Petree’s,” Fox said. “We will have zillions of pansies, which are extremely popular in our area, although we sell more petunias than anything else with the possible exception of tomatoes by a factor of five to one.”
Fox said another wonderful feature due to Petree’s is the quality of their hanging plants and cache pots. He said plants you don’t want to go to seed are grown from cuttings and maintain the beauty they had the day you bought them. There are several varieties of geraniums in different colors, which are kept in an 18 foot by four-foot plastic tunnel that protects them from the weather.
“Pajarito Greenhouse also has organic products that are good for the soil and we know how and why they should be used,” Fox says.
He also has rock phosphorus on hand, which lasts longer as well as an effective deer and rabbit repellant spray.
“You can’t smell it after you apply it, but deer sure don’t like the stuff,” he said.
Fox said there are no “parking lot plants” at Pajarito just left to burn up in the heat of the day. He has five people on hand to make sure plants aren’t overcome by heat.
“Our plants grow immediately when they are transplanted. They don’t suffer a set-back because they were grown in New Mexico at the same altitude and were properly raised from seeds and cuttings,” Fox said.
Pajarito Greenhouse is a department of CB FOX. The greenhouse is at 239 Rio Bravo. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 505.672.3023.
