New goodies in the catalog!

Our summer of too much rain is sloppily moving along, and the cooler, cloudier weather means plants are in great shape and will ship well, so we're excited to have added to the catalog a few cool new goodies and some old favorites that we haven't listed in a while. Here are a few highlights:

Saxifraga paniculata minutifolia
We're getting back to our alpine plant roots, and glad to be listing this saxifrage with terrific silvery foliage that will nestle happily between rocks in your rock garden. Some saxes are fussy in hot summers, but this is one of the tough survivors and will give no trouble with sun and good drainage.

Tricyrtis macrantha ssp. macranthopsis 'Juro' is a one-of-a-kind plant, a fully double flowered form of this gorgeous species, with huge yellow flowers on trailing stems in the fall.

Lily of the Valley is not a rare plant by any stretch of the imagination, at least not in the regular green form, but there are a lot of really cool variegated forms that are well worth growing. 'Golden Slippers' has beautiful brilliant yellow-green foliage, and 'White Margin' which has a neat white edge to the leaves, much nicer than the usual striped variegated form.

Dicentra canadensis isn't new, but it is beautiful, and now is the time to think about ordering it and other bulk bare root woodland wildflowers like trillium, blood root, and virginia bluebells. All of these will do best planted in the fall, like you would your daffodils or tulips.

If you live locally, we look forward to seeing you are the nursery. We're now on our summer/fall hour, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11 - 5.

Michigan winter is so much fun!

This winter started innocently enough but now, mid February , it is brutally cold. Lows in the negative numbers and highs hardly making it in to the teens most days. The only cure for this is dreaming of the spring ephemerals that will be ready to pop out of the ground like magic at the first opportunity come spring.

Dicentra cucullaria

Trillium grandiflorum

 Now you are probably chiding yourself for not going ahead last fall and placing a bare root wildflower order for fall planting like you had planned, but you know….it is not too late to order for early spring planting and you will not find yourself in the same position next year.

Sangiunaria canadensis

Mertensia virginiana   and    Uvularia  grandiflora

The very best time to plant is in the fall, but as it is too late for that, the next best is EARLY spring, as soon as the ground thaws. We will send them to you while they are still dormant and if you plant them right away you do not have to worry about late frost because they will be under ground. If you can’t plant right away you can keep them in the original packing in a very cool area, like your garage or the refrigerator till you are ready.

Hepatica acutiloba 

Trillium cuneatum

Here’s to hoping winter will go away soon! (I do need to have words with this groundhog)

Plant allionii primroses for early spring color!

We all know that spring can’t possibly get here soon enough… which is why you should always keep your garden well-stocked with EARLY bloomers so that real spring, with flowers in the garden, comes as soon as possible. Of course snowdrops and crocus are great for this… but you may not know (or may not grow) the allionii primroses. 

'Bill Martin'

Allioniis have a reputation for being fussy… but in our experience, they don’t deserve it. They grow great for us in the nursery, and are easy in ground or containers, give the right conditions. 

'Warfdale Village'

They just need decent drainage in the winter and maybe a little shade in the summer to keep the cool. And when they are happy you get low spreading mounds that can completely cover themselves with gorgeous flowers early, early in the spring.

'Mrs. Peggy Wilson'

Check out our whole selection on the website or consider trying an Allionii collection – we’ll pick you out a range of great, vigorous varieties for you to get started with.

 

'Lismore Yellow'

And… if you order before the 18^th, you can still use our two early-bird coupons to save a little cash! When you check out, either enter the code “polar” and get 20% off your entire order (except collections, grafted conifers, and bulk wildflowers) OR you can enter the code “vortex” to get free shipping. Minimum order to use these codes is $150.

Primula x belluensis