Want some free irises? Check this out.

Hey folks, my very dear friend and all-around amazing guy Kelly Norris wrote a (fun, gorgeous, wonderful) book about bearded irises, and he's giving it away, along with a collection of actual irises from his nursery. Head here to find out how to win: http://www.beardedirises.info/pinterest-contest-and-book-giveaway/

Playing with weeds

You all know what this is, I suppose. Plantago major, the plantain. Also, apparently, called white man's footstep because it is a European plant that moved across America as rapidly as European humans did and is now of course firmly established as a weed in our lawns, road-sides, and other disturbed areas.
I've always sort of like plantain. One summer as a kid I spent days on end collecting seed from all the plantains in our yard, and carefully threshing and cleaning the seed, pretending I was a farmer harvesting grain.
As an adult my odd love of plantain has taken a new form... There are various interesting forms of this plant out there -- variegated, red leaved, etc. I've been collecting them up and breeding them together to produce new forms. Including this:

What do you think? It has been a side project I've never been terribly serious about because, after all, it is a weed, but... that is actually kind of nice. I'm thinking of calling it Plantago 'Purple Perversion' because alliteration makes me giggle, and you would have to be a little perverted to plant a weed like this on purpose.

Blog follows suit

So, since I started working at Arrowhead Alpines back in March, my life has increasingly come to revolve around it. I love it here... On weekends at home, I find myself wishing I was back at the nursery. So, I suppose it was inevitable that this blog should take on a new life... as of now, this is no longer the Greensparrow Gardens blog, but the official blog of Arrowhead Alpines. Which means... well, basically, the content is going to be the same, I'll still happily provide Sciency Answers and babble about whatever planty-stuff comes to mind. Of course, what comes to mind is often the amazing plants that I get to work with everyday, so stand by to learn all about amazing daphnes, scutellaria, onosma, and tons of other cool plants. I'm also getting bit by the bug of serious butterfly gardening and and and... yeah. I'm having fun, and I plan to share it all with you here.