Laura Bryant is a Colorado fiber artist. Her rope and fabric bowls, baskets and artworks are all one-of-a-kind machine sewn artworks. She elevates simple recycled materials into layers like paint on a canvas. The threads, fabrics and ribbons in various widths and stitches add a painterly element to works that could have merely utilitarian.
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Lili Christensen – Handspun Yarn
A fiber and fabric lover from her earliest years, Lili learned to knit from her mother when she was eleven, and went on to study painting, printmaking and fashion design. She learned to spin at age 24, and so began a life-long passion. Lili begins each morning with a contemplative hour at her spinning wheel.
Her love of color and pattern and a fascination with the unique qualities of wool from different breeds of sheep keep her spinning! No two skeins are ever alike, and each awaits someone making something special from them. Lili provides the story behind each skein and recommendations for the best knitting patterns to show them off. Use a one-of-a-kind skein to make a very special gift or gift the yarn to a needle-crafter who will delight in its beauty and its story.
Seeds from Botanical Interests
Botanical Interests goes to great lengths to provide all the information you need, and more (like an illustration of what the seedling looks like when it emerges), on both the outside and the inside of the packet, plus stunning, botanically accurate illustrations by highly skilled local artists adorning the front of each packet! We have carefully selected varieties from their catalog that will thrive in Colorado’s short season, early heat, cool nights, etc.
Enjoy them in your own garden and share them with a friend.
Pebble Art Jewelry
Eve discovered Pebble Art Jewelry when she was lured into their little shop by an arresting display of jewelry made from ancient Roman glass. This year Kate Head has again brought us wonderful pieces featuring fragments of 1200 year old Roman era glass from the Mediterranean region in gorgeous shades of blues, greens and iridescent pearl combined with modern styling, and at very reasonable prices.
She has also brought a variety of lovely and affordable earrings, bracelets and necklaces featuring with semi-precious natural stones and pearls. Pebble is located at 7980 Niwot Road next door to the Niwot Market.
Linda Toomre Fiber Arts
Linda loves color! And she loves the creative process of making things from yarn or cloth. She started out in fiber arts as a weaver, but expanded into other forms as well, and is now also an accomplished quilter. She has brought her popular heat-insulated quilted cotton potholders, along with her new placemats to our Holiday Market.
Linda has been an active member and past president of the Handweaver’s Guild of Boulder for many years, with galleries throughout Colorado showing her work.
Lynn Mattingly Quilts
Our dear friend Lynn Mattingly is a renowned fiber artist and has been practicing and teaching quilting for decades. An exceptional sense of color-combining, a fabulous collection of fabrics and a mastery of design and craftsmanship combine to make Lynn’s work really special. Sturdy and machine-washable, they are not only gorgeous but also practical.
This year we offer her Small Quilts and Table-Runners. Lynn lives just over the hills in Paonia, CO.
Renee’s Glass Jewelry
Artisan Renée McDougall of Longmont became interested in crafting with glass while working at the Stained Glass Supply Company. At her home studio, she works mostly in fused glass, a process that can take up to 11 hours from start to finish.
We have her sparkly and very affordable dichroic glass pendant necklaces, popular stocking-stuffers every year! See our Art & Home section for more of Renee’s work.
Peter Buwalda Fine Art
Living outside of Boulder and inspired by the great beauty of Colorado and its diverse landscapes, accomplished painter Peter Buwalda’s depictions of trees, flowers and pollinators go beyond simple documentation. Peter composes complex imagery that uses nature to evoke emotional responses such as hope and perseverance while maintaining accuracy. His art is collected worldwide and is quickly gaining acclaim in the Rocky Mountain area. Many of his honeybee images are on permanent exhibit in the National Agriculture Museum in Ottawa, Canada. Peter offers fine art greeting cards and original paintings, and may still have some prints available.
PhoTo Art by Gretchen Steinbrueck
Photographer Gretchen Steinbruek’s work creating art from natural subjects is so stunning, we had to bring it to you this year! These images, printed on glass, have an inner glow and the definition of the foreground subjects is remarkable.
One look at this work and you’ll want to gift it to your loved ones who garden or love nature, and to acquire one for yourself!
Pinon Hill Clay Studios – Nicole Copel
Nicole Copel is a Colorado artist working out of Pinon Hill Clay Studios in LaVeta, where she creates one-of-a-kind works of art.
EFFERVESCENCE is characterized by bright colors and round shapes against a white porcelain clay surface. This playful series adds a little buoyancy to a time when it is all too easy to be dragged down by the seriousness and challenges of being human. My hope is that the work brings levity to the people that live with it.
Renee’s Glass
Artisan Renée McDougall of Longmont became interested in crafting with glass while working at the Stained Glass Supply Company. She works mostly in fused glass, a process that can take up to 11 hours from start to finish. Renée uses her home studio for crafting many different glass pieces, from jewelry to bowls, trays and hanging art.
We think her cast glass hanging Green Man will make a lovely addition to any gardener’s window or porch! And again this year, she’s adding a female wood-spirit face to join him.
Rejuvenated Remnants
Joan Hemm began working with the fabrics found in thrift-store draperies, duvet covers, tablecloths, and sheets in high school where there was no budget for costumes for the drama department’s productions. We first met Joan at a Boulder County Farmer’s Market, where she was dressed in a wonderful period costume portraying Susan B. Anthony in honor of Women’s Suffrage, and armed with voter registration forms. She had, of course, made her costume from remnants.
Fashioned from top quality ‘designer’ home decor fabric remnants (small new, unused leftovers), Joan reimagines the fabrics into one-of-a kind crossbody bags for us. She designed her pattern based on features she personally wanted: a “gusset” to create a roomier interior, a pocket on the back for a cell phone, inside pockets, cotton linings, and an adjustable strap. Just what we all wanted! And this year she has made laptop carrying bags, too!
Sondra Finch Cards & Ornaments
Sondra’s beautiful pressed-flower botanical cards and ornaments are a true delight and will be treasured for years! Sondra also brings us her original hand-knitted hats, headbands, and faux-fur scarves, featured in our Personal Adornment section.
Sally Hartshorn Earrings
Sally is a retired Registered Nurse. She fell in love with felting when she saw some on a trip to Massachusetts, where she grew up. She also makes silk fusion art , sculpture and jewelry. Her love of vibrant color is reflected in most of her art work.
When she is not immersed in art, she is out bathing in nature somewhere with her lovely husband, tending their garden that is filled with many native plants and advocating for Long COVID survivors, which she had.
Sondra Finch Knitwear
Sondra joined us late in our 2015 holiday market and her fun, original hand-knitted hats and headbands immediately set off a buying frenzy! Eve gets compliments wherever she goes when she wears the fabulous feathery headband Sondra made, even from strangers on the street!
We’ve stocked up on her pieces this year, including her soft, snuggly ‘mobius’ scarves, hats and headbands, as well as her beautiful pressed-flower botanical cards.
Trek Light Gear
Trek Light Gear Fanny Packs & Bindle Daypacks
Boulder-based Trek Light makes excellent recreational gear, and partners with a global tree-planting NGO to plant a tree for every product sold.
A great new product is their 100% water resistant, perfect-sized Fanny Pack that easily converts from hip pack to crossbody shoulder sling, worn on your front or back, and adjusts easily to fit adults of most sizes. Constructed with 4 zippered compartments, multiple pocket organizers, and even a hidden key clip, it comes in two fabric patterns to choose from. The wide, soft webbing strap and quilted back assure your comfort.
The Bindle Pack returns! From pocket-sized to perfect-sized, this awesome daypack can go everywhere with you. Stored in its attached tiny stuff-sack, it can ride in your glove compartment, bicycle pack, pocket or backpack and come out to play for any impromptu or planned day hike, shopping trip or festival. You get hands-free comfort, adjustable straps, amazing capacity, easy care, tremendous strength and durability (made of parachute nylon). Eve has been using hers for 10 years and doesn’t go anywhere without it!
Sustainable Threads
Sustainable Threads is an exclusively fair trade, eco-focused company promoting handmade lifestyle products, carefully co-designed with their artisan partners in India and assuring them a living wage from their craft. Traditional art techniques are used to craft a collection with a modern sensibility.
Their kitchen towels are hand block-printed with non-toxic dyes on heavy weight, highly absorbent Kora unbleached/unprocessed cotton fabric. The geometric patterns are as perfect for modern minimalist settings as they are for traditional and eclectic kitchens. We are also carrying their placemats and richly colored handwoven napkins.
Theresa Haberkorn Woodcut Printed Products
We are fortunate that Theresa Haberkorn, woodcut printmaker, has made Boulder her home for more than two decades. Her masterful woodcut prints are found in exhibits and collections nation-wide, and she teaches her artform as well. Theresa brings her art to household items as well, hand-crafting a charming wall calendar, and an assortment of cards.
To find out more about the process of woodcut printing, visit Theresa Haberkorn Artist | Printmaker | Designer.
Wax Crescent Candles
Our scented and poured candles are from Longmont resident Kym Terribile, who started making candles when she found out that the candles she was burning were full of toxic chemicals.
Wax Crescent candles are made with pure ingredients: US-grown soy wax, scented with phthalate-free fragrance oils and high-quality essential oils, and the wicks are lead-free, zinc-free cotton. The recyclable glass jars are adorned with simple, attractive labels. If lighting a candle signifies creating a sacred space for yourself, why would you settle for less?
Good News from the Old Guy
I turned 75 this year so I get to give some perspective on the state of the world. Here is some of the good news that is not being reported these days. I should begin by acknowledging that, oh, yes, there are lots of things that are getting worse, but many things are getting better, too.
In 1976 when I was starting to manage a little apple orchard organically, the general consensus and what I was told, was that “there are two crops you cannot grow organically: apples and cotton”. Lesson: don’t believe everything the experts tell you about what we can’t do. [Read More]
Kisu Lip Balm – Harlequin’s Exclusive!
Created by Pamela Clum’s Plum Botanicals, a small fair-trade organic skin-care line based here in Boulder Valley. This long-lasting lip balm is based on wild-collected African shea butter from a women’s cooperative, and lightly scented with the marvelous, unique, citrus-y essential oil of neroli.
Shea butter is a natural sun-blocker, so it really helps prevent chapping in all seasons. Kisu is still, by far, Eve’s favorite lip balm!
Gardening Tools
Plants are, of course, the main thing every gardener wants in their garden. But to garden, one also needs some tools, and the quality of those tools makes a BIG difference in the comfort, ease, and speed of getting those garden chores done. Durability, reliability, precision, and ergonomic design don’t generally come cheap. A quality handsaw or pole-saw, a pair of pruning shears, loppers or hedge-trimmers will, with a little maintenance, last a lifetime.
We love our hori-hori knives, and we have our favorite, nearly indestructible trowels for you this year.
Did someone you love just plant a home orchard? A berry patch? A new landscape? They’re going to need some good tools, and we’ve got them!
Japanese Knife-Weeder (Hori Hori)
Reviewed by former HG staffer Deb:
“This is the best all-around tool ever! Whenever I go out into the garden with no particular task in mind (other than peace of mind putzing) I grab this tool. It can dig, saw into fat roots, slice into bindweed roots with the pointed tip, it’s wonderful. I have a sheath for it which slides nicely onto a regular belt or garden-tool belt. I love using it for planting bulbs as I can make a deep, small hole. If I could only have one tool forever, I would choose this one.”
Meet the Natives
Meet the Natives Author Dan Johnson, curator of Native Plant Gardens at DBG, invites you to meet the native plants of Colorado. He has updated Pesman’s classic field guide to make the guide more useful than ever before. Herbaceous flowering plants are organized by color for faster identification, and color photos assist with accurate identification. Horticultural information is included to help you bring these durable and beautiful native plants into your own garden.
2022 Holiday Gift Market Opens Saturday!
From your previous visits in the last ten years, many of you know that our Holiday Market is the most rewarding, enjoyable place to shop for your holiday gifts, relaxed and far from the madding crowd! But these are strange and challenging times, and the pandemic has altered just about every facet of our lives. So, for a while there, we wondered how we could present a holiday gift market under the current circumstances. We realized that the only way we could keep our customers (and staff) safe and happy while shopping our market was to move it up to October!
[Read More]
The Victory Garden of Tomorrow – Garden Signs
Joe Wirtheim, a gifted young artist and designer in Portland, OR, is inspired to: “ignite America’s progressive streak by making work that builds confidence and excitement in a healthy, connected future. Since 2008 I have been making posters and other neat stuff to inspire better gardens, better food and better cities. I love what I do: think, draw, make and do. It’s my passion to communicate graphically and put creative ideas into action that drives me. I use illustration, type, color and layout to excite the viewer’s imagination. I turn these graphic ideas into quality goods, which, I’m proud to say, are made here in the USA.”
Joe’s beautiful designs, in the form of front yard signs and patches will help spread positive messages about actions we can all take to collaborate with nature so that we can improve our future!
A Taste of some GREAT GIFT BOOKS COMING SOON!
Time to store this year’s bounty! The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest is a dependable classic source of instructions and recipes for drying, pickling, canning, and freezing the fruits of your labors. And after the garden has been put to bed for the winter, there will be time for reading! The most useful, practical, and enlightening books on gardening, nature and natural healing are on our shelves now, with more of the following titles arriving any day now! Don’t forget that one of the benefits of being a Harlequin’s Gardens Member is a 25% discount on all books, all season long! [Read More]
The SEED Situation
“The less biodiverse any system is, the greater the potential for its collapse.” Janisse Ray, from The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.
We’ve been reading headlines stating that 93% of seed varieties available in the early 20th century had disappeared from commerce by 1980. The biggest factor in this drastic decline in diversity is consolidation of the industry. The big multi-national corporations have systematically bought up smaller companies and in so doing have ended production of vast numbers of time-tested open-pollinated and older hybrid varieties and prioritized the production of new patented proprietary hybrids. [Read More]
All about Basil
Basil is one of the great culinary pleasures of summer, and it’s definitely NOT TOO LATE to plant Basil and enjoy a good crop! Basil plants are beautiful, grow equally well in the ground or in pots, thrive in hot weather, provide a continuous, bounteous crop, and Basil’s many different flavors are essential to a variety of distinctive cuisines. It can be used fresh, dried, or frozen in oil or as pesto. Though basil leaves lose most of the aromatic oils when dried, we have still found that basil dried from your garden is so much more flavorful than commercial dried basil.
ALL of our Basil plants are organically grown! [Read More]
Pollinator Pathways: Rewilding Boulder Landscapes
We’re excited that the City of Boulder is gathering feedback from the community about how we use our yards, preferences for landscaping and interest in a citywide effort to create pollinator habitat patches and pathways. Pollinator pathways connect safe, pesticide-free native plant patches of habitat for bees, birds, butterflies, and other wildlife to provide food and nesting sites. Native pollinators are vital to our ecosystems and pathways support pollinator populations, as well as safe passage for movement across the city.
Take Time to Review Your 2021 Garden
‘Tis the season of mailboxes stuffed with seed and nursery catalogs, and we know all too well the temptations therein! Our gardens may be dormant, but our plant lust is not, and haven’t we all been sucked in by glossy photos of sexy new must-have plants, even though we haven’t a clue where we’ll put them? We recommend that you try to resist, at least long enough to evaluate your existing garden.
Winter is actually a great time to turn a critical eye to your garden and see what works and what doesn’t. What is the main purpose of your home landscape, and how can it be enhanced? [Read More]
Gifts for Foodies and other eaters
The Front Range is a hotbed of innovation and passion for quality food with real flavor and real nutritional value. Whether it’s the micro-brews, coffee, chocolate, heirloom vegetables, pasture-raised meats, or ancient grains, or the gluten-free, paleo, keto, or vegan diet, Front Range Coloradans have shown great support and enthusiasm for slow, locally-grown, organic, fair-trade and creative, locally hand-crafted foods.
You can pick up a mouth-full or a basket-full of some of our favorite locally crafted specialty foods this month at our Holiday Gift Market all of them will easily keep through the holidays and beyond. [Read More]
Easier Online Gift Certificate Giving!
We’ve just made it much easier to purchase a Harlequin’s Gardens Gift Certificate online!
Our Gift Certificates can be purchased online year-round, and at any time of the day. You can select from 15 thematic designs, customize the amount that you would like to give, and add your own personal message.
You can then choose to send it via email immediately or on a future date, or to print it out and hand-deliver or mail it yourself. Following receipt, your recipient will be able to research their balance at any time. [Read More]
New Seeds for Fall, Winter, & Early Spring Planting!
Sow Fall Crops and be ready for the 2022 growing season! We’re bringing in fresh seeds, packed for 2022, from our local Botanical Interests Seed Company, and should have them on display sometime this Thursday. Most of these seeds are certified organic.
Now is a great time to plant seeds for fall crops such as spinach, lettuce, mesclun, kale, swiss chard, arugula, mustard greens, and watermelon radish. Sow seeds this fall for mache, which will provide tasty salad greens in late winter, before the more conventional spring greens are ready. Fall sowing is also ideal for hardy, drought-tolerant annual flowers like borage, California poppies, cornflower, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, breadseed poppies, and Shirley poppies.[Read More]
Woody Plant Die-back and Pruning
October 2020 went from record high temperatures in the 80s to record lows, 19 degrees by October 25. May 2021 also made some shocking temperature changes. These rapid and dramatic changes can cause woody plants to die back, lose branches or die completely.
Mikl has been waiting and waiting before pruning this spring, because sometimes our woody plants can leaf out very late. Here is a way to tell when to prune: [Read More]
Our Best Selection of Plants for the 2021 Season is Here Now!
Our best selection of plants for the 2021 season is here now! Our selection of plants for shade and part shade has never been better, including Hosta (many kinds!), Ferns (5 kinds!), Bergenia, Hellebore, Foxglove, Geranium (many), Coral Bells (many), Monkshood, Persicaria, Pulmonaria, Golden Wood Poppy and Clematis (lots!), and some new selections, like Solomon’s Seal (2 kinds)!
The Ups & Downs of July
First, let’s count our blessings: the cool and wet spring has been great for plant growth (and of course, weeds galore!). The profusion of wildflowers this spring has been glorious, the foothills are still green going into July, and conditions for gardening are now quite pleasant. And we will have fruit on most of our fruit trees! Don’t forget to thin them to keep branches and trunks from breaking.
Colorado is well known for surprising weather events, but this year has been exceptional and, in some cases, record-breaking. [Read More]
MEMBERSHIP & WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS – 2025 Newsletter
HARLEQUIN’S GARDENS ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
Join or renew now for benefits through December!
2025 Membership – Support and Celebrate 33 Years with us!
Choose the level of support that is right for you: the same benefits for all levels
CARNIVAL: $25 JAMBOREE: $50 GALA: $100 Fiesta: $250
In direct return for your support and generosity, Members will receive:
- 50% off their first Harlequin’s-hosted class (up to $11.50)
- 25% discount on books…All season (no discount if already discounted)
- Special Sales for Members only (announced in e-newsletter)
Your support helps us to:
- Continue our Staff Fund to help support and retain our valuable staff
- Invest in upgrading our Xeric Groundcovers Garden and other demo gardens
- Support customer education through our Regionally accurate Plant Descriptions and Plant Database
- Collect local seed to be able to provide plants genetically adapted to our region
- To be able to provide free plant and soil advice and help with pest questions
You can sign up to be a member on our website, at the nursery, or mail a check to Harlequin’s Gardens, 4795 North 26th St. Boulder, CO. 80301
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MEMBERS!!!
E-NEWSLETTERS
Please, subscribe to receive our weekly newsletters by email!
Our e-newsletters have timely garden advice and reminders, as well as news of stock arrivals, upcoming classes, special events and sales, etc. This is the best way we can give you detailed and up-to-date information at the time when it is relevant. Subscribe here, and please remember to add us to your Contact List so your email server doesn’t throw us in the trash!
FACEBOOK – Please LOVE and follow us on Facebook and @harlequinsgardens on Instagram!
MEMBERSHIP & WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS – 2023 Newsletter
HARLEQUIN’S GARDENS ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
Join or renew now for benefits through December!
Choose the level of support that is right for you: the same benefits for all levels
CARNIVAL: $22 FIESTA: $35
JAMBOREE: $50 GALA: $100
In direct return for your support and generosity, Members will receive:
- 50% off their first Harlequin’s-hosted class (up to $11)
- 25% discount on books…All season (no discount if already discounted)
- Special Sales for Members only (announced in e-newsletter)
- Special coupons for Members only
Your support helps us to:
1) Continue our Staff Fund to help support and retain our valuable staff
2) Invest in upgrading our Xeric Groundcovers Garden and other demo gardens
3) Support customer education through our Regionally accurate Plant Descriptions and Plant Database
4) Collect local seed to be able to provide plants genetically adapted to our region
5) Be able to provide free plant and soil advice and help with pest questions
You can sign up to be a member by clicking here, at the nursery, or mail a check to Harlequin’s Gardens, 4795 North 26th St. Boulder, CO. 80301..
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MEMBERS!!!
E-NEWSLETTERS
Please, subscribe to receive our weekly newsletters by email!
Our e-newsletters have timely garden advice and reminders, as well as news of stock arrivals, upcoming classes, special events and sales, etc. This is the best way we can give you detailed and up-to-date information at the time when it is relevant. Subscribe here, and please remember to add us to your Contact List so your email server doesn’t throw us in the trash!
FACEBOOK – Please LOVE and follow us on Facebook and @harlequinsgardens on Instagram!
Nearly 200 coutries have agreed to a legally binding “high seas treaty”. Twenty years in the making, this treaty finally evaluates commercial activities like deep sea mining, industrial fishing and shipping in order to protect marine life and biodiversity in international waters.
CNN 2023
Spring Weather Protection Tools
We know Mother Nature teases Coloradans with delightful warm weather days in between snow and cold spells, and while they give us hope for the warm spring days ahead, this is a pattern that will continue through March, and into April.
If you’re eager to get your garden started here are tools that you can gather now, which will help your plants succeed during the turbulent early spring transition period. [Read More]
Bulb Tips from Eve
Species Crocus are the earliest Crocus to flower, at least two weeks before their Large Flowering siblings, and are the best for early spring lawn tapestries: hold off mowing the lawn until the foliage has died back. Drifts are also lovely in garden borders and rock gardens. Plant 4” deep and 3- 4” apart, about nine bulbs per square foot for a dense planting. (Crocus are also good for forcing indoors over the winter. Pot them up in mid-October and pre-cool them at a consistent, dark 38 to 45 degrees F for eight to ten weeks with moderate watering. Bring them into the house ~ they will bloom about four weeks later.)
Narcissus (Daffodil) Culture
Narcissus are easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Best in organically rich, sandy to loams that drain well. Plant bulbs 4-6″ deep and 3-6” apart in fall. After the flowers have bloomed, the top portion of each flower stem may be removed, as practicable, to prevent seed formation, but foliage should not be cut back until it begins to yellow.
All daffodil flowers face the sunniest direction they can locate, so if planted along a wall or with shadow at their backs, they will always face outward. With daffodils, it is a good idea to ponder which way they are going to face before selecting their position, as a grouping that faces toward sunlight through a picket fence and away from the yard might seem to have been planted backwards, their heads bowed away from the garden’s viewer.
Best known for their wonderful scent, Jonquillas are floriferous, late blooming, and extremely durable, with slightly shorter, smaller blooms that look like miniature versions of many of the larger daffodil favorites. Typically, at least three flowers are borne on each stalk. Jonquilla Daffodils like hot, baking summer sun and naturalize well, creating beautiful sweeps of color.
Cold Snap Alert!
We were just getting comfy and confident in the progressing spring weather, when Mother Nature reminds us that She is in control!
According to the NOAA extended forecast for Boulder, CO, there is a Hazardous Weather Outlook for northeast and north central Colorado later this week. Our weather is expected to shift beginning Thursday night into Friday when a cooler and wetter pattern moves in. Night temperatures Thursday are forecast to drop to about 40˚F, and day temperatures will hover in the low 50s. Friday and Saturday could bring even lower temperatures, with highs of only 45 and lows of 33, possibly accompanied by strong winds, rain, snow and/or H_ _L! It appears that this weather pattern could continue through Sunday / Monday. Temperatures in your garden will depend on your elevation and exposure, and could drop below freezing.
What this means for your plant care, especially tender vegetables, and annuals, is that it’s time to prepare to bundle them up later in the week before the cold snap arrives. Here’s how you can best do so. [Read More]
SEEDS – 2022 Newsletter
This year we continue to offer a wonderful selection of seeds from our local BOTANICAL INTERESTS for tried-and-true vegetables, herbs, flowers, and sprouts, microgreens and cover crops, and local BEAUTY BEYOND BELIEF (BBB) seeds for individual and mixed wildflowers. And from SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE, preserving and sharing heirloom varieties, we offer some of our favorite time-tested veggies and flowers.
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
– Howard Zinn
Earth Day 2021 – Thursday, April 22
We hope you will celebrate Earth Day, maybe all week. It is good to acknowledge that we have a planet and that it has been supportive of life and human life for a long time. Unfortunately, we humans have not treated Her well, Gaia, our Mother Earth. We were told the story that we humans are the masters of the earth and that all the creatures and resources are here for our use and glory. Not everybody believed that story. Chief Joseph told our ancestors: “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.” [Read More]
Boulder County’s First Botanic Garden!
In mid-August, Mikl and Eve had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful, newly created and planted Rocky Mountain Botanic Gardens in central Lyons, CO. Envisioned and designed by herbalist, botanist, and educator Garima Fairfax (a beloved former Harlequin’s staffer!) and brought to fruition with a team of dedicated volunteers and grant money, the non-profit botanic garden is a delightful and educational display of native annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, and trees. It is easily accessed along popular walking and cycling trails. [Read More]
TREES – 2022 Newsletter
The TREES we sell are smaller than ball & burlap trees that are dug in the field, leaving at least 75% of their roots in the ground. Ours are grown in a container so they have a complete root system and begin growing immediately and are not stressed. Here is a sample of some of our selection.
RUSSIAN HAWTHORN
Very tough and xeric, grows 15’ high and wide, white flowers and red berries, loves Colorado conditions!
ROCKY MT. MAPLE
Native to our foothills, likes to grow in the protection of other trees, red fall color, 10’-15’.
GAMBEL OAK and WAVYLEAF OAK
Both natives that grow 10’-15’, with little water and poor soil, support birds.
HACKBERRY
Good shade tree to replace an ash, a fast-growing hardwood, the most drought tolerant shade tree.
WHITE MULBERRY
The hardiest mulberry, 25-30’ tall and wide, very xeric, white fruit is tasty and does not stain. Brings Western Tanagers, Orioles to your garden!
GOLDEN RAIN TREE
25′ xeric tree with golden flowers in July, orange lantern-like pods, orange fall color, seeds abundantly.
CHOKECHERRY
Native, suckering tree to 15′-25′ with white flowers, edible fruit; great for birds and butterflies.
SUCKER PUNCH CHOKECHERRY
Leaves start green then turn red all season, non-suckering, white flowers, berries.
SILVER BUFFALOBERRY (Shepherdia)
10′ native small tree with edible red fruit on female plants,, silver leaves, very xeric, few thorns.
MAYDAY TREE (Prunus padus)
20′-30′ with clusters of white flowers, then bird fruit, fast screen.
WESTERN CATALPA
40′-50′ with vertical habit, fragrant orchid-like flowers, huge heart-shaped leaves, 12″ beans, xeric and special.
ARIZONA CYPRESS
20′-30′ hardy evergreen, blue foliage is fragrant, not scratchy, quite fast growing, bird favorite.
Plus, Honeylocust, Crab Apples, Silver Maple, Bur Oak, Thornless Cockspur Hawthorn, Aspen, Ptelea, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Ohio Buckeye, Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry, Hot Wings Maple, Alder, Native Birch, Bigtooth Maple, and More!
We have to suck carbon out of the atmosphere naturally — by planting trillions of trees…
– Senior Climate Scientist Brenda Ekwurzel
Winter Watering Alert!
The weather’s wonderful, but a bit DRY! All this sun and wind, and little rain or snow, is stressful to our plants, so don’t forget to give your plants some water. This is especially true for new plantings, evergreens, and roses and most any plant that was planted in September or October. These plants are especially vulnerable and are more likely to suffer or die from dehydration than from cold. [Read More]
SHRUBS & VINES – 2022 Newsletter
We have a large selection of natives and non-natives Shrubs AND Vines
This includes Amorpha, Manzanitas, Mt. Mahoganies, Big Sage, Fringed Sage, Sand Sage, Lilacs, Butterfly Bushes, Pea Shrubs, Gambel Oak, Viburnums, Spireas, Potentillas, Sand Cherry, Rabbitbrush, Fernbush, Mountain Ninebark, Cliff Rose, Lewis Mockorange, Mikl’s Pick Mockorange, Boulder Raspberry, Boxwoods, Cotoneasters, Honeysuckles, New Mexican Privet, Flowering Quince, Ephedra, Euonymus, Sumacs, Currants, Yuccas, and many more!
VINES
Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, Wisteria, Silver Lace, Clematis, Euonymus and MORE!
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
– The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)
Self-sowing Hardy Annuals
Papaver ‘Lauren’s Grape’
Some customers wonder why we are selling starts of self-sowing hardy annuals like Larkspur, Rocky Mt. Beeplant, California Poppy, Peony-flowered Poppy, Pheasant’s Eye, Sweet Alyssum, Nodding Dragonshead, Bee’s Friend, and Desert Bluebell. Shouldn’t they be grown from seed sown directly in the garden? The answer is Yes, they certainly can be, and if you find a source for the seeds and sow them at the optimal time, usually in the fall, you can get great results. But some gardeners report having little or no success with direct sowing: their timing is off, the seeds are watered in and then dry up and are no longer viable, critters eat the seeds, etc. [Read More]
PERENNIALS – 2022 Newsletter
Harlequin’s huge choice of pollinator-supporting Perennials. Including:
NATIVES
Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum ‘Psdowns’ (Kannah Creek® buckwheat). Photo Credit: Plant Select
SULFUR FLOWER KANNAH CREEK
Mahogany fall color. Eriogonum allennii – 3′ wide, very xeric, yellow flowers, a winner. Eriogonum umbellatum – yellow blooms cover xeric native mat, feeds butterflies, bees.
ASCLEPIAS INCARNATA
1′-3′ Full Sun, Attracts butterflies, native and honeybees, hummingbirds.
ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA
Butterfly Weed, orange flowers, 1’-2’ high, essential Monarch food and nectar.
NATIVE PUSSYTOES, ASTER, Arnica, Skyrocket Ipomopsis, Blazing Star, Navajo Tea, Prairie Sundrops (Calylophus serrulatus)
NATIVE BEE-BALM
–Monarda fistulosa: Showy purple blooms bring bees, hummers, butterflies; deer-resistant.
MANY PENSTEMONS INCLUDING P. VIRENS
2”x 8”, short spikes of blue flowers; shiny, dark evergreen leaves.
MANY COLUMBINES INCLUDING
Rocky Mt., Denver Gold, Western Red, Barneby’s
Dalea purpurea (Purple Prairie Clover)
PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER
Long lived xeric native loved by many bee species, bright purple-pink, nitrogen-fixing.
GAILLARDIA ARISTATE – BlanketFlower
LIATRIS PUNCTATA – Gayfeather
OENOTHERAS – Evening Primroses
CHOCOLATE FLOWER
12″ x 24″ wide, yellow daisies with chocolate fragrance, very xeric native.
SPHAERALCEA MUNROANA
Hardy, 18” vivid orange blooms all spring, bee-loved, low-water, silver leaves, rare.
ERYSIMUM WHEELERI/WHEELER’S WALLFLOWER
Tall, long-blooming biennial, vivid burnt-orange flowers, exclusive!
GEUM TRIFLORUM/PRAIRIE SMOKE
Colorado native, handsome foliage, reddish flowers, feathery seedheads, sun/part shade.
Engelmannia peristenia (Engelmann Daisy)
ENGELMANNIA PERISTENIA/ENGELMAN DAISY
Plant Select, neat golden daisies all summer, 18”h low water beauty
TOWNSENDIA HOOKERI & KIN
Native ‘Easter Daisies” grow dry, begin bloom super-early in neat little clumps.
ECHINACEA ANGUSTIFOLIA/NARROW-LEAF CONEFLOWER
Premier immune herb, large pink or white summer blooms.
PLUS, MANY GREAT NON-NATIVES INCLUDING:
MANY AGASTACHES
Blue Fortune, Coronado, Black Adder, A. rupestris.
SAGE
Culinary, Purple, Berggarten, Blue Hill, May Night, Caradonna, Furman’s Red, Mojave, S.azurea, S. argentea.
Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Firewitch’
DIANTHUS
Tuscan Honeymoon – grassy foliage, 2’-3’ stalks of pink flowers late summer D. gratianopolitanus – very tough groundcover. very fragrant pink flowers, durable. D. Blue Hills – the bluest foliage, fragrant flowers, 12” diam. D. Firewitch – fragrant; D. petraeus noeanus – Jasmine Dianthus, powerfully fragrant.
HARDY GERANIUMS
Biokovo, Splendens, St. Ola, Crystal Rose, Cambridge, Ballerina,G. macrorrhizum, G. sanguineum
ECHINACEA
purpurea, Magnus, White Swan, E. tennesseensis, E. pallida, E. paradoxa, Cherokee Sunset
ROSEMARY
Arp, Madeline Hill, Tuscan Blue, Prostrata.
HARLEQUIN’S SILVER GERMANDER, T. rotundifolium, T. chamaedrys
MANY LAVENDERS
Royal Velvet, Grosso, Twickle Purple, Munstead, Hidcote, Thumbalina Leigh, Vera, Wee One.
ORNAMENTAL OREGANO
Kent’s Beauty, Amethyst Falls, etc, cascading groundcovers, long blooming, bee-loved.
PLUS
Scabiosa Fama, Sedum nevii, Corsican Violet, Limonium gmelinii, Lallemantia canescens, Firefly Coralbells, Fancy Heucheras, many Hostas, and many, many more!
TOUGH ANNUALS
Datura meteloides
Snapdragons, Zinnia, Lauren’s Grape Poppy, Petunias, Datura, Pansies, California Poppy, Nicotiana, Salvias, Larkspurs, Peony-flowered Poppies, Swan River Daisy, Sweet Alyssum, Calendula, Kiwi Blue Honeywort, Cleome, Cuphia, Dahlia, Sacred Datura, Gomphrena, Marigolds, Nasturtiums, Baby Blue-Eyes, Love-in-a-Mist, Sun Rose, California Bluebells, Wax Begonia, Blackeyed Susan Vine, Annual Periwinkle, Canterbury Bells, and more!