Bastan Pepper, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds
A few of our NEW PEPPERS
BASTAN F-1 ANCHO/POBLANO – New!
65 days green, 85 days ripe (brown) from transplant, Capsicum annuum, F-1 hybrid
An exceptionally early and adaptable poblano pepper, Bastan plants are extremely high-yielding and robust, and produce big, thick-walled, very dark green, smooth, 4-6”-long, mostly two-lobed peppers that are easy to peel. Fruits may be used at the green unripe or chocolate brown stages. Excellent fried, roasted, stuffed, in chile rellenos or green chile sauces. 1,000 – 2,500 SHU. Plants have an upright habit with excellent leaf cover and concentrated fruit set. Fully ripe poblano peppers are traditionally dried and called Ancho.
TAM JALAPENO – New! – 70-75 days from transplant, Hyb., Capsicum annuum, 3,000 – 5,000 Scoville Heat Units
If you love the flavor of Jalapenos but can’t take the heat, perhaps the Tam Jalapeno is for you. Developed by Texas A&M, it was bred to be highly productive, disease-resistant, widely adaptable, early-maturing, thick-walled, and have great Jalapeno flavor with a lower level of heat – only 1,000-1,500 SHUs, much milder than the typical Jalapeno (3,000-5,000 SHUs). TAM Jalapeño can be made even milder by removing the thin membrane that connects the seeds to the wall of the pepper. Plants grow 2-3 feet tall and should be staked. They produce 3”- long plump dark green peppers with smooth, glossy skin. If allowed to turn red, they will be hotter. TAMs are great for mild salsas and dips, delicious added to salads, tacos or pizza, and great for pickling, jelly, and cooking. Try stuffing them with a variety of fillings for appetizers. Top of Form
YANKEE BELL – New Again! –60 days green, 80 days red, OP, Capsicum annuum
A dependable open-pollinated sweet bell for Northern gardeners. Born on 3’ tall plants, the blocky 3-4 lobed fruits are medium sized and a bit smaller than hybrids but have good yields and better quality and uniformity than most OP bell peppers. Great for salads, stuffing, and cooking. Plants have stronger branches than other varieties.
CARIBBEAN HABANERO – New! – 90 days from transplant, Heirloom OP, Capsicum chinense, 400,000 Scoville Heat Units
Twice as hot as the common habanero! Its pungent, smokey, fruity flavor makes extra spicy salsas, marinades and some very intense hot sauces. The red pods are 2″ long and 1″ wide and grow on vigorous, bushy 3 – 4’ plants. It is so productive the plant may need support when loaded with fruit. We recommend wearing latex gloves and other protection when handling these peppers. With a heat level of 400,000 SHUs, these peppers are loaded with capsaicin which can cause irritation and pain when exposed to your eyes and even to your skin.
RETURNING FAVORITES: Anaheim, Early Jalapeno, Fish, Sheepnose Pimiento, Serrano Tampiqueno, Jimmy Nardello’s, King of the North, Marconi Red, Sweet Chocolate, Cubanelle and more!
We recently passed Boulder Valley’s “average last frost” date (May 9).With all this rain, it sure feels like Spring! Lots of gardeners are asking if it’s safe to prune now, especially roses and shrubs. The answer is YES! But…..
This week, we invite you to visit us and choose some new plants to nurture and mother. And honor the Mothers in your life with the plants, garden items, books, classes or healthy products they’d love. We have a beautiful line of glazed pots for patios, entryways and balconies. Our organic pepper, tomato, and herb starts are pouring in, as are many new perennials and shrubs, roses, vines, grasses, and annuals, all neonic-free. We also have plenty of fruit trees and berry bushes, and seeds for delicious summer crops like beans, basil, cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, and melon, and glorious pollinator-supporting flowers like Lace Flower, Poppy, Zinnia, Sunflower, Nasturtium, Gloriosa Daisy, Cosmos, Morning Glory, and many, many more!
Okay, you prepared your soil and planted your vegetable garden with all kinds of wonderfully flavorful, nutritious foods, you’re watering and watching them grow, and wondering ….. When can I start to eat them, how do I harvest them, and how do I get the most out of these plantings? Here are some tips on vegetable crops harvest timing and techniques that may not be self-evident. Even if you’re a seasoned gardener, you may not be aware of some of these procedures! 
Give yourself a break by putting away your lawn mower for the month of May with the additional benefit of feeding our early bees!
Monarch butterflies previously considered Threatened, have now been classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s most comprehensive scientific authority on the status of species. Two major driving factors are habitat loss (and thus, food loss), and climate change. 
We are here for you! You’re in the high desert/steppe now, with short growing seasons, sudden temperature changes, unpredictable precipitation, low humidity, drying winds, alkaline soils that are low in organic matter and nitrogen, hot summers and cold winters. Despite these challenges, gardens can thrive here, and be productive, rewarding and beautiful!
Opening Day will be here in just a few minutes (or it seems to our busy-bee staff!) and our doors will re-open this Thursday, March 3rd at 9 AM. We hope to see you then! Our hours for the month of March are Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Then beginning Tuesday, April 1st, our hours expand to six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday. 
The bad news is that last week’s small delivery of tomato starts froze when the wind blew open the back door of our greenhouse in the middle of the night.
This morning’s broadcast of 
What a glorious spring! Having been blessed with generous snow and rain, the land is bursting with energy, greener than green, and flowering in kaleidoscopic exuberance! Migratory birds have been arriving or passing though our region this month, offering sightings of avian treasures like Lazuli Buntings and Western Tanagers, not to mention the hummingbirds. We do live in a wondrous world!
Our Annual May Day Festivities and Spring Sale begin May 4th!
Like miniature iris emerging from the warming soil, March launches Harlequin’s Gardens early spring season, and our doors will re-open on Thursday, March 3rd. Our hours for the month of March are Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Then beginning Tuesday, April 1st, our hours expand to six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.
Stay tuned for our 2022 class listings, and as your spring-flowering bulbs emerge, refer to our 
With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, we’d like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for another great year, our 30th!, at Harlequin’s Gardens.
So they can support us!
Our hearts go out to the many people who suffered devastating losses in the Marshall wildfire. It may be possible to rebuild homes, but their contents may be irreplaceable and the sudden disruption to lives will present great challenges. Communities will also need to be rebuilt, and we are hoping the larger community will continue to step up to offer long-term support to all those in need. It takes a village! 
Historically February is one of Colorado’s snowiest months, and finally we’re beginning to see evidence of that this year! Additionally, the forecast indicates more to come. It remains to be seen how some of our marginally hardy garden plants have suffered from the below zero temperatures.
This year the Winter Solstice will fall on Tuesday, December 21st. This astronomical event is the time of the year when the Earth’s north pole is tilted farthest from the sun, so that night is the longest and daylight is the shortest (in the northern hemisphere). This day has long been celebrated because it signals the lengthening of the days until Summer Solstice on June 21. Even though there is a lot of winter left, there will be more day light. It is the promise of Spring to come. 
We are appreciative of the community support at our Holiday Market opening weekend! With the perfect autumnal weather, more people than ever were able to enjoy our local musicians, Sandra Wong & Jon Sousa’s world music, and Margot Krimmel’s traditional and original harp pieces.
Mason Bee populations plummeted throughout Boulder County due to harsh spring weather, so it’s especially important to coddle them this winter! Mason bees normally nest in holes in tree trunks, which offer stable temperature, moisture, and protection from predators. To provide extra assistance, bring your Mason and other native bee tubes/cocoons into a sheltered place with ambient (outdoor) temperatures, but with less fluctuation, like a garage or refrigerator. Cocooned bees are now adult and safe to handle in their cocoons. If you used liners or reeds, take them out of the guard tubes and shelters and store them in the fridge. Ideally, unwrap the liners/reeds and just overwinter the mason bee cocoons. Place them in a Humidi-bee chamber (in stock), and keep the lower pad moist. 
Our 2022 Fall Members-Only Sale has finished, and now our Big Fall Sale has begun, with 20% off for everyone! Plants included in this week’s sale are:
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.
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 
“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.
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.
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.
‘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. 
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.
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.
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)!
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.
