Hello fellow gardeners!
You know just how fast the planting season has come on since the snows ended. Well, you can imagine how busy we are at the nursery. Too busy, in fact, to write the descriptions for our May 20/20 sale, but we did it anyway!
We have more plants to choose from right now than at any other time of the year. We’ve brought out huge numbers of our own Harlequin-grown plants and had deliveries this week from at least seven suppliers, so we are way beyond ‘well-stocked’ with plants and soil products, as well as tools, accessories and ornaments.
20/20 SALE – MONDAY, MAY 20th
20% OFF SELECTED PLANTS & PRODUCTS for ONE DAY ONLY!
The theme of our 20/20 sale is ‘Self-Sowing Beauties for Low-Water Gardens’. The selection includes annuals, biennials and perennials that can be relied upon to perpetuate themselves in the garden for years, without making a nuisance of themselves. We sell plants of self-sowing annuals and biennials for several reasons.First of all, it’s a way to bring you special varieties you won’t easily find in seed packets. Also, when you start with plants, you usually get a lot more seed than you would in a packet, and the plants sow the seeds at the right time, giving the seeds a better chance of starting your new crop for the following season. Gardeners often find that they have less success with scattering the seeds themselves. Many of the seeds will actually germinate in autumn, spend the winter producing deep roots, making strong plants that are ready to spring into action early in the year, with roots that have already gone deep enough to stay cool and find moisture even in a dry garden. And then there is the delightful serendipity of their self-placement. They are very easy to grow, and make a very showy display with a very small initial investment. All of these self-sowers are easy to control and any unwanted seedlings can be weeded out with a hand cultivator like the Garden Bandit.
We plan to offer the following at 20% off on Monday May 20:
Tanacetum niveum (Snow Daisy) Snow Daisyforms a 2’ x 2’ mound of finely cut silvery-grey foliage, loaded with small white, yellow-eyed daisies for months on end. It combines beautifully in the sunny low-water border with nearlyanything else, and is even useful in containers.Also produces masses of filler-flowers for bouquets. Drought tolerant once established. It is highly attractive to butterflies, and the aromatic foliage is unpalatable to deer and rabbits. Hardy to Zone 4 or 3.
Alyssoides graeca (Greek Bladderpod): This unusual and drought-tolerant hardy perennial bears loads of clusters of ½” bright butter-yellow four-petaled flowers in mid-to late-spring on semi-prostrate plants 9” to 15” tall. Flowers are followed by columns of spherical seed-pods (bladders) that eventually shed their outer skins to reveal the silky-white inner sceptum, like a miniature ‘money plant’, and are nice in dried-flower bouquets. Tough and strong-growing in full sun or part shade. Hardy to Zone 5.
Tanacetum parthenium Double White (Double White Feverfew): A close relative of Snow Daisy, the feathery foliage of this heirloom garden perennial is bright green, and the very double white pom-pom flowers with yellow centers look like miniature Chrysanthemums (formerly classified as a Chrysanthemum). It forms a low bushy mound of fragrant, critter-resistant foliage to 18” to 24”, and masses of blooms. Plants may be pruned back hard to rejuvenate the leaves after blooming, and encourage further blooms.Feverfew is used as a most effective herbal remedy for preventing or relieving headaches, especially migraines. Very long-blooming and easy to grow in most soils in full sun with moderate to lowwater. Provides masses of flowers for bouquets. Hardy to Zone 4 or 3.
Verbascum wiedemannianum (Indigo Mullein):An unusual and impressive species from Anatolia (Turkey). In the first year this very drought-tolerant biennial makes an attractive basal rosette of large, very fuzzy-wooly silvery-white foliage, which persists through the winter. In the second year, the basal rosette increases in size, and inmid-late spring sends up 3’ tall branched bloom stalks like narrow candelabras, clothed in velvety deep purple 1” blooms with fuzzy stamens, very attractive to bees and butterflies. Stunning! Like many Verbascum species, this one likes bare open ground and full sun, with low to moderate water.Plant at least two to insure seed production, as Mulleins are not self-fertile. Save some seed to scatter in alternate years to have them flowering every year in your garden.
Blue Larkspur: Beautiful, tall branched spires of brilliant shades of blue, with the occasional white or pink. Very drought-tolerant, tough, and long-blooming from mid spring to mid-summer. Bumblebees adore them! And they can supply armloads of cut-flowers for bouquets. Allowed to self-sow, Larkspur readily colonizes to produce a burst of brilliant color. Plant in full sun in any soil.
White Cloud Larkspur: Very different and very hard to find! This species of Larkspur forms a much-branched little ‘bush’ of slender stems bearing clouds of small white spurred flowers. The effect is like a cloud of little white butterflies. Grow in sun, with low to moderate water in virtually any soil. Gorgeous in the garden and in bouquets. Another bumblebee favorite.
Black Prince Snapdragon: Deepest red flowers on a strong plant to 18” tall, with burgundy shadings in the foliage. It is tougher than most snapdragons, and often perennializes in the garden. Very long-blooming if dead-headed, and thrives in sun with low to moderate water. It will self-sow, and seedlings will be deep black-red if it hasn’t cross-pollinated with a snapdragon of another color.
California Poppies: Rosa Romantica (gorgeous double flowers look like roses, shadings from cream to deep salmon-rose), White Linen: (elegant creamy white single flowers weave together a pastel-colored xeriscape garden – beautiful with blue catmints (Nepeta), yellow evening primrose or sundrops, and pink soapwort. California poppy often perennializes in Boulder/Denver, and self-sows to form graceful colonies. California Poppies often perennialize in the Boulder/Denver area.
Batchelor Buttons (Cornflower): Emperor William (heirloom blue)
Annual Poppies: Lauren’s Grape (single purple), Purple Peony (very double), Carnation Rose (very double pink), Frosted Salmon (double salmon with white), Turkish Red (single blood-red), Peshawar White (large single white), Black Peony (very double black-red).
COMPOST TEA: 1-gallon jugs (Normally $5, on sale for $4 each)
LIMITS:
Plants in 2.5” pots: up to 5 plants of each variety at sale price
Compost Tea: up to 4 gallons at sale price
Sale prices valid for one day only, Monday May 20, while supplies last.
Thank you! We look forward to seeing you again soon!
Eve & Mikl Brawner and the fabulous staff at Harlequin’s Gardens