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)!
Paeonia mlokosewitschii (‘Molly the Witch’) ripe seed pods
Beautiful Peonies have also arrived, and some in larger sizes will be ready in the next few weeks and continue to be added to the selection. We have a small number of the very rare and beautiful Paeonia mlokosewitchii (affectionately known as Molly the Witch) available, probably for the last time (the grower has gone out of business).
We now have a wonderful diversity of annuals and seasonal succulent plants! Many are great pollinator magnets, like the 3 kinds of Cuphea (Cigar Plant), Kiwi Blue Honeywort, red Salvias, Bee’s Friend (Phacelia tanacetifolia), as well as Echeveria, Cotyledon, Crassula, Aloe vera and other sculptural succulents that can spend summers outdoors in pots.
Our Herb tables are overflowing with culinary and medicinal selections; some interesting new ones include Thai Mint, ‘Mayfair’ Lemon Thyme, Mexican Oregano (Poliomintha longiflora).
Purple Cayenne Pepper
Vegetable gardeners will find dozens of varieties of Peppers, Eggplants and, of course, Tomatoes. Basil varieties are starting to trickle in (though the weather is not yet sufficiently warm and settled for them). And by this weekend we expect to have the first of many Cucumber, Summer and Winter Squash, Zucchini, Melon, and Watermelon plants ready! These are also easily grown from seed sown directly in the garden or patio pot, and we still have lots of seeds!
And hardy Perennial Spinach Vine (Hablitzia tamnoides) starts will arrive mid-week! This is a fabulous edible wild plant, long cultivated by gardeners in northern Europe/Scandinavia and now available here! Hablitzia is in the same family as Spinach, and the arrow-shaped leaves look similar to our familiar annual spinach. The plant starts out small and slow, but by its third year it should be vigorous enough to provide plenty of tender, mild-tasting, nutritious foliage for salad or quick searing! It can be cut many times, just days apart, until in summer it becomes determined to flower. The long stems can trail or can be supported on a vertical framework, but we prefer to keep harvesting so it forms a large, bushy mound. Ours is growing in morning sun/afternoon shade, with rich garden loam and irrigation. It dies to the ground in winter and reemerges in spring with more fast-growing stems each year!
Hablitzia tamnoides, Perennial Spinach Vine