Nursery News

9-15-22

This is our last weekend holding regular hours.  Hereafter, to visit and/or buy plants please email or call to schedule a time.

8-5-22

The nursery is now in late summer/fall hours – Saturday and Sunday, 10-4.

7-22-22

Open Farm Day is this Sunday the 24th.  For those looking for the chance to look around unfettered, this is not the day to come. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you!

7-15-22

The nursery will be closed on Saturday the 15th.

6-29-22

The nursery will be closed on Sunday the 10th.

5-21-2022

An amendment to 5-7-22:

4. Hazelnuts will not be available until mid-June or so.  My apology to those who have come looking and left empty-handed.

5-7-2022

Friendly reminder –

  1. The nursery only takes checks or cash in payment.
  2. Plants are potted anew every spring AND are not forced in a greenhouse.  It is still early days, and though plants are looking happy in their new containers they are not fully rooted, some barely.  Nonetheless, with a little care, they do fine.
  3. Call ahead of time if you have your heart set on finding a particular plant.  It may still be in propagation.

Thank you.

4-27-2022

Opening day is Friday, May 6th.  All of the display gardens are sleepy yet now emerging in various textures and shades of green. Most of the early emerging perennials have been potted and are rooting while the late-season plants are still in wait.

3-30-2022

Today the perennials have been uncovered and are looking relatively unscathed by mice and cold.  Potting has begun.

A few plant varieties have been removed from the catalog this season having failed to make the cut in my evaluation of stock from year to year.  This is largely due to the fact there are better plants available with relatively the same characteristics.  I continue to narrow down the list of non-native species and cultivars to those which I see as indispensable and with no native equivalent.  Should there be a native equivalent, most often I am letting a non-native variety go.  Once again, I can grow only so many varieties and it is in my nature to continue to refine the selection to the best of the criteria I have set for a plant.

Several new seed trials are set for this season, all of them native, and several unavailable elsewhere locally.  Most are now in stratification and will not be sown until late spring/early summer.  These are plants in the online catalog without descriptions and coming soon next to them.

Much more hazel seed has been planted for this season than is usual.  This is due to the fact the last bearing hazels are now undergoing coppicing trials and all other hazels have been removed from production due to significant bud mite damage, and thus very little seed will be available for the next 2-3 years.  That said, the seed planted this season is the best I have seen, not only the quality of the nuts but of the plants (fairly recent selections), which are at the moment showing no signs of bud mite damage, as well as vigorous, and bearing moderately well.  Selecting for bud mite resistance has turned this project on its head, but at least there seems to be some genetics in the orchard favoring further hazel development.  It has been my goal from the outset to eliminate the use of pesticides, organic or not, and studies have shown bud mite is hard to control even with this measure.  Genes are the answer.

Lastly, a new heading on this website, deep ecology, showcases some creative writing by the gardener.

Opening day is still a ways away and will be posted here as soon as we know!