Fiddlehead Creek Farm and Native Plant Nursery

A Rough Day for Ruffed Grouse

2012-01-30T21:24:00.000-05:00

This past Thursday morning Chris and I got up and started getting ready for work. As Chris was letting McKinley out into the back yard he hollered for me to come quick. There, just on the other side of our fence, was a feathery lump on the ice. “It just flew off,” Chris said, “It was a small hawk.” My heart sank. Not another one. We had just lost a speckled sussex from our laying flock to a hawk earlier in the month. “It looks too small to be one of the ladies,” Chris said.

Ruffed grouse are about the same size as a chicken.

Well, time to go investigate. I threw on my bogs – they may be popular gardening boots – but I enjoy mine year round – and headed out back to see if we had lost another chicken. Not the way you want to start your morning. But when we got out there – the good news was that the pile of feathers was most definitely not a chicken. Now I am a birder – but not an expert by any means – and I wasn’t in ‘birding mode’ at the moment either – heck – I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. There wasn’t much to go on – and I wasn’t sure, so I plucked out a nice tail feather and brought it back up to the house with me. My guess was that it was a ruffed grouse, but I wasn’t sure. It had been a while since I had thought about what a ruffed grouse looks like. Chris has seen them in our woods in the fall, so I knew they are around.

tail feather of a ruffed grouse

I got on my computer and googled ‘ruffed grouse tail feather’. Bingo. That is what it was. While I was happy it wasn’t one of our ladies, I was bummed for the grouse. They are such beautiful birds. But that is nature. It isn’t all pretty flowers and pretty birds. Birds have to eat. And apparently if a sharp-shinned hawk ( I didn’t get to see it – but from Chris’ description – I’m pretty sure that is what it was) is hungry enough, it will go after a ruffed grouse.

Well all this early morning discovery channel action in the back yard got me to thinking about just what ruffed grouse usually do in the winter – and what they eat. These well camouflaged, ground nesting birds, are perhaps best known for exploding from the forest floor in clearings so quickly that they are gone before you can even get a good look. Or for the drumming males, trying to warn away other males and attract themselves a mate with their wing beating display. But it also turns out, grouse have some really neat adaptations for getting through a long, snowy winter.

Click here to read the rest of this post and learn about the cool winter adaptations of the grouse and what native plants they like to eat. It is posted on a team blog, Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens.

Ruffed grouse eat many native berries. photo courtesy John Ester.

Save the Date: Saturday April 14, 2011

2012-01-16T10:34:00.000-05:00

First Annual Garden and Landscape Symposium at Fort Ticonderoga

The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga is presenting the first annual Garden & Landscape Symposium, “Planting the Seeds of Knowledge for Home Gardeners”, Saturday, April 14, 2012, in the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center. The event will be great for experienced gardeners or gardeners just getting started, and will feature helpful insight from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and Vermont.

The one-day program focuses on practical, easy-to-implement strategies for expanding and improving your garden or landscape. The programs are offered in an informal setting that encourages interaction between speakers and attendees.

And guess what - yours truly will be one of the featured speakers at this event! I will introduce some of the native plants available for gardening, the benefits of gardening with natives, and will share some of my favorite natives from our own gardens at Fiddlehead Creek.

click here to go to learn more or to register (Fort Ticonderoga website with details and brochure)

Happy New Year from Fiddlehead Creek

2012-01-01T00:01:00.002-05:00

We wish you all the best for a healthy and happy New Year!

Happy Holidays from Fiddlehead Creek

2011-12-21T19:54:00.000-05:00

Well it doesn't look like we are in for a white Christmas - but hey, there is still a bit of time left! It has been pretty quiet around the nursery as we wait for the weather to finally get good and cold so that we can finish tucking all the plants away for the winter. The ladies are enjoying getting to stretch their legs again and having the run of the place - and we are looking forward to the pond freezing over so that we can do some ice skating soon!

We hope everyone has a happy holiday and safe travels!

Happy Thanksgiving from Fiddlehead Creek

2011-11-25T22:23:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for our family and friends - and for so many great customers that we worked with this past season. We have been putting everything we have into the nursery, and we are so thankful for everyone's great support. Chris had to have back surgery at the beginning of this week - so we had planned ahead and already did a lot of the work to get the nursery closed for the winter - allowing for us to have a restful Thanksgiving here on the farm. We hope you had a nice holiday with family and loved ones as well.

In October we weeded, cut back, labeled, and piled the plants up all together to get them ready to overwinter. The perennials just get pushed together. The shrubs get pushed together and leaned over - otherwise their branches would break off under the weight of the snow.


cutting back and making sure everything is labeled.

moving plants

we stacked all the plants together

the perennials are pushed together and the shrubs are tipped over

Many of the perennials have already sprouted buds that will overwinter and then will be ready to go in the spring!

sneezeweed

Allegheny Stonecrop

Now we are just waiting for the cold weather to set in for good before we cover them with the overwintering fabric and plastic for the winter. We have had some snow, but it still isn't quite cold enough yet. In the mean time, the ladies are providing entertainment!

the ladies stick to the paths I shoveled for them.

Late Fall Color at the Nursery

2011-10-16T22:58:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not - there are still some flowers blooming. It just goes to show - you don't have to go out and buy mums if you have a native flower garden!

heart leaved aster

some of the black-eyed susans are still going

blue-stemmed goldenrod

labrador violets in the garden

the oxeye sunflower is still hanging in there!

the crimsoneyed rose mallow is still going - but this blossom is all white.

the seed pods on the rose mallow

A number of our native grasses look nice this time of the season - with their ornamental seed heads.

big bluestem is also called turkey foot

little bluestem in front of purple stemmed asters

switchgrass 'Northwind'

A number of the shrubs have some great red color right now.

highbush cranberry

low gro fragrant sumac

red chokeberry

eastern sand cherry

And most of the witch hazels are in bloom right now.

Witch hazel blossom

Witch hazel

October’s Plant of the Month: New England Aster

2011-10-04T19:12:00.000-04:00

October’s Plant of the Month

New England Aster

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae

asters in our field

If you have driven anywhere these days, chances are you have seen some bright purple flowers along the side of the road. New England Aster may be found in old fields and roadside ditches, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t garden worthy as well. It is a great, easy to grow, showy flower for late season color - blooming in September up until the first frost.

bloom color can vary

The blooms vary from pink to purple with bright orange-yellow centers. Growing up to 6 ft tall, you can cut the plants back in June if you want to keep them shorter or pinch them a few times until mid-July. This often results in more blooms as well as shorter, bushier plants. Or you can try out a cultivar such as ‘Purple Dome’ which stays a compact 18 inches without pruning. But if you go this route, be sure to cut back after flowering to avoid self sowing, as cultivars don’t seed true to form.

smooth aster

Loved by bees and butterflies for their nectar, asters are one of the most important fall nectar plants. New England aster is also a host plant for checkerspot and pearl crescent butterflies. Hardy in zones 3-9, New England Aster is native to much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. New England Asters like sun to part sun and moist soil. There are many native asters that grow in a variety of habitats available for gardening. If you want fall color but don’t have a sunny spot with moist soil, you might try another one of our native asters. If you have drier soil, try smooth aster. Or if you are looking for fall color for a shady area of your yard, try white wood or heart leaved aster. If it is really wet, purple aster is the answer. Big leaf and New York asters are other nice native asters for sunny, moist sites that are smaller than New England Aster and have lavender/white flowers. And who says you have to pick just one? Try combining a few different asters together to get a beautiful mix of fall colors and shapes in your garden.

Plant your New England asters 2-3 feet apart, and plan on dividing them every few years to keep them growing vigorously. They grow from the center out on all sides, so eventually the middle can start to die. If this happens, just divide your plant and you are back in business. By the time the asters bloom, they have often lost their lower leaves on their stems, giving them a leggy look. This is an easy problem to solve. Just use the asters in the back of your garden and plant some shorter perennials or grasses in front to hide the leafless stems. Asters reseed readily – so if you don’t want to them to spread and naturalize around your garden, cut them back after they flower to prevent them from reseeding.

September's Plant of the Month: Crimsoneyed Rose Mallow

2011-09-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

September’s Plant of the Month

Crimsoneyed Rose Mallow

Hibiscus moscheutos

Most hibiscuses bring to mind sandy beaches and tropical getaways. However, we do have a hibiscus that is native to New York. Out of 40 species of hibiscus, crimsoneyed rosemallow is the only one that is native to New York; able to survive our cold, snowy winters. Crimsoneyed rosemallow is native from Massachusetts and New York to Wisconsin and south and is hardy in zones 4-9.


h. moscheutos var. palustris is a pink variety

Also known as swamp rosemallow because it likes moist to wet soils, crimson-eyed rose mallow is another common name because of the bright crimson in the middle of a large white flower. There is also a variety (var. palustris) that is pink instead of white.

Rose mallow is an excellent showy species for moist, sunny sites. Large, 6-8 inch blossoms with 5 petals cover the plant and are enjoyed by hummingbirds. While the individual flowers only last one day, the plant is so covered with individual blossoms that it blooms for quite a long time. Ours at the nursery started blooming around August 20 this summer and is still blooming now at the end of September as I write this. Down south hibiscus are woody shrubs, but this far north our native hibiscus is an herbaceous perennial. This might surprising to hear to someone that has seen one of these plants 7 feet tall in late summer covered in blossoms, but yes, it grows it all in one year, and does it again the next year.

we planted this rose mallow by our pond on Memorial Day.

You can deadhead the spent flowers if you don’t like their appearance. In very wet conditions, rosemallow will reseed readily. If this is the case and such reseeding is unwanted, just deadhead and cut the stems down for the winter. Otherwise you can let the stems and seed heads stay for winter interest and then cut the dead stems back in the spring to make way for the new growth.

With large woody looking stems that reach 5 to 8 feet tall, this tall plant doesn’t need staking because the stems are so strong. And since rosemallow is an herbaceous perennial, if you want to keep your plants shorter, you can. Cut them back by one half in early June. Flowering will be delayed by 1-2 weeks, but you will get flowers on a shorter plant. Just remember, these plants are late to emerge in the spring. Many people assume their plant must be dead since everything else is already up. But just wait – they will come up – and they are well worth the wait. Established plants don’t like to be bothered, so just let them be. Plant three to four feet apart. They seldom need to be divided. The only downside is that all hibiscus are loved by Japanese beetles, however ours got some damage early on in the summer and then have done fine. Japanese beetles tend to me more of an issue earlier in the summer around here, and since our hibiscus blooms so late because we are so far north, it seems to avoid most of the damage from the beetles.

Fall Flowers In bloom this Week

2011-09-19T21:31:00.000-04:00

The oxeye in the garden have been blooming since the last week of July!

Well fall is right around the corner, with the Fall equinox coming up this friday. The asters have started to bloom, and there is still some other color in the nursery as well. No frost so far, but it will probably be soon.

I was weeding the phlox yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by a spring peeper. I also ran into a wood frog in the shade garden. The frogs must be out looking for places to hibernate for the winter.

The Crimsoneyed Rose Mallow has been blooming for a while as well. There are a few plants that have turned out to be pink - a natural variation. But for the most part they are white with crimson in the middle. Very striking.

the rose mallow we planted by the pond in May is going gangbusters.

the blossoms close up every night and re-open the next day

the false dragonhead is great late season color.

and the bumble bees like them too!

the sneezeweed are still blooming as well


the smooth aster is looking really nice right now

and so are the New England Asters

there is natural variation in the color of the New England Aster

one of the witch hazels is already starting to bloom

the 'red sprite' winterberry are full of berries.

Late Summer Blooms in the Nursery

2011-09-06T22:54:00.000-04:00

Here is Chris standing next to the Big Bluestem.

As the mid-to-late summer blooms are fading the late summer blooms and warm season grasses are going strong. The big bluestem is also called turkey foot because of the shape of its seedheads. They get 5-8 ft tall - and I would say ours are close to 8 ft - if not more- since Chris is 5'10". Look closely in the sky - there are 3 seed heads up there!

Common sneezeweed, false dragonhead, closed gentian, blue lobelia, cutleaf coneflower, and NY Ironweed are in all their glory. Some spotted phlox are still hanging on, and some of the beebalm that we cut back are blooming again! The smooth aster and white wood asters are starting - with the rest of the asters coming soon!

NY Ironweed

closed gentian stays closed - it is also called bottle gentian

The cutleaf coneflower is tall - at least 7 ft right now I would say!

the smooth aster is just starting to bloom.

our native stonecrop - or sedum - is starting to bloom

the woodland sunflower is often found at woodland edges

the white wood aster is blooming now and brightening up the shade.

don't worry - sneezeweed doesn't make you sneeze!

Weathering the Storm

2011-08-29T21:43:00.000-04:00

McKinley didn't seem to mind the storm!

Well - Irene has come and gone and we are still standing. We lay the largest shrubs down on Saturday so they wouldn't break in the winds. The rest of the plants we left standing - and as we figured, they fell on their own. It took Chris about 3 hours today to get everything standing back up again this morning. For the most part everything looks pretty good. Some of the perennials are a bit of a mess, so we might have to be cutting them all back a bit early this year, but everything made it through.

The power went out for most of the day on Sunday, and of course our generator (that we had gotten out and made sure was running) - broke - the engine just froze shortly after the power went out - so we got creative - and fed the input of the transfer pump that we use for irrigation of the shrubs from the pond into the basement through our dryer vent and down into our sump pump - and pumped the sump out that way to keep our basement from flooding.

level of the pond on Aug 7. see all the dirt showing.

pond level on Sunday.

We went out in the morning to check on the pond - so these pics of what it looked like around 11.30 in the morning on Sunday. I didn't go back out until today. The emergency overflow that Chris cut into the pond at the suggestion of my father definitely saved us. Unfortunately it did a number on our road - which is going to take a fair bit of fill to get back - but at lease it is still there - so all in all - its not too bad.

the emergency overflow was moving a lot of water.

the water was running down the road.

and looked for a weak point, and found it right on the other side of the bridge

Today was beautiful, sunny, blue skies, and warm. As if nothing had happened yesterday. There is still some water flowing out the emergency overflow and down the road, so we will have to wait and see when it dries up. It will be a few days before it will dry up and Chris can get in with the equipment to start repairing the bank that eroded away and the road.

still some water in the overflow today - but not nearly as much

there are lots of creek chubs on the road getting stuck in puddles as the water goes down

the road is still there - but there are some serious holes

the water cut away this bank down a good 4 feet.

'In Berry' this week

2011-08-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

So since there are so many berries this time of year as well - I thought I would do a 'spin off' of In bloom this week - and highlight some of the berries this time. Many of the shrubs that bloomed in the spring have ripe berries by now.

the arrowwood berries are bright blue right now.

northern bayberry berries

Northern bayberry berries are very high in fat content - making them an important source of energy for birds getting ready to migrate south in the fall.

the large cranberries are looking good!

Highbush Cranberry berries

purple flowering raspberry berries may look like edible raspberries - but they aren't

the bright white berries provide a nice contrast to the bluish leaves of snowberry

alternate leaf dogwood

our resident chipmunk is enjoying the alternate leaf dogwood berries

In bloom this week

2011-08-17T22:18:00.000-04:00

Lots of late summer color in the garden right now. The cardinal flowers and blue lobelia are going strong, and the white turtlehead is as well. The tall yellows are blooming - the oxeye sunflower, common sneezeweed, and woodland sunflower. The fireweed is petering out, and the joe pye, boneset, and blue vervain are looking good. Lots of work to do outside these days - so this update will be short. But just wanted to share some pics of the blooms from around the nursery and the gardens. Come on out to see us - and add some late summer color to your garden. And don't forget - the blooms will be starting soon as well.

blue lobelia in the garden by the pond

blue vervain

black-eyed susan

The Canadian Burnett is blooming. This is a very cool looking plant. I have seen it growing along the Hudson River Ice Meadows.

Culvers Root

Nodding Onion. this is a great shorter flower for this time of the season - while many natives that are blooming are pretty tall.

the Oxeye sunflowers are bright yellow - great color for the back of a garden

the spotted phlox 'Natascha' is very pretty.

the spikenard is blooming. this is a woodland plant that is also edible.

white turtlehead

the blooms look like little turtle heads poking out.

don't worry - the sneezeweed doesn't make you sneeze!

August's Plant of the Month

2011-08-01T20:37:00.000-04:00

August’s Plant of the Month

Joe-Pye Weed Euthochium spp.

Joe-pye weed is a great plant that adds height to the background of the perennial border, in wildflower meadows, woodland edges, and lakeshores. Reaching heights of up to 8 feet, it can really make a strong statement and add vertical structure to the landscape. The flat-topped, clusters of fuzzy pink flowers are often seen covered in monarch or tiger swallowtail butterflies. Besides being a butterfly magnet, Joe-pye also attracts other native pollinators. It is deer resistant, salt tolerant, and can take periodic inundation, making it a good choice for shoreline buffers, rain gardens. Joe-pye weed has something for everyone, so if you don’t already have this plant in your garden, you are missing out.


Joe pye is great in the back of a garden w/ other tall perennials

native range of E. maculatum

Hardy in zones 3-9, Joe-pye is native to much of the eastern United States. While naturally found in moist meadows and along the edges of wetlands and waterbodies, Joe-pye is hardy, easy to maintain, and very adaptable to a variety of garden soils and uses. It is drought tolerant once established, and while it may wilt under the hot summer sun, it will recover just fine.

native range of E. fistulosum

Joe-pye weed is often used to refer to a number of different species that are very similar. The genus name, Eutrochium, comes from the Greek word trocho, which means wheel-like, in reference to the whorled leaves that look like spokes on a wheel. Joe-pyes have whorls of 4 to 7 leaves around their stems. Spotted Joe-pye, E. maculatum, is maybe the most common species found at nurseries, although there is often uncertainty over just what species is actually being sold . There is also Hollow-stemmed Joe-pye, E. fistulosum, which as its name suggests, can be told apart by its hollow stem, and Sweet-scented Joe-pye, E. purpureum, whose leaves smell like vanilla when crushed. However for most gardeners, the differences in these plants are not noticeable as they are all tall with whorled leaves and big, purple-pink flowers.

All of the joe-pyes like sun and moist soils. If you have part shade, use E.purpureum or E. fistulosum, as they tend to do better in part shade than E. maculatum. No matter which species you have, give Joe-pye room to grow, spacing plants 3-4 feet apart from others. You can pinch them back in early spring to make them bushier and shorter if you like without sacrificing the large flowers.

Joe pye in the display garden

We grow all three species at the nursery. As author and native plant expert from the New England Wildflower Society Bill Cullina notes about the Joe-pyes, ‘no wildflower garden would be complete without one or two.’

Full Sun Display Garden

2011-07-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

Our newest display garden is doing well and was worth all the hard work. It is on the north side of the property, and collects the runoff coming off the shrub section. It is also provides a nice buffer between the nursery and the work road/emergency overflow from the pond.

We laid it all on out May 28th. Chris finished building up the berm on the overflow of the pond after the spring rains were finally past and it was dry enough to get the machinery out there, and also installed an emergency overflow. So the yard was all torn up from the machinery, so we figured it was a good place for a garden. At first we tried to just plant, but that was a big mistake. Digging in clay is not fun. So Chris rototilled the area a few times with the tractor and added some compost, and then we had take two.

The ladies wasted no time. As soon as we started digging, they were right there to benefit from our hard work! The garden was 168 plants, which means a lot of digging, and a lot of yummy insects!

We planted a wide variety of plants in the garden. Along the shoreline we planted some common rush, marsh fern, marsh marigold, sensitive fern, blue flag iris and a buttonbush. Behind them we planted blue lobelia and cardinal flower, along with crimsoneyed rose mallow, and white turtlehead. Bottle gentian, Turk's Cap Lily and Canada Liliy, Purple, New England, and New York Asters are also in the garden. There is also Canadian burnett, Steeplebush, Summersweet, Joe-pye, Winterberry, Tall White Beardtongue, Swamp Milkweed, Swamp Azalea, Shrubby Sundrops, Columbine, False Dragonhead, Hoary Skullcap, Prairie Smoke, Sneezeweed, Oxeye Sunflower, Prairie phlox, spotted phlox, butterflyweed, bergamot and beeblam, blue vervain, culvers root, alumroot, monkey flower, lupine, labrador violets, barren strawberries, and black-eyed susans. And I might have missed 1 or 2! Like I said, we planted a lot of plants!

There was a bit of a delay between when we got everything planted and when we finally got the garden mulched, and our biggest weed issues in the mean time were squash seeds (Chris tilled in some compost that must have not been quite ready!) and locust seedlings, along with good old crab grass. But we finally got it mulched on June 18th. The shrubby sundrops and tall white beardtongue were already blooming!

We started to edge the garden with field stones, and used stone in the 'cranberry bog' and along the pond edge. The 'bog' is really more of a rain garden. It gets most of the runoff from the shrubs when we water, and fills right up. So we thought it would be the perfect place to make some cranberries happy.


the cranberry 'bog'

The garden is doing well, and the plants seem to be happy. There is still some weeding to do, and maybe a few holes to fill in here and there, but that is just gardening. As the plants grow and fill in, there will be less room for the weeds. And customers at the nursery can see what some of the plants we grow at the nursery look like once they get going in a garden.

In bloom this week - part 2

2011-07-20T10:00:00.002-04:00

Michigan Lily

The Michigan Lilies have started to bloom, and it looks like there is a Turk's Cap not far behind. We have 4 lilies native in NY, all 2 are orange, but color variation can go from yellow to red as well. The Michigan and Turk's Cap both have petals that curve up. The Canada Lily's petals don't curve up but the flowers face down just like the others. The fourth, the Wood Lily, the petals face up. We have the Michigan, Canada, and Turk's Cap Lilies available at the nursery.

Spotted Phlox 'Natascha'

The Spotted Phlox (Phlox maculata), also called garden or meadow phlox, is our tallest native phlox. It blooms later than moss phlox and prairie phlox, some of our shorter native phlox. This selection 'Natascha' has pink and white flowers. Phlox paniculata, usually called garden phlox, is taller, and more common in gardens, but is not a NY Native.

Fireweed

The Fireweed is blooming right now as well. This is a tall, spreader, great for a woodland edge where you just want to fill it in. You can see patches of it growing all along the road right now throughout the park.

Fireweed blooming along route 73 between Keene and Lake Placid.

The hoary skullcap is starting to bloom right now. It is very pretty, much prettier than its name!

Hoary Skullcap

'Red Army' Sneezeweed is a compact, red selection of sneezeweed, which is much taller and yellow. It adds a great pop of color in the garden, and looks nice in front of the plain species as well.

Sneezeweed 'Red Army'

The Joe-pyes are blooming right now. these tall perennials make a great backdrop in the garden.

Joe-pye

Some of our shrubs have been blooming for a while now. The Potentillas are still blooming, and so are the bush honeysuckle, snowberry, and St. John's Wort.

Kalm's St. John's Wort

Snowberry

And while they may not be blooms, there are many berries right now. The serviceberries and chokecherries are ripe, the highbush cranberry and other viburnums are getting there along with the dogwoods, and the berries of the Mountain Holly sure are bright right now!

Mountain Holly

In bloom this week - part 1

2011-07-18T16:52:00.000-04:00

Smooth Hydrangea 'Annabelle'

The Hydrangeas are still looking good - and sure make a gorgeous back drop and brighten up a shady area. Don't forget - the Hydrangea's are July's Plant of the month - which means 10% off still!

We grow 2 native monardas, beebalm and bergamot. they bloom about the same time - and look very nice next to each other in the garden.

Beebalm

Bergamot

The milkweeds are in bloom right now as well, both the butterflyweed and the swamp milkweed.

Butterflyweed

Swamp Milkweed

We also have two native spiraeas, steeplebush and meadowsweet. They are shrubby, and very nice. I planted a number of steeplebush in out big new display garden in the back and I am very happy with how they are looking.

Steeplebush

Meadowsweet

The white turtlehead looks great in a rain garden along with the cardinal flower and the blue lobelia, which is getting close to blooming as well.

White turtlehead

Cardinal Flower

Buttonbush has very unique flowers, and it is a great native shrub for moist areas.

Buttonbush gets its name from its circular flowers.

The Rudbeckia are looking great right now as well.

black-eyed susans

some of the flowers have brown on their petals.

Monkey flower has cute little blue/purple flowers.

Monkey Flower

Great Trip to Piseco Lake

2011-07-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Erika and I headed over to the Irondoquoit Inn on Piseco Lake for the Adirondack Council's Forever Wild Day with a truck and trailer full of ADK Native Plants.

The ADK Council was honoring APIPP (the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program) as their Conservationist of the Year. For those of you not familiar with APIPP, they are a great program that organizes invasive species efforts throughout the park.

As part of honoring APIPP and all they do to protect the park from invasive species, we made native plant centerpieces for the event using Lady Fern, Blue-eyed Grass, and Plantain-leaved Sedge wrapped in burlap.

We were also on hand with native plants for sale as well. I featured a number of the natives that we grow at the nursery that are good alternatives for invasive species. The picture at left shows one of our native spiraeas, Steeplebush, which is a great native alternative to Purple Loosestrife.

At the end of the day, Erika and I had some time to kick back and relax and enjoy the Inn and Piseco Lake as well. I would most definitely a trip to the Irondoquoit Inn, located on the south end of Piseco Lake if you can. .We had a great trip, met some great people, and sold some native plants to do our part to help protect the park from more invasives. I sure was tired after we got back on Sunday and unloaded the truck and trailer -but it sure was a lovely trip!

July's Plant of the Month - Smooth Hydrangea

2011-07-04T21:37:00.000-04:00

July’s Plant of the Month

Smooth Hydrangea

Hydrangea arborescens

Smooth hydrangea, also called wild hydrangea, is New York’s only native hydrangea. Hydrangeas are popular landscape shrubs, but don’t confuse our native hydrangea with the Asian bigleaf hydrangeas that can be turned pink or blue. Our native hydrangea has white blooms in early to mid summer, and is a nice ornamental shrub for the garden. The flower heads can be dried for arrangements as well. Oakleaf Hydrangea is sometimes thought to be native to our area, but it is actually native to Tennessee and south and only reliably hardy to zone 5.

Smooth hydrangea is hardy in zones 4-9 and found over much of the East Coast along streams and woodlands in moist soils. It grows about 5 ft high and wider and prefers part sun to shade. Since it prefers moist soils, if we have a hot, dry summer and smooth hydrangea is planted in the sun, it might need supplemental watering. So plan to plant your hydrangea where it will get morning sun or dappled shade all day.

'Annabelle'

There are many available cultivars, or cultivated varieties, of smooth hydrangea. ‘Annabelle’ is the most well-known, but others include ‘Grandiflora’ and the newest arrival on the scene is ‘Invincible Spirit’, a pink selection. While very pretty, unfortunately these cultivars are no longer beneficial to our native pollinators. Smooth hydrangea has a number of fertile flowers that are not very showy, surrounded by a few larger, showier, flowers that are actually sterile – but are meant to draw the pollinators in to the nearby fertile flowers. To get the big mop head blooms for the cultivars, all of the flowers are showy – and so they are all also sterile. This means that pollinators are drawn in, and then have nothing to eat! If you like the look of the showier cultivars, consider mixing in some of the cultivars with the straight species – that do provide nectar - which makes a win-win for your landscape and our native pollinators.

In addition to being visited by native pollinators such as honeybees, Smooth hydrangea is host to the hydrangea sphinx moth, a large sphinx moth with a 2-3 inch wingspan. The larvae of this moth only feed on smooth hydrangea, buttonbush, or water willow.So if you see this caterpillar on your hydrangea, let it be.

photo by David Wagner

Hydrangeas are great planted about 3 feet apart en masse for a natural looking hedgerow or border. Since they flower on new growth, you can prune smooth hydrangea back to the ground in the fall each year to keep its size under control and to curtail its tendency to sucker and spread horizontally if you like. If you have the cultivar ‘Annabelle’ you might not want to prune it quite as hard, so that it develops some stronger, woody stems to hold up the large mop head blooms. Both the straight species Smooth Hydrangea and ‘Annabelle’ are available at Fiddlehead Creek.

Bright blooms ready for July

2011-07-01T11:01:00.000-04:00

Lots of new blooms coming out as July begins! The Milkweeds are out - and so are the hydrangeas.


I just love butterflyweed. It's bright orange color is amazing.

monarchs love swamp milkweed.

the kalm's st john's wort has bright, fluffy flowers.

the beebalm is just getting started. it looks like little fireworks!

swamp azalea is a native azalea blooming now.

our native smooth hydrangea isn't as showy - but I still think it is lovely.

this is 'annabelle', a cultivar of our native smooth hydrangea. it is much showier - but has no fertile flowers for pollinators. so if you want the showier look, consider mixing a few straight species in for our native pollinators.

Native Plant Sale Success

2011-06-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

Thanks so everyone who came out to support us at the Farmers Markets this weekend - and to our lovely hosts BRASS and ASRA! We had a lovely time - despite the rain - selling plants to benefit the Boquet River Association at the Elizabethtown Market on Fri June 24th and the Ausable River Association at the Keene Valley market on Sunday June 26th.

Carol Treadwell, director of ASRA, talking to some happy members (and new Fiddlehead Creek customers!)

It is so hard to figure out what to take with me - as only a limited selection from the nursery fits in the truck. So if you want the best selection - you have to get there early. Both days the popular species like cardinal flower sold out first thing.

At the Keene market we were joined by the Master Gardeners as well. We focused on native alternatives to the Indian Cup Plant, an invasive from the Midwest that is now spreading along the banks of the Ausable. It is a tall yellow plant, so NY natives oxeye sunflower, sneezeweed, cutleaf coneflower, or woodland sunflower are all great alternatives. We also highlighted native alternatives to Purple Loosestrife such as Joe Pye Weed, Steeplebush, Blue Vervain, NY Ironweed, and False Dragonhead.

Still haven't made it out to the nursery yet? Emily will be the traveling plant lady a few more times this season still. She will also be selling plants at the ADK Council's Forever Wild Day on Saturday July 9th at the Irondequoit Inn on Piseco Lake and again with the Lake George Land Conservancy on Sat August 13th in Bolton. You can call ahead and pre-order - to make sure that you get what you are looking for. Or - if you think you might want to host a native plant sale in your community - let us know.

In bloom

2011-06-27T22:50:00.000-04:00

purple flowering raspberry

Some blooms are still hanging on - like the blue flag iris - and some new ones started last week - such as the tall white beardtongue and the shrubby sundrops. A number of shrubs are flowering pink right now - the purple flowering raspberry, the pink beauty shrubby cinquefoil, the Virginia Rose, and the Snowberry. Yellows in the nursery include shrubby sundrops and the northern bush honeysuckle. Here are some of the pretty sights form around the nursery right now.

the blue flag iris and tall white beardtongue grow in different habitats in nature, but sure look nice together in the garden!

I just never get tired of the blue flag. it is just so gorgeous!

tall white beardtongue naturally varies from white to purplish flowers.

you can see how they got their name if you can get a good look in the flower

The shrubby cinquefoils are full of color right now. Goldfinger is the yellow, Abottswood is white, and Pink Beauty is pink of course. All are cultivars. the straight species is normally yellow. Cinquefoil is a popular landscaping shrub due to being so hardy in dry, sunny conditions (think McDonalds parking lot...)

Virginia Rose is a lovely native rose for the garden.

the snowberry is just getting going.

the shrubby sundrops are amazingly bright!

northern bush honeysucke is a great low maintenance, low growing shrub.

the Inkberry is still flowering! the foliage is looking great right now too.

male winterberry flowers up close

Meadowsweet is a gorgeous native Spiraea. no need to use the Japanese one!

Cooking with Garlic Scapes

2011-06-22T23:09:00.000-04:00

Garlic scapes are the top of the garlic plant that is about the flower. You want to cut it off before it flowers, so that all the energy goes into the bulbs. The scapes are ready in June, while the garlic bulbs will be ready to be harvested in July. So since we have been waiting since last October, which is when you plant garlic, the scapes are a nice little treat to tide you over until the harvest!

The scapes are garlicky tasting, but don't give you garlic breath like the bulb does. You can cut them up and treat them just like any other veggie, stir fry, put them on a salad, etc. I guess they are sort of like green onions in terms of how you might use them, although the are more substantive, more of a consistency of asparagus in terms of cooking them.

We often just saute them in the pan with some EVOO and S&P. Sometimes we will have them in a stir-fry. Pictures below are of sauteed scapes on a salad and a venison scape stir-fry.

We recently tried out a recipe for a garlic scape quiche that was yummy that we wanted to share.

Garlic Scape Quiche

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of garlic scapes, cut in small pieces
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of fresh tarragon
1 cup of grated cheddar
4 eggs
1/2 cup of cream
1/2 cup of milk

Preparation:

Preheat the stove to 375°F. Sauté garlic scapes in butter, stirring constantly for approximately five minutes. Add the maple syrup, tarragon, salt and pepper to taste. Fill in a quiche crust with this preparation and cover with cheese. Beat the eggs, milk and cream and pour on cheese and garlic mixture. Cook for 35 minutes.

You can adjust the recipe as you see fit. I always add in whatever veggies I have in the fridge that I want to use up, so we added mushrooms and orange and yellow peppers to ours. I also tend to use just milk instead of cream, but the cream sure does make it tasty!

And if the garlic scape quiche wasn't enough - I went ahead and made potatoes with garlic scapes as well to go on the side!

We sell the scapes at the farm, a bundle of 5 for $1.

Veggie and Herb Garden

2011-06-18T10:01:00.013-04:00

the garlic is doing well

Well - we decided to scale back the veggie garden this year since last year we just didn't have enough time to take care of everything and the weeds took over and it was painful to watch. so of course - my idea of 'scaling back' still includes tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, green beans, peas, yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, basil, and vidalia and walla walla onions. And of course there is the garlic, strawberries, and asparagus that are already there. Still - the garden is about half the size as last year!

And we labeled the tomatoes this time - so we know which ones are supposed to be yellow and which ones should be red. last year we kept waiting for the yellow tomatoes to ripen at first for a while - and they kept going from yellow to rotten - before we finally realized that they were yellow tomatoes!

The garlic scapes are ready!

the bean sprouts are breaking ground

the strawberry patch was heavily thinned by the ladies this spring, but is coming back.

the strawberries are small - but still are so sweet and juicy!

the tomatoes are starting to flower

To try to help with weed control and watering- after I planted everything I mulched it with straw and we also ran a drip house on a timer from the house - so hopefully we will be able to stay on top of things a bit better this season. After all - you can't have a farm without a garden!

The herb garden is looking good too - with lavendar, mint, chives, thyme, oregano, marjoram, and sage. I overwintered my rosemary successfully for the first time this year -so it is back out on the porch. And I added some lemon basil, garlic chives, and stevia to the garden as well. The big section of basil is out in the main garden. Our rain barrel collects from the garage rain gutter and is perfect for watering the garden. The herb garden is right outside the porch - easy access from the kitchen for cooking!

In bloom this week - Part 2: Shrubs

2011-06-16T10:00:00.002-04:00

The early spring bloomers are done - like the chokeberries and serviceberries - heck - they even have pretty good sized berries formed at this point. But there are a number of shrubs in bloom right now - as well as a number on their way.

While I was photographing the Arrowwood, I noticed this cool moth fluttering around feeding.


the cranberries started to flower the first week of June, and are in full bloom now.

This is 'Dart's Gold' Eastern Ninebark. Just stunning color.

purple raspberry is edible, but not tasty like its cousins - so I'd leave it to the birds!

'Abbotswood' is a selection of Shrubby Cinquefoil with white flowers

the 'Red Sprite', which is a dwarf female winterberry is blooming.


the sheep laurel is blooming. These didn't do so well last year, they aren't meant for living too long in a pot I don't think.I just have a few, and I think I am just going to plant them in a display garden to make them happy.

however - the Mountain Laurel is doing great. This selection' Pink Charm' is pinker than the straight species. And sure is a real charmer!

The 'Black Lace' Elderberry is a great alternative for Japanese maples.

not in bloom yet - but getting closer. can't wait for the buttonbush to bloom!

looks like the northern bush honeysuckle is going to be in full bloom later this week maybe!

In bloom this week - Part 1: Perennials and Grasses

2011-06-15T09:33:00.000-04:00

Lots in bloom this week - and even more shrubs are budding out and will be in bloom soon.

Here are some pictures from around the nursery.

blue flag iris, our native iris, works on pond edges or in regular garden soil!

the prairie phlox is still going strong

the shrubby sundrops are bright and cheery

we still have 2 showy ladies available! which s is hard to believe - bc they are so gorgeous!


they might be done flowering for now, but the foliage of labrador violet still provides interest as a groundcover. it is purple in the cooler spring and fall - turning a bronzy color during the warmer summer weather.

the partridgeberry is flowering. this dainty little groundcover is a real beauty.

common rush might be boring, but it seeds are pretty cool if you look up close.

the harbells are still going strong

blue-eyed grass is no grass!

somehow the bumblebee manages to squeeze into the tall white beardtongue flower

canada anemone is a great groundcover for open spaces

Bird Nest in the Beebalm

2011-06-07T22:08:00.000-04:00

I was going down the rows and doing some weeding in the pots on May 12th when I got to the beebalm and noticed there was a birds nest in the middle of the beebalm plants in one of the pots. 4 little brown speckled eggs.

On May 21 I snapped this pic of 5 eggs in the nest. Whose nest is it? The little brown bird that kept running off the nest and hiding among other plants in the nursery was very hard to get a good look at. I managed to snap a few lousy photos, and got out my bird books and went online - and decided I thought she looked like a song sparrow but I wasn't sure.

I shared the photos with some members of the Southern Adirondack Audubon Society (SAAS) and they confirmed my guess - looks like a song sparrow. The sparrows are small, brown birds that can be hard to tell apart except for small differences. So without a great look at her, it was hard to tell. But I think we got it. On May 26 I went back to check on the nest and there they were - 5 baby birdies!


May 26 - day 1

May 27 - day 2

May 29 - day 4.

June 2 - day 8

June 5 - day 11

On the morning of June 5th the baby birds looked like they were about to pop out of the nest! Mama song sparrow has been very busy scooting all around the nursery getting worms and caterpillars to bring back to the babies. Then, we heard a rustling, and the top baby bird decided to get up and hop out of the nest! It scooted off and into some of the other plants. Not sure if it came back at the end of the day or not, but for most of the day the nest was down to 4.

June 5 - day 11 - down to 4 - but it still doesn't look too roomy in there!

So I came home from work today, Monday June 6, and it is down to 3! They sure are growing up and moving out fast! Not sure how much longer they will be in the nest - but it sure has been fun to watch them!


june 6 - day 12 - down to 3!

Ok- I got my answer pretty fast! I went out this morning before work to turn on the water and the nest was empty. Man - that was fast - 13 days and all 5 are gone!

june 7 - day 13 - empty nest!

June's Plant of the Month

2011-06-04T10:00:00.002-04:00

June's plant of the month

Canada Anemone

Anemone Canadensis

Do you have a sunny hillside that you don’t want to struggle with mowing anymore? Canada anemone might just be the plant you are looking for. Hardy to zone 2, this little flower isn’t as dainty as it appears. Instead it is a very aggressive spreader, covering ground in no time with its rhizomes. Don’t plant just one in your garden as this plant needs room to grow. Consider planting it under or around trees and shrubs instead of in a formal garden area.

Canada anemone is native to much of the US.

Canada anemone grows in sun to partial shade and in average soils once it gets established. To get it going and if you have planted it in full sun, it needs a moist soil to be happy. So if you want to try to tame it a bit, give it a drier, shadier site. You can divide Canada anemone in the fall if you like if it is becoming crowded and flowering less, and give some to a friend who also has an area of the yard to cover.

Canada anemone reaches one to two feet high and has deeply dissected leaves and is covered with 1 inch white flowers. It is a very attractive groundcover and a great alternative to invasive plants such as crown vetch and goutweed or bishops weed. (Native plants can’t be invasive by definition –as to be an invasive the plant must be a non-native. Rather, native plants that can spread like rapid-fire are called aggressive or robust.) Canada anemone might also be a great plant to use to keep other woodland edge invaders in our area such as garlic mustard, goutweed, and wall lettuce at bay.

goutweed (also called bishops weed)

garlic mustard

wall lettuce

Also called windflower, our native anemones bloom in the spring with the wind, giving it its name. They look very delicate, but manage to stay put as they are blown about in the wind. Canada anemone really brightens up woodland edges and shade areas in the yard where you can’t get the grass to mow and you don’t know what to do.

In bloom this week

2011-06-02T17:00:00.002-04:00

New plants keep blooming every day in the nursery. The chokeberries are on their way out - and the dogwoods and viburnums are on their way in.The rest of the dogwoods have followed the red twig and are blooming. 3 out of 4 of the viburnums are blooming as well. The Nannyberry started first, then the highbush cranberry, and then the witherod viburnum. The Arrowood is last, looks like it will bloom any day. The ninebarks are blooming as well.

The canada anemone are blooming and so are the harebell. The foamflower and wild geranium are still going strong. The blue flag iris are starting to bud out and should bloom soon - I can't wait!

The blueberries are still blooming some, and the cranberries have started to bloom. I know the Oceanspray commercials make you think you need a bog for cranberries - but if you just have moist soil you can have your own cranberries right at home - no bog needed!

cranberries! yes - you can have cranberries in your yard - no bog needed!


alternate-leaved dogwood is our tallest native dogwood.

Canada Anemone is also called Windflower.

Harebell is such a pretty plant.


highbush cranberry has such a pretty flower. the outer ones are sterile, but showy, to attract pollinators.

the jacobs ladder is still going strong

the nannyberry has very large flower heads

the ninebark 'summerwine' is a compact cultivar with purple leaves. a really nice shrub.


the Prairie Phlox is a medium height phlox.

the roundleaf dogwood is very similar to the red twig, but a slightly different leaf shape, light blue berries, and takes drier soils.

Traveling Plant Lady in June

2011-06-01T10:00:00.003-04:00

Fiddlehead Creek is being hosted by a number of area environmental groups in June and selling plants at special events. If you haven't been able to come out to see us at the nursery, but might be able to make it to one of these sales, this is a great chance to check out our plants and have the chance to buy a few natives to add to your garden this season. If you know of something you definitely want, you can also call and pre-order - so that you are sure to get it. I just take a selection of plants with me to each event - I can't take the whole nursery with me! So if you have something that you know you are hoping to buy - it is best to call ahead so that you aren't disappointed. Chris is still here at the nursery as well for on-site sales, so don't worry, you can still come to the nursery on these days as well.

Saturday June 4th from 10 am until 2 pm I will be at the Lake George Association's Lake Friendly Living Open House along with a number of other businesses as well. Click here to find out more about the event.
Friday June 24th I will be at the Elizabethtown Farmer's Market with the Boquet River Association. Click here to find out more about BRASS.
Sunday June 26th I will be at the Keene Valley Farmer's Market with the Ausable River Association. Click here to find out more about ASRA.

Here are some photos\with Executive Director of BRASS, Julie Martin from last year's sale. We had a great day selling plants and chatting with people about BRASS and protecting the Boquet River, and had such a good time that we decided to do it again this year!

The same goes for the sale last year with Carol Treadwell, Executive Director for ASRA. We combined some of Carol's outreach materials about invasive plants including purple loosestrife and indian cup plant with displays of native alternatives that I have for sale. And we had such a good time we are planning to do it again too!

In bloom

2011-05-30T23:16:00.000-04:00

The plants are doing well - they seem happy - just like the chickens - and are growing gangbusters now that we are having warm weather. Here are some pictures of plants around the nursery last week on May 25 and 26. We also had some new flowers starting to bloom this weekend - which I will get up in a few days!

Rosebay Rhododendron is our largest native Rhodo. It is just gorgeous! How could you not want this plant in a shady spot in your yard.

The Red Chokeberry is just beautiful right now.

And so is the black chokeberry!

These not so showy flowers on the Northern Bayberry are pretty cool looking.

The Wild columbine and golden alexanders are in full bloom.

Red Twig dogwood is the first of the native dogwoods to have bloomed. Alternate leaf and round leaf weren't far behind, they will be in the next post.

In bloom

2011-05-27T07:32:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics I took around the nursery on May 21.

We haven't seen any honeybees around (ours didn't make it through the winter). But we sure have had plenty of bumblebees around. The loved the bearberry when it was flowering a few weeks ago, and now they are enjoying the blueberry and lupine flowers.

Chokecherry is a large shrub/small tree reaching 20 ft in height. It is covered in white flowers this time of year.

The false solomons seal, solomon's seal and downy solomon's seal are blooming as well. A week or two ago on a rainy day Chris and I watched a hummingbird visit the flowers on the solomon's seal. Since they are under the maples, the hummingbird seemed to be staying pretty dry. Guess I'll have to add it to my plants for hummingbirds list!

the golden ragwort are in full glory.

the wild ginger is in bloom. these flowers are so cool looking.

the faom flower is blooming in a beautiful carpet of white right now.

the wild geranium


the three-toothed cinquefoil is a great low ground cover for sunny, poor soils.

the eastern sand cherry is leafing out and finishing up its blooms.

the blueberries have been blooming for a while now.

I just never get tired of jack-in-the-pulpit. they are just so neat looking!

the jacobs ladder looks great behind foam flower

the fragrant sumac is finishing up its flowers and leafing out

the wild lupines are just so gorgeous

the moss phlox is still going!

The PA sedge has gone to seed

the pinxterbloom azalea is winding down, but the swamp azalea pictured here is starting

In bloom this week

2011-05-19T19:35:00.000-04:00

Well - with all the rain we still manage to have some blooms left! Some of the Virginia bluebells, Barren strawberry, Moss Phlox, and Pinxterbloom Azalea are still going strong from last week in addition to some new blooms this week.

And a number of blooms are right around the corner - as soon as we get a bit of warm weather again I think the chokeberries and maybe even dogwoods and viburnums are going to be bursting!

Here are a few blooms from this week:

Eastern sand cherry is a very cool low growing shrub. It looks sort of like a crazy bonsai to me. It is found all along the Hudson River Ice Meadows. It has pretty white flowers, followed by berries and red fall foliage - making it a great addition to the garden as well!

Eastern sand cherry

Foamflower is a great groundcover.While it is usually listed as a shade plant, it can actually take a fair bit of sun too. These are great in front of wild geranium or jacobs ladder with solomons seal and large ferns in the way back. And little labrador violets are great to have in front or mixed in - the contrast of the purple and green is very nice. You can divide foamflower in the fall to help is spread around your garden even more!

foamflower (tiarella cordifolia)

Jacobs Ladder is a lovely plant for the shady or partial shade garden. I really like it with the foam flower above. However, I can say that the chickens find its little delicate leaves quite tasty - so if you have free range chickens - this is not the plant for you unless you plan to fence it off!

Jacob's Ladder

In bloom last week

2011-05-14T22:09:00.000-04:00

Moss Phlox - phlox subulata - our native creeping phlox

Okay - so I know it is supposed to be "In bloom this week" - but I am a little behind! So here are some photos of plants in bloom last weekend at the nursery - and then this week I will get caught up with what is blooming now. Some from last week are still blooming - some are on their way out.

Barren strawberry is a new addition for this season. it is a great groundcover for sunny areas. It is an aggressive spreader - spreading by runners and covers a lot of ground.

Bearberry is another ground groundcover for dry, sunny areas with infertile soil. If you are thinking - nothing will grow here! then try bearberry before you totally give up. It is shrubby and evergreen, and the small bell-like pinkish flowers are followed by berries of course!

Bunchberry is another great groundcover for part shade to shady areas. Not as aggressive as its sunnier counterparts - the pretty white flowers are followed by red berries and the leaves turn a lovely shade of red in the fall.

Labrador violets are a lovely purple and have purple foliage to match! These cute little violets seed in - and form a blanket of purple. I think they look really nice with foamflower behind them and also with the barren strawberry mixed in with them.

Jack-in-the-pulpit

In the shade section the jack in the pulpits are coming up well. The merry bells are still flowering, and the early meadow rue as well - which isn't very showy - but has a gorgeous bluish-green delicate foliage. The Virginia bluebells are still going strong - and the woodland phlox (also called wild blue phlox) is blooming as well. The early spring ephemerals that are done blooming include the trillium, hepatica, dutchman's breeches, and bloodroot.

The serviceberry is flowering - and the chokecherry and chokeberry look like they will be soon. The pinxterbloom azalea is our earliest blooming azalea - and has been making the hummingbirds quite happy I think because they are there quite frequently.

The prairie smoke is great for sunny areas - and just really don't look like anything else!

The marsh marigold is blooming as well. I just love seeing this on the side of the road. And while it does prefer wet areas - it can actually also grow in normal garden soil! So you can have this in your garden even if you don't have a wet area - although with a spring like this one - pretty much everyone has a wet area right now I bet!

marsh marigold along side of road

And they are really blooms per se- but the sedges are all flowering right now - and look pretty cool. This is the pennsylvania sedge. And some of the ferns are up - and some are still coming up - I think the ostrich fern fronds look neat as they are still tightly pushed together.

Thanks to everyone who came out opening weekend!

2011-05-10T23:41:00.050-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out opening weekend to help us celebrate mothers day and our opening for the season!

My mom was up for the weekend - and I got to meet some others moms as well! We had great weather - except for the bit on rain on saturday - which wasn't for long - and the ladies just hid out under the picnic table - so it was all good!

With the late spring - it was a bit of a challenge to get everything ready in time. Chris got some water lines buried so we wouldn't be tripping over them all season again - and we had planted a new woodland garden underneath the maples behind the shade plants section on Easter weekend when Chris' family was visiting - and it is doing very well - I will update with a photo soon. So we did manage to get some work done before our focus had to turn to the watering, weeding, and caring for all the plants.

Most of the plants overwintered very well - and while they were off to a slow start - have finally picked up with the warmer weather and are going full steam ahead. So if you didn't have a chance to come out to check things out this season yet - we hope you will soon! We are open 10-5 Sat and Sun and other times by appt (or chance really!).

May's Plant of the Month - Golden Ragwort

2011-05-06T12:30:00.000-04:00

Ok - so it has been a while since the last post - but it isn't that we haven't been doing anything! There is just so much work to be done outside that I am falling behind on my posts.

But - we can't go without a plant of the month - so here it is! I wanted to highlight Golden Ragwort this month, because it is not a very well known plant - but it is a great addition to the garden.

May’s Plant of the Month

Golden Ragwort. Packera aurea (formerly called Senecio aureus)

Don’t let its less than lovely sounding common name fool you. Also called Golden groundsel or Butterweed, the bright golden yellow flowers of Golden ragwort are a great addition to any garden. Golden ragwort is in the aster family, and is our earliest blooming native aster, blooming mid to late spring (May to June around here). It can grow in sun to shade, so it provides a great pop of color in the shade garden after many of the spring ephemerals are petering out but before some of the other shade tolerant asters bloom.

The golden flowers are around an inch in size, with a cluster of them blooming atop an erect stalk that grows 1-2 ft high out of the cluster of basal leaves. Showy, daisy-like, and bright golden yellow, they are very pretty. If planted en masse, it can create a ‘golden glow’ in the garden.

The basal leaves are large, dark green, and glossy. They are heart-shaped and create a nice ground cover long after the flower is gone. Once it is done blooming, just clip the stalks off for a neater appearance. But be sure to wait for the seeds to spread first if you want more of a groundcover effect. If you don’t, clip the flowers off as soon as they are done flowering, but before the seeds drop.

Hardy in zones 3-9, Golden ragwort is found across much of the eastern United States in meadows, wet woods, and swamps. It prefers moist soils, and seeds freely in the garden if the soil is moist. However, it can also grow in drier areas, including regular gardens soils. It just won’t seed and spread as much. Besides seed, it also spreads by runners underground. So relatively quickly, Golden ragwort can create a great ground cover in the garden.

Golden ragwort also has a number of medicinal uses. The roots and leaves are used in tea by the Cherokee Indians for heart trouble and to prevent pregnancy. Other Native Americans also used it for a variety of uses, from aiding in childbirth to helping treat lung diseases, and in external ointments for treating ulcers and wounds. The leaves contain a low toxicity alkaloid (Pyrrolizidine) which keeps most mammals away from eating the foliage (however apparently sheep will still eat it!). So it is a good plant for your garden if you have deer problems. You can divide it in the spring; however, if you have sensitive skin, wear gloves and long sleeves, otherwise you might get some skin irritation from touching the leaves.

garlic mustard

The basal leaves of Golden ragwort can look similar to that of an invasive species we have in this area, garlic mustard. If you think you have Garlic mustard in your garden, you want to pull it, but just be sure you are pulling the right plant if you also have Golden ragwort! The leaves of Garlic mustard do smell like garlic, so that is an easy way to check. If you have an infestation of Garlic mustard on your property that you have been pulling, Golden ragwort is a great plant to use to try to reclaim the site. The basal leaves are evergreen, so it seems to compete well with Garlic mustard. But again, their similar appearance can make managing the garden tricky! So you have to pay attention when you are weeding in the Spring.

garlic mustard

golden ragwort

April's Plant of the Month

2011-04-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

April's Plant of the Month

Ostrich Fern

Matteuccia struthiopteris

There are many beautiful flowers that bloom in April, signaling that spring is here. So it is no small task to pick just one to write about. But there is just something about fiddleheads that makes them one of my favorite spring arrivals. Their bright, crisp green color and the fronds curled up so tight as if they are ready to spring open at any minute. Ferns date back to the time of the dinosaurs, and haven’t changed much since then. They bring great colors and textures to the shade garden, and some have even ventured out of the woods. Ostrich fern can be found in shady, forested wetlands and also along sunny streambanks as long as the soil stays moist enough. However they take on a more greenish-yellow color in the sun while keeping a deeper green in the shade. We found this out first hand after we removed a number of invasive buckthorn threes along our stream that had been providing shade for the ferns.

The ostrich fern is hardy in zones 2-7 and is found over a large range, from Newfoundland south to Virginia. While it prefers moist to wet soils, it is adaptable and can grow in average garden soil as well if kept in the shade. I rescued some from along our stream – the namesake of our nursery - where we were doing some work and moved it up to my garden by the house and it is doing just fine.

Ostrich ferns spread by rhizomes, so you want to give them room to grow. It is a great choice for filling in large areas or planting en-masse in woodland gardens. In mid-summer the shorter, blackish fertile fronds appear and persist through the winter, releasing their spores in the spring.

Crown sticking up above the soil.

You can transplant ostrich ferns in the spring and fall. Their large crowns protrude above the soil and are easy to spot for relocation. Every summer each crown sends out new rhizomes a foot or two and the following season new baby ferns sprout up. In just another year or two, these new ferns will send out another new set, and so on. Ostrich ferns can cover large areas in this manner. However, I wouldn’t consider them overly aggressive ‘garden thugs’ per se, I’d just say they are good spreaders. If one happens to pop up in a place you would prefer it wasn’t, just dig it up in the spring and give it a new home. The fronds are brittle near the base, so they usually break of you try to move plants mid-summer.

Easily getting 3-4 feet tall, ostrich ferns are big. They is great for planting around a house foundation as they are tall enough to hide the concrete and make a great backdrop for shorter flowers in front. Since they are deciduous, you don’t have to worry about the snow coming off your roof and crushing your shrubs in the winter either.

In the spring when the fiddleheads come up, you can just break them off to collect them. You want to collect them when they are still tightly curled. Make sure you are collecting fiddleheads of the Ostrich fern; other species of fern could make you sick if eaten. The ferns seem to only put a few fiddleheads up at a time, so as long as you are judicious in your harvesting, your fern crop should survive just fine from your spring harvest. There are some great recipes available online, such as fiddlehead soup, but I usually just sauté ours in some olive oil in the pan for a few minutes until they turn bright green – and then enjoy.

Makin' Maple Syrup

2011-04-06T22:51:00.000-04:00

The weather was great last weekend for our last big run of the season. Cold at night, and warm and sunny during the day. The taps that we tapped first in Feb are already drying up - so this is definitely going to be the end of the season for us. We have been boiling day and night to try to get through all the sap!

After we get it down pretty close to syrup in the big pans on the evaporator, we finish it off on the porch in a big stainless steel pot so that we can keep a close eye on it. Too hot/dense, and it will crystallize in the bottom of the bottles. Too low of a temp/density, and it can grow mold and go bad. You have to get it just right. We use both a thermometer and a hydrometer to measure to make sure we get it just right. You want it to be between 66 and 67 percent sugar content - which happens when it hits 7 degrees above boiling. However, you have to check what your water is boiling at that day if you are going to go by the temperature, as it isn't always 212 exactly.

Once it is done, you filter it through a thick filter with a paper liner. This gets out the sugar sand -and can take a long time. They sell expensive apparatus for this - but we built our own lower cost version that works just as well. The joys of having a handy hubby! After it is done filtering, we heat it back up and then can it in the jugs.

We have half pints, pints and quarts for sale. $6 for half pints, $12 for pints and $20 for quarts. You have to grade your syrup and label it according to the regulations. Our syrup is Grade A Dark Amber. It is hard to get it lighter with the type of set up and the wood firing that we use. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It tastes like real maple sugar - and is delicious!

Waking the nursery up from its hibernation

2011-04-02T21:33:00.001-04:00

We still have a surprising amount of snow on the ground over most of the plants because of the shade - but snow over the plants in the shade section (which is not actually in the shade now because there are no leaves on the maples yet!) has melted - so without that layer of insulation - it is time to uncover the plants.

Otherwise during the day they could heat up too much and start growing too soon - and then when they got uncovered - they would get shocked by the colder temperatures. It would be like growing something in a greenhouse and then just throwing it outside. It usually isn't a good plan.... Figuring out just when to uncover the plants in the spring can be tricky. The timing is more important than covering them up in the fall.

We just have to keep an eye on the rest of the plant beds and snow and uncover them as it melts. The temperatures are supposed to be pretty warm this week - so we will probably have everything uncovered by the end of the week I would think. Then we just keep all the blankets handy in case we get a cold snap. But for the most part since these are native plants -they are meant for the weather - so they should be all set!

From the looks of things it was defintiely time to uncover the shade section. The Golden Ragwort looks very happy. It is one of the first natives in the aster family to bloom each year. It produces many miniature sunflowers in the mid-spring and is especially happy in moist to wet soils.

The ostrich fern is also just starting to peek out. These are the ferns that you can eat as fiddleheads very soon.

A Native Plant for Everything

2011-03-27T18:15:00.000-04:00

One of the many reasons that native plants are so great for landscaping is their incredible adaptability to a wide variety of conditions. Not only are natives great for attracting wildlife such as birds or butterflies, but they can also survive in tough conditions that can make for tough landscaping. Compacted, nutrient depleted soils? Not a problem. Try northern bush honeysuckle, fragrant sumac, and some switchgrass.


Fragrant sumac is a great low growing shrub for tough soil conditions. It also has amazing fall color.

Have a wet, shady corner of your yard that you haven't been able to do anything with? Start with some native shrubs like Spicebush and Summersweet and then add in some white turtlehead and royal fern.

Royal Fern is a great native fern for the shade.

Want your garden to be pretty and edible? Try planting some highbush blueberries, elderberries and serviceberries. Just be sure to get to them before the birds do!

Problems with Deer? There are deer resistant natives. Live near a road and have problems from all the salt spray? Plant salt tolerant natives on your property along the road. You get the point.

I have been updating the website with lots of useful info to help you pick native plants for what you need. I have put together a number of lists for all of these topics to make it easier to find what you are looking for. I am also working on putting plant descriptions up on the website. They aren't all there yet - but many are up - and I will be adding more every day. So check out the lists - and start thinking about what plants you might like to add to your garden this season. The nursery opens the weekend of May 7th and 8th - and planting time will be here before we know it!

Click here to check out the plant lists.
Click here to check out the online catalog of plant info.

Spring has Sprung: The Vernal Equinox

2011-03-20T11:00:00.009-04:00

There may still be snow on the ground - but if you listen and look closely - the red-winged blackbirds are back and the daffodils are poking out of the ground. Many people think that robins are the first sign of spring - but in fact there are robins that overwinter here. The red-winged blackbirds returning are really the first sign of spring for our area. I saw my first one last weekend - so they have been back for at least a week now.Their "oak-a-lee' call is unmistakable.

Today is the Vernal Equinox, or the first day of spring. It may not look like spring yet - but it is getting there quickly. Just this weekend we had an enormous amount of snow melt. The Vernal equinox means that the hours of daylight and darkness are about equal all around the world because the sun shines directly on the equator. The equinox is not technically until 11:21 pm tonight. There are many rituals around the world to celebrate this day - to learn more check out these images from National Geographic by clicking here. And don't forget - while the March equinox is the First day of spring for us - for those in the southern hemisphere - it is the first day of fall!

Spring might be here - but we haven't turned all our energy to the nursery just yet. The daffodils along the house might be poking their heads up - but all the nursery plants are still tucked away under snow and blankets for a bit still. We are still spending our time collecting and boiling maple syrup for a few more weeks. The sap has been running well - and we have been boiling around the clock on the weekends. Luckily - we have had some good moonlight this weekend. Sat night was the biggest full moon in 20 years! Click here to read all about it on NASA's blog.

I had to go over to the Leader store in Rutland to pick up some more syrup jugs for this year, and on my way there just south of Fairhaven on Route 22A there were some snow geese hanging in the back fields of a dairy farm. No matter how many times I see a field of snow geese stopping over here on their way back north it is still a treat! They breed in the arctic and subarctic tundra, and migrate through NY every spring and fall. There were some Canada geese mixed in with them as well - we started noticing the flocks of Canada geese in the sky last weekend along with the blackbirds.

Maple Sugar, Mud, and More Mud

2011-03-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

It was a busy weekend on the farm. We had to do a lot more work on the overflow of the pond to keep it from blowing out because of all this rain and melt. I'm not ready to re-live it just yet - my back is still recovering - so lets just say that if I don't see another piece of rip rap ever again it will be just fine be me.

We finished tapping the trees and started boiling. We ended up getting to all of them except the ones along the old stonewall in the field - which are the farthest away across the deepest snow in the field. So we ended up with 43 trees tapped with 54 taps. For those not familiar with tapping trees, it all depends on the size of the tree. So some of our bigger trees have 2 or even 3 taps in them.

On average, over the 6 week season they say you can get around 10 gallons of sap per tap - which makes 1 quart of finished syrup per tap. Of course this is very tree and weather dependent - so it can be more or less. But if we go with the average, for 54 taps - that would be 54 quarts or, just over 13 gallons. But since we didn't get all the trees tapped until a bit late this year - I think we will be on the short side of that - but we shall see! Today was a great day and today alone we emptied over a hundred gallons of sap from the buckets - so that is atleast 2 gallons of syrup right there! And we already boiled down about the same amount this weekend - so we are well on our way!

If you want to learn more about New York maple, Maple Weekends are coming up on March 19-20 and 26-27 where you can visit Maple Producers all across the state. We don't participate - because I don't think we would get many takers to stand outside in the mud watching the chickens with us - which is about all we have to offer. But some producers have great sugar shacks, gift shops, and even pancake breakfasts! Click here to go to the NYS Maple Producers Assoc. website to see what Maple Producers are near you.

Speaking of chickens - of course the back yard has become a total mud pit - but at least someone is happy about the mess - that's right - the ladies! They are enjoying digging around in the muck and not being on the snow. And I think I agree with them, I am ready for spring to be here too!

March's Plant of the Month: Mapleleaf Viburnum

2011-03-06T22:37:00.002-05:00

photo by Thomas Muller, from www.wildflower.org

Mapleleaf Viburnum
Viburnum acerifolium

In honor of maple sugarin’ season, I have selected mapleleaf viburnum as this month’s native plant. Since I don’t grow trees at the nursery, this is the closest plant that I have to a real maple!

Mapleleaf viburnum is one of our many native viburnums, which are well-known for being adaptable and fast growing shrubs, at home in the garden landscape as well as in nature. American highbush cranberry and Arrowwood are two other native viburnums that are more commonly used in landscaping that you might have heard of.

Mapleleaf viburnum is a smaller, lesser-known species, found in forest understories across much of the Northeast. It is slower growing and lankier than its well known relatives. However, its ability to thrive in dry shade makes it a valuable plant for gardening if you have such conditions. It can also tolerate acidic soils and steep slopes. Hardy to zone 3, mapleleaf viburnum can grow in both moist and dry soils and in sun to shade. However it thrives best in the cooler shade, especially if the soil is dry. Wood aster and blue-stemmed goldenrod are good companion perennials that also flourish in dry shade.

photo by Stefan Bloodworth
from www.wildflower.org

Mapleleaf viburnum has creamy white flowers that stand up in flat-topped clusters in late spring. The berries are clusters of oval, flattened fruits that turn a deep blue-black in the fall and look striking against the purple and deep burgundy colored large maple-shaped leaves. The leaves have 3 lobes, just like a maple, and are arranged oppositely in pairs along the stem. Eventually growing around 4 ft in height at maturity and the same in width, mapleleaf viburnum is a bit twiggy looking, so don’t plant it if you are looking for a big showy specimen plant. However, with its white flowers, dark berries, and gorgeous fall foliage, this native shrub provides lots of interest, so don’t pass it by too quickly.

photo by Sally and Andy Wasowski,
from www.wildflower.org

Mapleleaf viburnum provides food and shelter for many birds. Its low branches provide nesting habitat for the Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird and other. The berries have a relatively high sugar content, which makes them winter persistent, so they are a very important food source for a wide variety of birds in the winter. Plant native viburnums in your yard with other shrubs such as dogwoods, which have berries higher in fat content. These berries aren’t winter persistent, but are important as a food source for migrating birds in the fall. By planting both types of shrubs, you can provide food for the migrating birds in the fall and the year-round residents in the winter, increasing the variety of colorful feathered friends that visit your backyard.

Viburnums aren’t just for the birds. They also provide nectar for butterflies and bees. On a hike during the first week of June last year, I saw this tiger swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from a flowering mapleleaf viburnum right along the trail.

Maple Sugarin' Season is Here!

2011-02-20T19:02:00.000-05:00

So we headed out this weekend to tap some trees. We missed the first run earlier this week with the warm weather, but this was the first chance we had to get out. It was chilly, but the sky was blue. The good news was that with all the warm weather some of the snow had melted. The bad news is that not enough had melted... I think we spent about as much time digging the quad out of the snow as we did tapping.

Our friend Dean was in town visiting, so he helped us power through the snow and make a trail to some of the trees. We managed to get a few trees tapped, but not all of them. But the rest that we can't get to we aren't going to tap yet. Hopefully we can work on trails some more so we can tap more trees next weekend. But without a trail, we aren't going to be able to get full buckets of sap out, so it would just be a waste.

We focused on two areas that are easier to access - so we got 19 trees tapped. Big maple producers have a sugar bush, where all their trees are. That allows them to connect them with lines and have a large, efficient operation. We don't have a sugar bush on our property, but instead just have maple trees spread out across the property. We group them into sections for tapping. Last year I had mapped out our different areas of maple trees. Chris thinks I am a big nerd - but I think the map will help us keep track of the trees and managing for them.

February's Plant of the Month: Virginia Rose

2011-02-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Virginia Rose: Rosa virginiana

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I have selected one of our native roses for February's plant of the month. Don’t be fooled by the name. Yes, Virginia rose is in fact native to NY and the Adirondacks. It is in fact probably the most common rose along much of the East Coast. In addition to being disease-resistant and drought-tolerant, Virginia rose is probably our hardiest native rose, hardy to zone 3, making this is a great rose for North Country gardens.

While not as showy as the classic tea roses, Virginia rose is no ugly duckling either. With glossy foliage, large pink flowers, persistent scarlet fruit, and the classic rose scent, this native rose provides something for all your senses (did I forget to mention the thorns) and four seasons of interest for the garden. All native roses have pink, five-petaled flowers with bright yellow centers. They are designed this way to be most attractive to pollinators, with bumblebees and honeybees being their main pollinators.

Virginia Rose blooms in early to mid summer in a flush – and then sporadically here and there over the rest of the summer. The large, 2 ½” diameter flowers set into rose hips that are a brilliant scarlet color and last most of the winter. These fruits are packed with Vitamin C, making them an important source of winter nutrition for many birds such as bluebirds and cardinals. In fact, by weight, rose hips contain about one hundred times the amount of Vitamin C than oranges. They can be eaten, made into jam or steeped to make rose hips tea. While semi-evergreen in the southern part of its range, in the North Country they are deciduous. The shiny, leathery, leaves turn a deep red or maroon in the fall before dropping.

Averaging only 2-4 feet in height, Virginia rose can sometimes grow as large as 6 ft tall. This shrub will grow in diameter 6-12 inches a year, eventually getting up to 6 ft wide if you let it. While it tends to grow more clumped than some of our other native roses, Virginia rose does still spread by roots, so keep this in mind and pick a place with plenty of room for it to grow when placing this plant in your landscape. If it starts to head in the wrong direction, a good sharp spade in the spring should do the trick. Virginia rose blooms on old wood, so while not needed, you can prune it after it flowers if you like.

Virginia rose prefers well drained soil that can be dry to moist, and full to partial sun. Naturally found in thickets and woodland gaps along the coast from Newfoundland south to Virginia, Virginia rose is great for massing or shrub borders in the home landscape. It is salt tolerant, making it good for using as a hedgerow along the road or your driveway where salt damage to more sensitive plants can occur. It can also grow in less than ideal soils – such as sandy or acidic – making it useful in many landscaping situations. While not prone to disease like the classic tea roses, it is also not totally immune either and can get powdery mildew or black spot, although this is not typically a problem. Virginia Rose provides food and cover for a wide range of animals and is a great alternative to Japanese Barberry, a very popular, yet invasive ornamental shrub.

A winter walk around the farm

2011-02-06T02:10:00.000-05:00

It was relatively warm this morning, and there was a break in the snow - so Chris and I decided to take a walk around the farm and check things out. On the way out, I stopped to feed the chickens some leftover blueberries that had gotten a bit smushy. They weren't too sure what to make of them at first, but they managed to figure it out and downed them all in a jiffy. I wish I had a video camera, as you can't really catch it with pictures, but then as we headed out toward the field on the path, the ladies all ran after me! It makes me feel like the pied piper.

We left the chickens behind at the end of the yard, and made our way across the pond to the field. The snow was so deep it was really hard to walk, even with our snowshoes on. McKinley was his usual crazy self, running around and enjoying the snow.

Chris got the snow off the buildings in the field so they wouldn't collapse. The hoop house does well, with the snow sliding off it, and then Chris keeps the sides clear with the snowblower. But the snow is starting to build up on the roof of the shop. I went looking for a roof rake, but the whole town seems to be sold out of them - I am actually on a waiting list! I just hope the roof can make it until then.

There is so much snow you can't really even see where the rows of plants are covered. And just the very tops of the evergreens are sticking out still. All the snow is keeping the plants nice and insulated against the winter weather above. The temperature outside can even reach minus 20 like it did the other week, but the soil temperature in the pots can still be 35 degrees because of the insulation the winter blanket and the snow provide. (close up photo on the right is Inkberry, our native evergreen holly)

Think Spring - New plants for 2011

2011-01-26T10:00:00.018-05:00

We have added a few new species to the line up for 2011. I have been working hard to find additional ground covers as this is one of the most needed categories in the native arena. Low growing shrubs were also popular too - and we plan to have more of those this year as well.

For groundcovers - we will be adding Alumroot, Barren strawberry, blue-eyed grass (photo above), golden alexanders, moss phlox, prairie phlox, and three-toothed cinquefoil to the line up.

We will also have some new spring ephemerals and woodland flowers -some purple and white trillium, and showy and yellow lady slipper orchids in very limited quantities as well! You had better get here early if you hope to snag one of these beauties. They take a while to grow - and are very tricky to get started- so I have found nurseries in the area to work with in order to be able to offer these species for our customers. They are propagated by reputable nurseries in the Northeast, so you don't have to worry about them being dug. You can enjoy these gorgeous wildflowers in your garden and feel good about it!

We will also have a limited supply of Canada, Michigan, and Turks Cap Lily - three of our beautiful native orange lilies (Canada lily in photo).

Canadian burnett, big leaf aster, closed gentian, hoary skullcap, spikenard, and purple milkweed are a few of the new perennials we will be offering. We also will have some new ferns and grasses in, including the highly requested Interrupted Fern! And lets not forget about trumpet honeysuckle, a striking native vine that that hummingbirds love. We started growing it last year so hopefully it will be ready this spring.

(clockwise from top: trumpet honeysuckle, interrupted fern, hoary skullcap, and Canadian burnett)

The new plant list is posted on the website so you can check it out. There is also a price list posted there as well. I am still working on the plant catalog, with all the plant descriptions in it - but hopefully I will have it ready soon. We are planning on opening on Mothers Day Weekend this year - so there is lots to do still!

When its too cold outside to garden - go talk about it!

2011-01-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

There are a number of great conferences and events coming up in the next few months to take your mind off the cold weather and get you ready for spring. I bet they will give you some great ideas for this upcoming planting season. I thought I would share some info about some of the ones I have heard about in case you are looking for a way to pass a chilly day.

The Ecological Landscaping Association's conference is coming up in March. You save 20% if you register by Feb 15. It will be in Springfield, Mass, which is a few hours away. The Keynote Panel Discussion "Native, Introduced, Invasive, and Endangered Plants in the Landscape:Untangling the Roots of the Problem" is sure to be interesting. I don't think I am going to be able to make it to this one next year, because I am going to attend the Ithaca conference, which is the next day - but if anyone goes - I would love to hear about it! Fore more info, go to http://www.ecolandscaping.or g/

Ithaca's Third Annual Designing with Native Plants Conference is being held March 4th and 5th in Ithaca, NY. I have been the last 2 years when it was held at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This year it is being held at La Tourelle Resort & Spa. I haven't been there before - but it sounds lovely. If you missed Carolyn Summers, author of Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East, when she talked at the nursery this summer, this is another chance to hear her. And there are lots of other great speakers lined up as well. This event has sold out in years past - so if you want to attend you should register soon. For more info or to register, click here.

The 21st annual Native Plants in the Landscape Conference at Millersville is held in Millersville, PA and is a little later in the season, June 1-4.Online registration starts March 15. I haven't made it to this one yet - because I am busy working at the nursery by the time June comes around - but I am going to sneak out to it one of these years - because it really is supposed to be great. A native nursery owner in PA that I have talked to absolutely raves about this event. who knows - maybe this will finally be the year! for more info, go to http://www.millersvillenativeplants.org/

January's Plant of the Month

2011-01-07T18:00:00.001-05:00

I am starting a monthly column in the local Lake George newspaper (the Lake George Mirror) called "Go Native" that highlights a different plant each month to introduce readers to some of the native plants from our forests and fields that are right at home in their own backyards. I figured I might as well post these monthly articles here as well!

January’s Plant of the Month

Winterberry

Ilex verticillata

While sharp, pointy, and evergreen may come to mind when you think holly, the hollies that grow here in the Northeast look a bit different. The most common and hardiest is winterberry and while it isn’t sharp, pointy, or evergreen, it does have the classic red berries you think of when you think holly. Winterberry is hardy to zone 3, making it a great choice for North Country gardeners. Since it loses its leaves in the fall (it is deciduous), there is no greenery to interfere with the stem full of bright red berries, making it striking in an often bleak winter landscape.

Planting winterberry against a building makes the berries stand out in the winter.

Winterberry is an adaptable shrub, found in swamps and thickets and along streams and lakes in the natural landscape. While it may prefer wet feet, winterberry can be grown in well-drained soils, but is not drought tolerant, and like all hollies it prefers slightly acidic soils. Reaching up to 10 ft high, and almost as wide, be sure to give this shrub room to grow. Plant it 4 ft apart to create a hedgerow, in groupings for mass, or alone as a specimen. Winterberry works well in rain gardens, along the lakeshore, or in most places around the yard for that matter.

The berries ripen during the fall, becoming bright red. After the leaves fall off, you are left with the twig covered in berries for a good part of the winter!

Winterberry can grow in full sun to partial shade, but if berry production is the goal, plant in full sun. Cut stems covered in berries will keep for months for holiday decorations. While over 40 species of birds are known to eat the fruit, they don’t do so until mid-winter, meaning you get to enjoy the berries much longer than many of the other berries in the garden. Birds such as chickadees and cardinals use other winter food sources first and only eat the berries once their other foods have dwindled because the berries of winterberry are astringent and bitter

All hollies are dioecious, meaning the plants are either male or female. Both sexes flower, but only the female plants have berries. Flowering is in June, and the branches are covered with small white flowers which you might not notice if it wasn’t for all the attention the neighborhood bees were giving them. You can sex a winterberry by looking at its flowers, so you will either want to learn this skill or be sure to buy your plants from a nursery that already has the plants labeled. You need 1 male nearby (I recommend about 50 ft to be safe) for about every 3-5 females in order to be sure you will have berries. You can hide the male off in the corner of your yard if you like, as many gardeners do.

If you do buy cultivars instead of the straight species, be sure that you pair them up correctly. Winterberry cultivars have been selected from different northern and southern varieties – so they bloom at different times. To ensure pollination, you need your male and female to bloom at the same time. If trying to keep the details of sex and cultivar straight is too confusing for you, just be sure to speak with knowledgeable nursery staff that can help you select the correct plants to meet your landscaping goals.

(top photo, photo with bench, and photo with Robin borrowed from the Scott Arboretum)

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-27T19:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays from all of us on the farm - Emily, Chris, McKinley, and of course all the ladies!

The pond is frozen, but not quite ready for ice skating just yet. We got skates for Christmas, and Chris went out and checked the ice last week -only about 2 inches still - so we think we will wait a bit longer before we take the snowblower out there to clear off a rink.

After the big snow storm last night, Chris had to spend a lot of time clearing the driveway and a new runway area for the ladies - who don't like the snow. They walk down the plank from the coop to the grassy knoll that we can get cleared off for them. It is quite a sight!

McKinley has been enjoying the holidays as well. He has been spending lots of time curled up by the Christmas tree and the fire, and time outside enjoying the snow. He even has a spiffy new winter coat!

All tucked in for the winter - finally!

2010-12-14T21:57:00.000-05:00

Chris and I finally got the plants all tucked in for the winter a few weeks ago. We had been waiting and waiting for it to get cold and stay cold. We finally had lots of rain, so they got good and watered, and then it was going to get cold finally, so it was time to cover them for good. The timing is a bit tricky - so I am glad we are all set finally. Although the timing is actually more important in uncovering the plants than in covering. We didn't want to cover them too soon, since it was still in the 50s, and it could have gotten too warm under the fabric. The key is to keep the plants cold for the winter, alive but not active. Freezing and thawing is where you get into problems.

The plants had been pushed together for a bit already. So all we had to do was cover them. There are two layers - one that is a fabric winter blanket - and then a layer of white poly. Last year we used clear poly, but I decided to try out white this year. we had to cut the materials to size and spread them out over the sections of plants that we had lined up, and then just weigh them down on the edges to keep them in place. If we end up with a warm spell, I can always pick up a side and vent the plants if need be. We just used rocks, cinder blocks, firewood, etc to weigh down the sides - pretty much whatever was hanging around.

The evergreen plants were all tucked together as well - and then we mulched them in to protect them.

We will still have to check on the plants periodically throughout the winter - check on the soil temps and moisture - but for the most part the plants are tucked in for now and we get a break from them until the spring. Which is a good thing, because the chickens have been out of control lately - and I seem to have switched from the crazy plant lady to the crazy chicken lady as of late! Stay tuned for some great photos of the chickens dealing with their first snow!

Chicken portraits

2010-11-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

The reds and the barred rocks are the friendliest - but I think some of the others are finally starting to warm up to us some more. There is a pair of speckled sussex - lets just say they are definitely not the smartest of the bunch.

The giant partridge cochins are like little fluffy basketballs. When they run it is hilarious to watch them try to keep up with the other birds.

The Welsummers look pretty similar to the reds - but their necks have lighter feathers - and they lay eggs with dark brown speckles.

The Ameraucanas have chubby cheeks - they look like chipmunks. They are the most flighty of the birds - and more than not don't even come into the pen at night. I think part of it is because they were always picked on by the rest of the flock because they were younger. They should be laying green and blue eggs by now - but I have looked everywhere for them and can't find them. So either they aren't laying yet for some reason - or the eggs are out there somewhere!

Shrammel Hammel has a huge fan tail and the biggest comb of any of the birds. She is a good layer too - she has been laying in the nest boxes.

The white ones are from shrammel hammel - who is a leghorn - a traditional layer, the dark one is from a welsummer, and the others are the speckled sussex, red, and barred rock. They all have slightly different colors. Someone keeps laying giant eggs - often with double yolks. We aren't sure who it is - but the eggs are so huge we can barely get the egg cartons to close on them!

The Chickens are in charge

2010-11-17T10:13:00.001-05:00

We have been very surprised at just what personalities the chickens have. The barred rocks and the reds have the most spunk - and literally run over to me in the morning when I go outside. They very much like watermelon and all sorts of other treats - including stale bread. They also often follow me around as I work in the nursery.

Some of the chickens have taken a liking to the plant markers - which isn't very convenient when you find them on the ground and you can't figure out which plant is which this time of year when things are cut back!

McKinley just hangs out with the ladies. They will walk right around him! There is a red that really likes to hang out in the shop with Chris - in fact she likes Chris so much that she left him a little surprise in his router table stand the other day - she laid him an egg there!

A few of them let us pick them up and carry them around regularly. It is surprising how soft they are. They will even let you touch their combs. One of the kids said it felt like a gummy bear, and I think that is a pretty good description. They also regularly hang out on the deck - and table - and drink from McKinley's water bowl. They even visit the front yard - especially now because a group of them have been taking a chunk out of my pumpkins every day since I got them - much to my dismay. Needless to say we didn't end up getting to carve the pumpkins this year.

Getting the plants ready to be tucked in

2010-11-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

We took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend and got most of the plants together to be ready to be tucked away. There are still a good number left - but hopefully we can get finished moving everything together next weekend of the weather cooperates. Then we will keep an eye on the forecast and get them all tucked away before the snow hits - at least that is the idea.

The plants get pushed together - but the shrubs have to get turned on their sides - otherwise the weight of the snow on the cover would break them all off. Some other nurseries have their shrubs all surrounded in mulch and they leave them out and uncovered that way. That is what we do with our evergreen plants. Overwintering the plants in containers is a big hassle - but it is the only option if you want to grow your own plants and not just buy/re-sell.

Honey! well not quite yet...

2010-11-11T10:38:00.003-05:00

So we didn't end up going to harvest our first honey this fall. We probably could have gotten a bit - but not too much - since the colony is just getting established this year - and we would need to be sure to leave them enough for the winter. So we are just going to leave it for this year - and then hopefully they will have a good winter, and we will be able to divide the hive next year and also get our first honey. Even though we aren't harvesting it, we still went out to check it out and give it a taste test to check it out. It has been a few weeks now - but it was pretty cool to taste the honey right out of the hive. Chris got all suited up and pulled out a frame for us to see. First he used some sumac to create a nice smoke to smoke the hive. Then he had to use the hive tool to loosen the frame and be able to pull it out of the hive. Once the comb is full of honey, it gets capped. So any comb that isn't capped yet is still being filled with honey. So you can see on the frame that Chris is holding that the whole frame is full of honey yet - since part of the honey comb is still open.

So next year if all goes accordingly to plan we will harvest honey at the end of the summer and have it available for sale!

Shrammel Hammel laid her first egg!

2010-11-05T22:12:00.000-04:00

We adopted Shrammel Hammel Ding Dong from Mrs. William's second grade class at Jackson Heights this past June. She turned out to be a Leghorn, so she is the only layer we have that lays white eggs. The way you can tell what color egg a chicken will lay it to look at their eardrums! Shrammel was a few weeks younger than the rest of our layers, so she finally just started laying this week! She likes to hang out with the Ameraucanas for the most part. So now we will have a few white eggs mixed in with the others! We still should be getting blue and green eggs from the Ameraucanas - so I have a feeling they are laying somewhere and we haven't found it yet - so I think we will be going on an Easter egg hunt this weekend!

We have been getting eggs for a while now. We still haven't convinced all the chickens to lay eggs in the nest boxes -instead they have a few places in the coop and in our lean-to off the garage where they like to lay. Maybe once the snow starts they will decide to spend more time in the coop - and will start to lay in there... until then - at least we think we know where most of the spots they are laying is...there is a red and a barred rock that likes this little nook in the lean-to next to the generator. comfy looking, huh?

The eggs started off really small - and then have been getting more normal sized over the last few weeks. The eggs should keep getting bigger slowly for the first 12 months. Eggs are classified by size - so 1 dozen large eggs must weight at least 24 ounces, while extra large is 27 ounces. Each pullet starts with around 4,000 undeveloped yolks or ova. After about 6 months she starts to lay, laying 1 egg around every 25 hours - so lays a bit later each day than the day before.

One of the chickens keeps laying some giant eggs with double yolks. Double yolks are caused by ovulation that occurs too rapidly - or when one yolk somehow gets 'lost' and is joined by the next yolk. Often laid by a pullet whose production cycle is not yet well synchronized. The Guinness Book has 5 yolks as the record for one egg! The eggs with double yolks tend to be much larger than the others.

We have also gotten a few eggs with wrinkles in them. The book says they are perfectly fine - it just means the chicken got rushed or isn't quite synchronized yet - and accidentally had two yolks end up in the canal together - and they bumped together - wrinkling the one egg before it hardened.

Getting the nursery ready for winter

2010-10-30T22:46:00.000-04:00

There is lots of work to do to get everything ready for the winter still. It has been getting pretty cold lately - so chris went ahead and winterized the irrigation pumps and drained all the hoses and put them away. So we are done with watering plants for the season.

I have been weeding, labeling, and cutting back plants. Some of the plants are still going strong though - so they won't be ready to be covered for the winter for a while still. Only once they die back are they ready to be cut and covered, otherwise they might rot in the pots.

Chris has had some time finally to attack that huge pile of willow that has been in the yard all summer. Willow burns hot but quick, so it doesn't make great firewood - but it is fine for boiling the sap down this winter for maple syrup.

Winter is on its way - but the nursery is still alive with color!

2010-10-26T17:28:00.000-04:00

The leaves are off the maples - but some of the shrubs still have some great color - and believe it or not some of the flowers are still going! The chickens love to come out back and follow me around as I work getting the plants ready for the winter. They enjoy drinking from the pools.

The highbush blueberry and red chokeberry have amazing red fall color. These are great native alternatives for invasive shrubs such as burning bush or Japanese barberry.

The northern bayberry doesn't get as bright red - but it is still very pretty. The witch hazel is flowering right now - which makes it an important late season source of nectar for our insects - including honeybees.

And speaking of flowers - the Heart-leaved asters and bluestemmed goldenrod - both great flowers for shady gardens - are still going strong.

The green of the Christmas ferns and plantain-leaved sedges looks nice peaking out form underneath the colors of the fallen maple leaves.

Come on out and see us at the Walkers Fall Festival

2010-10-14T18:17:00.000-04:00

Well last weekend was our last weekend of being open at the nursery - so you would think we would be taking it easy this weekend - but no! We will be at Walkers Farm Home and Tack in Fort Ann on Saturday October 16th as part of their fall festival. The event is from 9-5 at Walkers, which is at 5565 State Route 4, Fort Ann, NY. There will be a number of local vendors, and even without the additional vendors, Walkers has all kinds of great stuff anyway - so if you haven't been there in a while it is definitely a worthwhile trip for the day.

Fall is a great time to plant. The cooler temperatures and wet soils right now are great for quick plant establishment and plants planted in the fall get a jump start on those planted in the spring. We will have some shrubs for sale - such as red osier dogwood, bayberry, highbush cranberry, and winterberry (pictured above) and nature photography for sale, and some maple syrup form last year. We will have fresh apple butter too!
Our apple butter is made from Cortland apples. We started using the apples for our own tree - but our 1 tree doesn't produce enough apples to meet the demand - so now we get our apples from right down the road - literally - at McWhorters Orchard in Argyle.

Asters for fall color

2010-10-06T10:00:00.003-04:00

Our native asters are a great option for fall color besides the mums that you see everywhere! not that there is anything wrong with mums by any means - but the asters are loved by our local bees and butterflies.

We have a variety of different native asters as well. This year at the nursery we have the New England Aster, New York Aster, Smooth Aster, Purple-stemmed Aster, White Wood Aster, and Heart Leaved Aster. Next year I am adding Big Leaf Aster as well.

Our native asters bloom all fall up until frost. The White Wood and Heart Leaved Asters work in part shade and shade - so they are great for fall color in shady areas that are otherwise just green this time of year!
Here is a picture of the Heart Leaved Aster in bloom. This is a great aster for shade that stays small.

Smooth aster is great for gardens. Its smooth leaves are different from the hairy leaves of most asters. It is shorter, and not as 'messy' looking as some of our other asters - so it is a good 'starter' aster for those getting into gardening with natives.

Purple stemmed aster is great for wet areas. You often see it along road ditches and other wet spots. Here is a section along the road on the way to Keene where water is pouring over the rocks and purple aster is quite at home.

New England Aster is the typical field aster you see this time of year. It comes in a variety of shades from purple to pink. This bee is enjoying stocking up pollen from the aster - a very important source of pollen in the fall.

New York aster is another great choice. The flowers are smaller than New England, and can be lavender or even white.