New Plant Availability list for September

I have a new list of available plants for this September – a PDF to download. You can pre-order from this list to pick up at the Native Plants & Clay event, September 13 & 14 at Pine Ridge Studio (north of Kinburn), or pre-order to pick up at the nursery in Eganville. In addition to the plants on the lists, I often have one or two of a species, which weren’t enough to make it onto the list, or they looked so shabby by the end of the summer that they didn’t make the list, so it is always worth sending me an email enquiry to ask about a species you don’t see but I might have. Email: jewelwinggarden@gmail.com

This month, I have some nice small Little Bluestem grass. I have scaled back the number of grass species I usually offer, to the ones I think most garden-worthy (essentially, just the extremely beautiful Prairie Dropseed). I grew these Little Bluestems for my own landscaping purposes and now offer the surplus to you. If you are thinking about installing your own little mini-prairie (a phenomenal project to increase biodiversity) or if you just like native grasses, this is a chance to get some Ottawa Valley genotype Little Bluestem at a good price. I also have some very nice Prairie Dropseed in 2 1/2″ pots at a reasonable price for this relatively slow-growing grass. I also have a couple of large pots of this lovely grass — instant elegance for any sunny garden.

As I did last fall, I have Swamp Milkweed on a 2 for 1 sale — $7 for two. As I am trying to scale back the number of species I offer and leave the really easy daisies and goldenrods to others, I really should drop the easy Swamp Milkweed from my list. However, I just cannot. It is such a great plant for monarch caterpillars as well as being a beautiful, fragrant, and well-behaved garden plant. I think every garden should have some Swamp Milkweed in it and I guess I am trying to saturate the Ottawa area with Swamp Milkweed. My seed was collected on the banks of the Bonnechere River and could not be more locally appropriate. I also have an abundance of Butterfly Milkweed seedlings, good-looking plants about 6″ tall. It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that you need more Butterfly Milkweed.

I also have some Poppy Mallow (aka Wine Cups) in 2 1/2″ pots. This is a species I have struggled to germinate – the seed has a remarkably hard coating. I think I now have it figured out. Poppy Mallow is not any thing close to locally native but is a little known North American with real garden impact. It has the most intensely saturated process red flowers, just a knock-out show in the garden. It has recumbent stems so it is a good plant for a rock garden or at the top of a wall, or let it weave itself through other plants that are about one foot high or so. I once put it among Little Bluestem thinking the grass would support the stems, but Little Bluestem is too big to be a companion for this plant and shaded it out.

To pre-order plants, please send me an email: jewelwinggarden@gmail.com