Native Plant Events

Plants into Ottawa, Saturday, September 11th

Beaux Arbres will be bringing plants into Ottawa on Saturday, September 11th. We will be distributing prepaid orders of native plants from a Britannia area parking lot on that Saturday, from 9:30 am until noon. This will probably be our last delivery of plants for the season. The nursery will still be open until the end of September.

Ironweed ($12) and the native hibiscus, Swamp Rose Mallow ($18) are now available and looking very good. We still have seedling Butterfly Milkweeds available — now is a good time to get this much-in-demand species. Many other species are still available. Because some species are available only in small quantities, rather than post a new Availability list, I am asking you to use the August Availability List as a wish list, and I will fill your orders to the best of my ability, in the order they come in.

September is the ideal time to add early spring bloomers to your garden. Some great early blooms, which cheer you and help feed overwintered pollinators, are Prairie Crocus, Early Buttercup, Common Bluets, and Early Saxifrage.

Please email your orders to me by the evening of Thursday, September 9th, and I will get back to you with details about payment etc.: naturalgarden@xplornet.ca

chèvrefeuille dioïque

Plants coming to Britannia and to Navan

Beaux Arbres Native Plants has a new Plant Availability List out. We will be bringing pre-paid orders to our regular Britannia area parking lot on Thursday, July 8th, and then, on Monday, July 12th, we will be bringing plants to an address in Navan. Both days the plant order distribution will be in the afternoon, from 4 to 7:30 pm. We expect folks have plans on summer weekends, hence the weekday dates, but we don’t expect our east-end customers to fight the rush hour traffic across town, especially with all the road construction, so we are trying out the new address in Navan. (Order Plants)

Customers who come to the farm have often picked up some species which hasn’t made it on to the Availability List because I only have one or two of them in stock. This spring, one lucky customer happened to ask about Hobblebush on the very day I decided that I would never have room for all three of my precious Hobblebushes, so she left with a pot of seed-grown local genotype Hobblebush. Yes, children, that actually happened. So for this issue of the Plant Availability List, I start the list with some of the oddments and singular items that wouldn’t usually make it on. The larger shrubs are things I have grown for our own landscaping and I have been selling off the extras. Once, say, the last Grey Dogwood is gone, it probably won’t be on the list again. The herbaceous items are just things I happen to be low on.

I should point out that the Pearly Everlasting is available with or without resident American Lady Caterpillars, while supplies last. And while we are talking about caterpillars, the Butterfly Milkweed is not yet big enough to include on the list, but it will be on a list coming out soon. They are coming along nicely but not yet ready to plant out.

I have a couple of new things for the Rock Garden: Showy Jacob’s Ladder and Littleflower Penstemon. Not locally native at all, just little cuties from the Rocky Mountains.

Oh, and yes, that Glaucous Honeysuckle vine that I have been promising will be ready any week now — it is ready now and is on the list. Everybody should consider planting a Glaucous Honeysuckle: not too big, two seasons of interest with flowers and fruit, and a host plant for the caterpillars of the charming Hummingbird Clearwing Moths. What’s not to love?

plant-list-july-2021-1Download

New Availability List & Pausing Deliveries

I have a new Availability List to download. The demand for native plants has been so great this spring, that many, many species are temporarily out of stock. For many species, plants seeded this year will soon start to be available. However, some of the slower growing woodland plants are not available until next year.

Newly available are: Tall Sunflower (one of my all-time favourites – pictured above), Tall Meadow-rue, and Golden Ragwort.

We had been hoping to be part of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden Sale. However, this year they are doing the sale entirely on-line, with prepaid orders, and they are spreading the pick-ups out over several weekends, to avoid crowding. Under the circumstances, it doesn’t make sense to add ourselves to the process. We are already doing on-line prepaid orders.

We have decide to pause on deliveries for a couple of weeks. Rather than bringing in partial orders, it seems a better use of my time to stay on the farm and build up stock again.

Please remember that adding native plants to your garden is a process that can go on all season. As long as you can bring a hose to the plants, or get a bucket of water from the lake, planting potted nursery stock can be done all summer. Some great heat-loving, summer-flowering natives are very slow to get going in the spring, and some just hate overwintering in pots, so the only time they are available for sale is in the summer. Keep revisiting the web site for updated Availability.

Plant Availability May 18, 2021Download

Winding Down

Our Hypertufa Trough Planting workshop was the last planned event of the season. Some wonderful troughs gardens were created. We are still at the farm until mid-November but we are winding down sales. The soil is getting to be too cool to install warm-season plants, and many herbaceous plants are entering dormancy.

I want to thank all our customers for helping us get through this challenging season. I am especially grateful to the repeat customers. Some folks took a chance on our prepaid order/pick-up scheme early in the summer, and then ordered more. I am also especially grateful to some old friends, and a new friend, who allowed us to use their driveways for pick-up locations across Ottawa, so we could reach customers in diverse neighbourhoods.

Predictions for next spring

I may be wrong, but I do not expect the Ottawa Seedy Saturday and Ottawa Valley Seedy Sunday, indoors and in early March, will happen in 2021. And even if they were to be held, I don’t think I would want to participate as a vendor. The spring plant sales are another matter. I am very much hoping and expecting the Friends of the Farm Sale (Mothers’ Day Sale), the Fletcher Wildlife Garden Annual Sale, and the Westboro Farmers’ Markets will happen next spring, outdoors, and with appropriate protocols. I am sure we will all be very eager for these cheering events after what may become a very grim winter.

So, with this in mind, I am taking a bit of a holiday this year from seed cleaning and packaging. I don’t enjoy cleaning seeds, and our Seedy Saturday seed sales were always meant to be local and to augment our plant sales. In other words, we are not going to be moving towards a big mail-order seed presence. I may have some species available in seed — I’ll post on the website.

We did find the prepaid orders and pick-ups to be a good way of getting our plants to our customers and we will continue with that in 2021, even as we get back into the sale days and farmers’ markets.

We introduced some interesting new species this summer, such as Ditch Stonecrop, Water Plantain, and Downy Wood Mint. I did not find time in the growing season to add their species profiles to the website, so over the winter I shall be adding pics and info on our new species. Please check in from time to time.

Newly-planted Fen/Alvar Trough: Pitcher Plant, Dwarf Canadian Primrose, Early Saxifrage, and Stitchwort.

Saturday at Westboro Market

It is not too late to order plants for pick-up at the Westboro Ottawa Farmers’ Market on Saturday. Please get your order to us by noon on Friday as we load up the trailer Friday afternoon. Order Plants.

We are out of many popular species until next year. No more Butterfly Milkweed, Ironweed, or even Large-leaved Aster. However, we still have lots of plants available – little known species such as Ditch Stonecrop, Whorled Milkweed, and Goat’s Rue. We have some great native vines available: Purple Clematis, Virgin’s Bower, Canada Moonseed, and Hairy Honeysuckle. The latest Plant Availability list is up on the Order Plants page.

The Featured Image is the flower of native Purple Clematis.

We’re back at the Market

Beaux Arbres will be back at the Westboro Market for this Saturday, September 12th and the following Saturday, September 19th. The market is around the corner in McKellar Park this summer and Covid19 protocols are in place. You will be able to buy plants from the selection we bring to the market but we encourage you to pre-order for pick-up on the day. I have just prepared a new Plant Availability List for you to download. And we have a Back to the Market Special – see below.

We have had a wonderful response from our understanding customers who have sent us orders for our summer delivery dates and who have come out to the farm. It has been an interesting summer. We are grateful for all your support.

We have run out of some species for the year, including such garden stalwarts as Spike Blazing Star, Nodding Prairie Onion, Wild Bergamot, and White Turtlehead. But there are some new additions that weren’t there earlier in the summer: totally new species such as Downy Wood Mint, returning species such as Purple Clematis, and never-available-in-the-spring-’cause they-are-so-slow-to-get-going species such as Butterfly Milkweed.

Back to the Market Special

Our Prairie Smoke plants are usually $12 for a 4 1/2″ tall pot. Right now we have an abundance of Prairie Smoke in 4″ pots which we will have available at the market at the special price of 4 for $20. This is a great deal on a plant you want to have lots of!

Prairie Smoke in the garden at Beaux Arbres.

Hypertufa Workshop

The first part of our two-day hypertufa workshop produced some fine small bowls and troughs.

If you didn’t participate in the first half, you can still come to the planting workshop on Sunday, September 27th. Purchase one or more of the troughs I have made up and have on hand, and plant up your troughs with little arctic or alvar cuties. I will have an assortment of planting media, grit, clay, stone mulch and thin rocks for creating crevices. Four plants — easy, hardy stalwarts all — are included for each trough, and I have other plants to chose from.

The cost for the one day workshop is $65. Troughs are priced individually by size – $25 to $50.

Participants limited to 8. The location is at Beaux Arbres, 29 Ragged Chute Bristol , Quebec. (Map) Register by contacting me via the form below:

Seeds through the Mail

With the rescheduled Ottawa Seedy Saturday now cancelled, and diverse Horticultural Society events in question, Canada Post is the most reliable way to get your wildflower seeds. Beaux Arbres has nearly all the species we prepared for Ottawa Seedy Saturday (March 6th) still in stock. We sold out of a couple at a very busy Ottawa Valley Seedy Sunday on March 7th.

Download the species list and then send me a message via the Location and Contact page. You can send us a cheque or we can set up an email transfer. The minimum order is 4 packets (for $15). If you order 8 or more packets, we will add two bonus packets, your choice. (There will be a $5 shipping charge for any order that fits in the small bubble mailer).

New Species for the Fletcher Wildlife Garden Sale, June 2

I am almost too busy getting the plants ready for the sale to blog about them but there are a few new species that are too interesting to ignore.IMG_0942

Seeded earlier this year and already big enough to plant now, the lovely biennial Swamp Thistle (Cirsium muticum). I know, Swamp and Thistle. Don’t let your experience with weedy non-native thistles, neither the stately but dangerous Bull Thistle nor the absolutely appalling Russian Thistle, put you off this great native for damp spots. It is so unlikely to seed into gardens that I suggest you collect some seeds in the fall to ensure you don’t lose it. I received my seeds as a generous gift from Lis Allison, whose Pine Ridge Studio, near Carp, is a great source for locally grown native ferns. Native thistles are great nectar sources for butterflies and the nutritious seeds feed many birds.

Also new this year: Dwarf Arctic Iris (Iris setosa var. arctica), a miniature wild iris and seriously cute. We have some in bud. Seriously cute. Shop early.

We are bringing a few pots of Rock Whitlow-grass (Draba arabisans). Perhaps not the most exciting of Drabas — the really tiny, exciting ones are all denizens of either the high Arctic or Alpine peaks and dislike hot weather — but we just this past Sunday saw this species used very effectively in the Natives area of the Alpine Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden (featured image). This Draba species is an easy  plant for rock gardens, small enough for troughs.

fullsizeoutput_300

And speaking of rock gardens, yes, we will have lots of Common Bluets, still happily blooming.IMG_0948

We will not be bringing many shrubs to the sale this year — three species of roses, some Shrubby Cinquefoil, a few others. Plan to come out to the nursery for more shrubs.

The Fletcher Sale is the only time we bring the mid to late summer meadow flowers into Ottawa. They won’t be in bloom now, of course, but take the opportunity to add some great heat-loving natives, for flowers throughout the summer. Many of the prairie and meadow flowers are important nectar and pollen food sources for diverse pollinators: Boneset, Great Blue Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, Swamp Milkweed, diverse yellow daisies and many others. New this year: Rattlesnake Master and Tall Coreopsis.