Flowers, Moms, and May Delights!

Hello Jaime,

It's the first full week of May and our gardens are bursting into bloom before our eyes. I have been trying to focus on writing this weekly email, but I just keep wandering outside and walking around my yard. It is so pretty and SO exciting.

Our focus this week is on beautiful flowers. A seriously large shipment of annuals was just unloaded this morning. As I write this, roses, clematis, and all sorts of flowering shrubs and perennials are coming off the second truck of the day. And this pattern will continue day after day for weeks. Spring is a crazy season. We work hard but we also love the thrill of each new shipment. I know you guys do too!

Mother's Day is this Sunday, May 12th. Our suggestion is to give your mom, favorite aunt, grandmother, or other significant mother figure in your life the gift of a beautiful garden. Classics include peonies, roses, irises, bleeding hearts (this pale pink one is 'Cupid'), lilacs, and poppies. Or perhaps your mom is a cook? Fill a flat with herb plants, or gather them together in a pretty basket. Is mom into planting natives? We've got so many, for every situation. Let us help you put together a collection of wonderful native plants. We guarantee she will be thrilled with such a thoughtful gift. If your mom or grandmother doesn't have a garden, let us put together a lovely container garden for her porch or patio.

Perhaps she would like a very special birdbath. This one that says "My Heart is in the Garden" is one of my favorites. We have floral gloves, garden hats, our favorite hand tools, pretty pots, and tons of seeds that can be direct sown now.

Does she bake or make jams and jellies? Give her a fruit combo of blueberry plants, raspberry plants, and strawberry plants. We even have everbearing strawberry hanging baskets!.

One of our very favorite birdbaths.

REPLACE YOUR LAWN WITH NATIVE GROUND COVERS

I have been in my home for 20 years and ever since the day we moved in, I have been on a mission to reduce the amount of lawn that we have. Every year, I pick a new area to plant up. I smother with cardboard and leaves in the fall, passively preparing the bed and killing the grass. Then the following growing season, I work on planting it. Above you can see one of my very favorite native groundcovers. It is called golden star (Chrysogonum virginicum). It spreads quickly and grows in sun or shade. Below you can see it one year after planting in my shady bed near a walnut tree.

Another native ground cover that is deer resistant and very easy to establish is foamflower (Tiarella). The deeply cut leaves above are Tiarella 'Timbuktu', one of my faves as it has stunning foliage after the pretty white flowers are finished.

For true ground cover coverage, you just can't beat Tiarella 'Running Tapestry'. This spreads by runners and, as you can see from the above picture, is an incredible variety. You can certainly grow more upright plants through this tightly knit groundcover. Ferns are an obvious choice as well as Solomon's seal (Polygonatum).

Here you see a stunning stand of Tiarella combined with Phlox divaricata (woodland phlox) in Diane's garden.

Back in my yard, I have been adding lots of our native American ginger (Asarum canadensis) and our native crested iris (Iris cristata). They both take a season to establish and then, they spread beautifully. Iris cristata is short and I use it to edge my shady garden beds. The leaves remain nice all summer long.

I AM IN LOVE WITH BAPTISIAS!

I love a perennial that is reliably hardy, comes back year after year, has beautiful blooms beloved by bumblebees, has clean foliage that looks good all summer long, can be used as a cut flower and a cut foliage filler, has a cool fall seedpod, and is easy to grow. Oh, and if it is a larval food host plant for butterflies, that is an added bonus.

That describes Baptisias perfectly!

Although they are technically native in the midwest, they are perfectly happy here in CT and have proven to be one of the best perennials you can add to your garden.

So much breeding work has taken place in the last decade to provide us with Baptisias of many colors and heights. One thing I will say, they form a big, bushy plant so be sure to leave at least a 3 foot diameter circle around them, even if the plant you are adding is a smaller, starter size. Like peonies, they take a few years to establish. They put energy into root growth in the beginning. I usually surround them with colorful annuals the first year so the garden looks full and colorful. Baptisias are legumes (in the pea family) so their roots fix nitrogen from the air. They feed themselves! I practice "chop and drop" with my Baptisias, cutting off the old stems in the spring,chopping them up, and using them as mulch around the plants. Baptisias are also really drought tolerant. No watering is needed once they are established!

Baptisia 'Burgundy Blast' has a deep, dark purple flower. Imagine the fun you could have combining it with burgundy leaf Penstemons such as P. 'Husker's Red' or P. digitalis 'Midnight'.

The yellow Baptisias combine beautifully with Allium bulbs. Here you see Baptisia 'American Goldfinch' and Allium 'Purple Sensation'. After the Allium bulbs go dormant, the Baptisia will cover the gap in the garden.

This is the week to shop for Baptisias as we have so many varieties in stock including 'Ivory Towers' with white flowers and purple stems, 'Pink Truffles' which is a very soft pink, 'Indigo Spires' with a very tall, upright form and deep blue flowers, 'Blue Mound', and 'Lemon Meringue', which is a very soft, creamy yellow.

SERIOUS SHIPMENTS OF AMAZING ANNUALS ARE HERE!

Cosmos 'Apricot Lemonade' was my new love in 2023. I am so happy to see her back on our benches so early this year! By the way, now is also a good time to direct sow seeds of cosmos, zinnias, Tithonias, and many other annuals. Seeds sown now will bloom by July and keep on going until a hard frost.

We LOVE the annual varieties of anise hyssop (Agastache) here at Natureworks. They LOVE hot sun and bloom all summer long, attracting pollinators galore, especially hummingbirds.

What is that deep red flower in the center of this orange Agastache? It is chocolate cosmos. Yes, it is a deep red cosmos whose flower truly smells like chocolate. This photo was taken in our Kid's Garden last summer.

Two more trucks have arrived since I finished this email-stay tuned to our Facebook and instagram pages for many more photos of what came in!

If you love to add tender perennial Salvias to your gardens and containers, you will know that they are not always in bloom when you shop for them in early May. But those that know, KNOW. The same is true with many of our specialty annuals. This is Salvia 'Wendy's Wish', a tall, dramatic Salvia that I add to my gardens every single year. I place it where I know I will sit and watch the hummingbirds nectaring on it. Lots of our favorite specialty tender perennial Salvias just arrived today. And so did our first hummingbird!

Nicotianas are starting to arrive this week. This is 'Perfume Deep Purple', a lovely variety that is ideal to place where you will enjoy its fragrance. We also carry the tall, white, evening scented forms.

START SMALL AND WATCH YOUR GARDEN GROW...

If you come to the shop on Saturdays, you might find me wandering around the benches, camera around my neck, notepad in hand. What am I doing? I am taking notes to write this email!

Last Saturday, I squealed out loud when I discovered that we had little pots of the straight species wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) on our benches! This is the perfect plant to feed the hummingbirds which are now here in CT. And, it is a great plant for naturalizing in sun or shade. All you have to do is not deadhead it until the seed pods are ripe. Then, sprinkle the seeds wherever you want it to grow and next year, don't weed that area until you know how to recogonize columbine babies!

Small 3" and quart sized pots are usually ONLY available in the spring. In the summer, they are much too hard to keep watered and we tend to stock larger pots of perennials. But now, in May, we have so many. The list includes:

• Echinacea pallida, purpurea, and 'Prairie Splendor'
• Euctrochium maculatum (formerly Eupatorium, native Joe Pye weed)
• Lobelia siphilitica and cardinalis
• Prunella 'Summer Daze'
• Solidago sempervirens
• Chrysogonum virginicum
• Oriental poppies of many colors
• Lupines of many colors
• Delphiniums
• Sweet woodruff
• Heucheras
• Liatris
• Lavender
• Ice plants (Delosperma)

and more!

May Means...

Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) is in bloom. This is a very hard working native shrub that is not eaten by deer and forms a large thicket that the birds love to nest in. The flowers are an unusual shade of deep, wine red and smell like ripe pineapples when in bloom on a warm, sunny day. In fact, some people call this the "pineapple bush". This picture was taken in my yard on Sunday morning. I planted this very old fashioned shrub when I first moved in, right next to a big, old fashioned lilac. We have plants of Carolina allspice in stock right now.

May means that all of our Aronias are in bloom. We have both black and red berried forms. They birds love the berries but right now, the flowers are just so pretty. Dr. Mark Brand at the University of CT has done so much work breeding our native Aronias to be useful landscape plants. There are now ground cover forms, low mounding forms, even narrow upright forms. Stop in and check out what we have in our native shrub section and let us help you choose the right ones for your yard.

May means that when I walk down to my new spicebush garden in the lower back yard, I am amazed by this combination of Pulmonaria 'Raspberry Splash', Zizia aptera, and Packera aurea. Wow! I picked the Zizia and Packera for a fresh bouquet for my sister on Sunday and I was thrilled to see that they held up really nicely. This garden was smothered in the fall of 2021 and planted in 2022 and 2023. It is still a work in progress.

Heucherella 'Brass Lantern'

Heucherella 'Pink Fizz'

May means that our Heucherellas are in bloom. These are an interspecific cross of two natives- Tiarella and Heuchera. The result is a group of shade tolerant, deer resistant perennials with large, showy flowers and equally amazing foliage. We incorporate Heucherella, Tiarellas, and Heucheras in many of our container garden designs.

May means that I now have tiger swallowtail butterflies in my yard. Catbirds too. They are back!

May means that it's time to feed your garlic. Use either granular organic fertilizer such as Coast of Maine or Sustane or liquid Neptune's Harvest Fish Emulsion and Seaweed.

May means that the breadseed poppies that you sowed in late winter are UP and

IT IS TIME TO THIN THEM!

Do not skip this step. It is the only way you will have big, beautiful poppy flowers. This is what to look for in the garden, little frilly blue green leaves.

CHECK OUT THIS RAISED BED PLANTER

SMART POT URBAN COLLECTION

I LOVE Smart Pots and have 10 of them placed throughout my yard. I use them to grow all my root crops such as parsnips, radishes, carrots, and beets as my rocky, heavy clay soil doesn't produce good root crops. I leave them out all year and keep the soil in them. At this time of year, I remove the top few inches of existing soil, toss it in the garden, and amend with compost and organic fertilizer.

We are SO excited about these new Raised Planter Beds from Smart Pot's Urban Collection. They are ideal for balconies, decks, patios, anywhere! If you rent, you can easily take them with you when you move. If you don't want to desod an area and dig a new bed, simply plop down a Smart Pot, fill it with our wonderful organic soil, and plant.

I use both 20 gallon and 10 gallon Smart Pots. The larger ones are good for one tomato plant and cage or 3 pepper plants. Last year I grew parsnips and potatoes in 10 gallon Smart Pots. Above you can see one of my Smart Pots planted with radish seeds on April 22nd. I will thin them this week and EAT THE THINNINGS as microgreens! I should be harvesting radishes by May 22nd.

Melissa's Container Garden Design of the Week

Melissa has been working on one of our garden maintenance teams for many years. She is now splitting her time between the crew and the retail store. She is famous for the container gardens she designs and installs for our clients. We welcome you to bring your containers here to plant or come in to treat yourself to some new ones and let us help you fill them with beautiful cool season plants.

This week's container garden is both tolerant of chilly nights AND will be happy in the heat of summer. The perennial in the center with the burgundy leaves is a great native: Aster lateriflorus 'Lady in Black'. It will bloom in the fall, but in the summer, it makes a great upright, vertical accent. Surrounding it is perennial silvery Artemesia 'Powis Castle', Arctotis 'Wine', snapdragon 'Snaptini Rose Bicolor', Verberna 'Sun Hot Pink', and purple sweet alyssum. Melissa calls it a study in pink and purple. I call it beautiful!

This container can take chilly nights and hot summer days and will look great through the end of fall!

It's Time for VINES!

Clematis 'Rebecca'

When gardeners think of vines, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Clematis. And for good reason. Clematis flowers are just so gorgeous. They come in so many colors. But when I wait on customers who are shopping for Clematis, they often express confusion about the different types. We have a handout for that!

Clematis Handout

We have lots and lots of beautiful Clematis vines in stock this week. We can help you sort out which type they are and the best way to plant and care for them.

If you are looking for a native vine, let me introduce you to Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle). This is NOT the white invasive honeysuckle vine that takes over the world. It is also not as fragrant. BUT, our native honeysuckle is an excellent choice when you have a sunny trellis or arbor. We have the straight species as well as the variety 'Major Wheeler' (coming in on Thursday) which has larger, brighter coral/orange flowers. This is one of the top hummingbird flowers in our gardens. It blooms on both old and new new wood so you can cut the vine back in the spring, let it flower, then cut it again and it will rebloom.

We have two other native vines to consider. Aristolochia macrophylla is called Dutchman's pipe vine. It has huge heart shaped leaves and very unusual flowers that look like a pipe. It can be cut hard in late winter and will cover a trellis or an arbor that summer. We have it growing on the lath house at Natureworks. It is the larval food plant of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly and yes, we have had those caterpillars on our pipevine. The beautiful butterfly is shown below. This is one of the most shade tolerant vines I know of.

We also have our native Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls'. This is not as vigorous as the Chinese wisteria and it reblooms during the summer, which is a bonus. It is the host plant for Marine Blue and Duskywing butterflies as well as skippers.

Embrace all the beauty that May has to offer. It's time for flowers and lots of them. It's time to clean out your raised beds, top off your Smart Pots, drag out and stage your containers on the deck. It's time to sort through your seeds and make a shopping list for when you come in so you can buy what you forgot. It's time to get your trellises on your pea vines (or use a great big, heavy duty tomato cage as Diane does). It's time to put our new sturdy peony hoops on your peonies. My dahlias are up out of the root cellar and I will be sorting them out and planting them over the next few weeks. I have seeds to sow, seedlings to transplant. Yay!

AND, It's time to celebrate MOM!

AND, it's time for a visit to Natureworks.

Our OPEN DAYS are:

Wednesday-Saturday 10-5, Sunday 10-4

We are closed Monday & Tuesday to restock!

Start a tradition and bring your mom to Natureworks on Mother's Day and take pictures in our gardens. Then, hand her a wagon and say "fill it up!" Or, if you can't bring mom here, come in and tell us what your mom likes and we will help you put together a collection of plants that will surprise and delight her.

We may be busy, we may be tired, but we LOVE the excitement that this time of year brings. And we hope to see YOU soon...

Natureworks and Coast of Maine Give Back to our Community

Natureworks manager Diane St. John is an amazing woman. Not only does she manage the Natureworks retail shop, she also somehow finds the time to volunteer in her community of Durham, CT. This is a pollinator garden that Diane helped teacher Susan Michael to design at the Brewster School. Susan received a grant from The Rockfall Foundation to replace the long, invasive row of Japanese barberries in this garden and applied to get a #growinggood grant from our friends at Coast of Maine who donated 10 bags of Organic Penobscot Planting Mix. Together, Sue, Diane, Middlefield/Durham Cub Scout Pack 33, Middlefield/Durham Scouts Troop 33 and all the parents worked together to install 13 native shrubs to provide habitat and food to pollinators and birds. And Natureworks donated the Bird & Pollinator Habitat Sign. We have heard teachers have already brought their classes outside to see the garden and discuss why these plants were chosen and how they will help the ecosystem. Way to go!

CT Horticultural Society Spring Auction is SOON!

Don't miss this auction, a week from Friday. I am going to be an auctioneer and I have been helping to gather AMAZING donations! -Nancy

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