Before I get to my discussion with John, a quick real-time look into our gardens. I expect all the snow to be gone around Boston, except for the largest piles, by Wednesday. As it melts and we get out to do some pruning, I am seeing extensive rabbit damage with girdling of stems and trunks and plants being cut down. They have been chewing away the outer layer to get to the carbohydrate rich vascular system underneath. With the height of the snow, they have also been getting higher up on shrubs and doing serious damage to small leaf Rhododendron, Azalea, Spirea, Hydrangea, Rose, Deutzia, Clethra among others. For some plants, rabbits are doing your work for you, and for others, they are removing seasonal flower buds. Also, let’s wait to see how the voles did under the heavy layer of snow. Ugh!
Every Spring seems to bring new challenges, and while it may seem drastic and emotionally overwhelming, just wait until everything starts to wake up in the next month or so. March is always the worst in the garden. Many plants will do fine, and with others you will have the chance to replace with something better suited for the new world. Exciting news is that the warming weather has our Witchazels starting to flower, as seen in the above photo!
This is my last winter-form newsletter, and I expect to be getting into the season over the next few weeks with my more timely writings.
I recently had my annual check-in with John Gedraitis, the owner of Van Berkum Nursery in Deerfield, NH. John, and his incredible team, grow many of the best quality perennials you find in your local nurseries, both non-native and native. I asked, as usual, for some of his favorite offerings, a listing of plant sales at which they will be this season, and we spent most of our time talking about the burgeoning native plant grower/distributor ecosystem of which he and Van Berkum are a part. It bodes well for New England that companies like Van Berkum, that truly care about responsible growing, are one of many leading the charge.
I’m sure all of you want to know what plants John likes first, so I won’t bury it later in the article. As John has said before, they rarely are the first to offer many plants, but they take great care in selecting quality plants to grow. Some of these plants are so new to Van Berkum, that they aren’t in their plant library yet, despite being on their availability. Just a reminder, Van Berkum is a wholesale operation, with plants offered only to nurseries and professionals, but you can work with your landscaper, or even request from your local nursery/garden center if you have a good relationship. Here are a few of John’s favorites:
- Actaea ‘Queen of Sheeba’ – He says it is graceful and structural. A cross between two species by Piet Oudolf that exhibits best of both. Tall, shade loving plant in rich, moist soil.
- Mimulus ringens – Lovely, small, native wetland plant that flowers through the summer. Monkey Flower resembles a monkey’s face.
- Ruta gravolens – Common Rue, the national Flower of Lithuania (John’s family roots), and he says some gardeners have been planting to ward off deer and rabbits because of its strong aroma with its leaves. Can’t hurt to try, right.
- Dianthus cruentus – Blood red Dianthus with tall flower stems that move in the breeze. John says it is a must try.
- Carex woodii – A similar sedge to pennsylvanica but spreads better as a lawn substitute. I think everyone should try a sedge in groupings in a broad range of applications.
Van Berkum is roughly divided in half between native and non-native plants that they sell, but they have become an important part of the web of businesses and nurseries involved in selling and planting native plants. As a smaller nursery years ago, they benefitted from the good will of other nurseries, and now find themselves an important part of the native plant production business, as well as working with non-profits and academics to support the rebuilding of native ecosystems.
They often have opportunities to grow and sell to some of the largest wholesalers and retailers out there, but choose to first work with the smaller independent growers. John looks to “support those guys first who have a similarly aligned mission.” Rebuilding our native ecosystems is critical. John said, ” we need to build coalitions, and get them to accept us as part of the solution and not greedy business people. We want to find other smaller growers with the same mission and standards and elevate them and bring them with us.”
I brought up nurseries like Bagley Pond (Warner, NH), Blue Stem Natives (Norwell, MA), Butterfly Effect Farm (Westport, MA), and they work with so many small nurseries like these that didn’t exist a decade ago. John mentioned Dragonfly Natives (Dartmouth, MA) who purchase plugs from them to grow, but also grow from seeds that are more locally native. Instead of listing all the nurseries, take a look at the listing on Grow Native Massachusetts that list most resources across New England.
I encourage you all to seek out a local, native grower, if you are in the market for native plants. You will find experts more than willing to help out, and you will also find an inventory of plants not available at the more conventional garden centers. Please make the effort to support these younger, dedicated businesses.
Another exciting development at Van Berkum is the success and continued expansion of their native plug program. As their growing and seed collection program continues they expect to expand the offerings of native plants as plugs and larger plants. This expanded plug offering means that you can work with your contractor and create your native gardens at a lower cost with more plants using plugs. In two seasons you won’t notice any difference in size.
John feels like the season is gearing up to be a good one. He has strong pre-orders, but it all depends upon the weather in the Spring. We have had a nice insulating layer of snow on the ground. This is good in our gardens to keep plants at a constant temperature, as opposed to last year when the ground froze hard in February with no snow and then the temps heated up and damaged plants. Of course, everything good comes with challenges. John won’t know how his plants are doing until the snow melts. Voles and other critters can do great damage under the cover of snow. We joked that the only guarantee in the garden is plastic plants! Even then, I’m sure the squirrels would would go after them.
Gardens are truly a labor of love, especially with some of the challenges we have had in recent years, but it is good to know that places like Van Berkum are leading the way and supporting an amazing network of growers and non-profits.
If you are interested in meeting the folks at Van Berkum and buying some of their plants directly, John provided a list of several plant sales they will be attending or providing plants for this year:
- Grow Native Massachusetts Plant Sale – May 29th and 30th, Lexington MA. You should be a member of this great organization, and then you get early access to the plant sale. Try to get one of the early time slots for the best choices.
- Maine Audubon Native Plant Sale – June 6th, Falmouth ME. Audubon is opening a new native plant center here in the Spring.
- Bedrock Gardens Rare and Unusual Plant Sale – June 20th, Lee NH. I visited this garden last year for the sale, and I highly recommend spending a day to visit this amazing garden and pick up some fun, not necessarily native, plants. Sorry for the alliteration.
- South East Land Trust – Order by March 15th and pick up in Epping on June 20th, same day as the Bedrock Gardens plant sale just down the road.
Looking forward to the coming weeks when we can start to get to work in our gardens.
If you want to subscribe for free to my more detailed newsletter, please go to the following link: The Barker, a newsletter for gardeners in New England.
Barking Dog Gardens - Gardening in New England 