Perennials for the shade.

We are showcasing a couple of new shade perennials we will have available in May. The first is a Brunnera (Heartleaf Alkanet), and the variety is Jack Frost. Beautiful woodland plant, preferring moist soils and plenty of humus, hardy to zone 3-8. Attractive forget-me-not type flowers blooming late spring and into early summer. Jack Frost has colourful frosty silver leaves accented by light green veins. Grows 12-15" tall and is deer and rabbit resistant. Tolerates part sun with adequate moisture.

Another perennial is the Ligularia (Ragwort), przewalskii. This perennial loves the moist shade, growing 48-60" tall. It has large arrowhead-shaped leaves with deeply cut edges, black stems, with tall spikes of bright yellow flowers. Will tolerate morning sun, but will wilt in the afternoon sun without adequate moisture. Deer resistant and hardy from zone 3-9. The leaves and flowers do well as cut flowers.

Both of these perennials, along many others will be available at our booth at the Saskatoon Farmer's Market, Wednesday and Saturday starting May 4.

Gardenscape

The Saskatoon Farmer's Market will be at Gardenscape, March 25, 26 & 27 at Prairieland Park. There will be information and product displays showcasing Saskatoon Farmer's Market members. If you are planning on attending please stop by and check out the displays. We will have a Hypertufa planter on display planted up with a variety of succulents we will have available starting May 7. The Hypertufa planters we make are available in all shapes and sizes, square, oval, rectangle and round. Hope to see you there.

Pussy Willow

This past week we started harvesting pussy willow. Once we find a bluff that looks promising we strap on our snowshoes and walk in to take a closer look. We are very selective and prune the shrubs so they will produce new shoots for next year.

At this time of year the catkins are not fully open yet, so we place them in buckets of water in a warm garage. If you keep them in the water too long, they will progress to the pollen stage. Once they are at a certain stage we take them out of the water and prune off any dead branches and bundle them up for sales. We create tall bundles for large vases and shorter bundles for smaller tabletop vases.

Bundled pussy willow branches ready for sale.

Spring????

Warmer weather...fantastic, been patiently waiting for it to arrive. The snow is melting, saw a few blades of green grass poking out of the snow...I believe we are on our way. I don't know about you, but does it not seem like winter was extra long this year?

An array of succulents we will have available this year.

The house is filling up.

We have been planting seeds this past week and they are starting to take over our space in the house. Once the flats are planted they are kept upstairs where it is warm until they germinate. Once they have germinated they go back downstairs and placed under the grow lights. The grow lights are on timers for approximately 16 hours each day. We have planted most of the flowers, including Datura, Rudbeckia, Carnations, Statice and a few trays of peppers.
Just wish the weather was a little warmer.....
Have included a couple of more pictures from our travels this winter.

An oasis in the middle of the desert.

The Rock at Morro Bay, California