Gardeners - Start Your Planting!

Whew! Turn the Heat Down!

It's May and we're really cooking here at the nursery. I'm already out of room in the greenhouse and I'm hardening off these zone 3 hardy perennials outside. Let's hope the weather stays on our side and we have a nice long growing season with warm weather and just enough rain to keep our gardens lush and vigorous.

The nursery will be open by May 16th this year. We'll be taking our plants to downtown Palmer's Friday Fling open air market starting May 15th - August 14th.
I can't be in two places at once, so, the nursery will be open tues-wed-thurs-saturday from 11 to 5 or by appt. if you call ahead 24 hrs. in advance (746-3606 or woolwood@mtaonline.net).

We'll see you at the Botanical Garden's Fair June 20-21 and the Garden and Art Festival, at the state fairgrounds, July11th.


This year we have plenty of new perennials for you and we've added herbs to our repertoire. Watch for our herbs in pots or as fresh cut greens at the Friday Fling this year. We'll have recipes on hand as well. Remember, your vegetables are ornamentals as well, so, plant some flowering kales in among those trollius and lilies!

New Plants for 2009

Lilies Galore!

All our lilies are hardy to zone 3 and potted with slow-release organic plant food. Planted 3 to a pot all one variety. So, you can be the designer!


America - Elodie (double) - Lollypop - El Grado



Fata Morgana (double) - Jive - Brasil



Black Out - Cocktail Twins (double) - Loreto



Cecil (LA Hybrid)


Get blooming early with trollius!

Cut these beauties back after blooming and you'll have another fabulous show by fair time!



Alabaster - Lemon Queen - Cheddar

Pair this lovely Astrantia 'Ruby Wedding' with trollius for a shadier garden area. They'll take the sun, but, trollius and astrantias like more water and a bit of shade.



Got the sunshine blues?



Veronica 'Royal Candles' - Veronica 'Eveline' - Anchusa azurea (Italian Bugloss)

The Delphiniums win again!

Last year Palmer's own Pat Tremaine took Grand Champion Delphinium with her New Zealand hybrid. Give her a run for her money this year with one of these beauties.



Blushing Brides - Black-Eyed Angels

If we get lucky we may have Pink Punch as well!

New Penstemon 'Prairie Dusk'

Gardeners have been growing Penstemon 'Husker's Red' in our zone and now they've finally bred a Penstemon with the colors we've all been waiting for in zone 3. Another full sun, long-stemmed perennial for the floral arranger. 24 to 30 inches tall, June/July.

Eat Beautiful Food!

Don't forget that herbs are beautiful as well as edible. One of the easiest flowering annual herbs to grow is the Nasturtium. As a substitute for watercress, you can't beat the hot, peppery tang of Nasturtium leaves. Put some colorful punch into those summer salads with Nasturtium flowers, leaves, and pickled flower buds. Stay tuned for plenty of recipes using our herbs and flowers!

Springing into New Plants for 2007 !

Spring is finally here ! Can you dig it? !

I'm potting up plants and bulbs as fast as I can. Barring any of those last minute snow storms I hope to have the nursery open by May 3rd. Due to road maintenance we'll be open Thursday through Friday 12 to 6pm until June 9th. After that look for me at the Palmer Friday Flings in June and July, or by appointment if the road's passable!


Don't forget to stop by our booth at the Alaska Botanical Gardens Fair June 23-24 and the Garden and Art Festival at the State Fair grounds July 21.

While we do have some new introductions this year, we are part of the state's Alaska Grown program that promotes hardy perennials that are wintered over to enhance your perennial's ability to survive our extreme growing conditions. Most of our stock will barely be up and at 'em in May unlike the shipped in plants you'll find in most greenhouses. So, remember, Alaska Grown Perennials are worth waiting for and will be available in late May through July.

New Plants for 2007

Red Hot Chili Mix Asiatic Lilies - Whew! A mix of hot deep wine reds
and almost black lilies ranging in height from 28 to 50 inches.

'Blackout' 'Lanzarote' ' Marrakech' 'Landini'

New Clematis flowered Columbines !

'Clematis Red and Blue'

New Zealand Hybrid Delphiniums -
Shorter English types with three to four foot stout stems!

'Misty Mauves' 'Blushing Brides'

Veronica 'Sonja' -
Archie would've loved
this tall willowy number!

Viola 'Painted Porcelain' -
Pretty fragrant little viola that will go to seed

and have a large happy family.

Lamium 'Anne Greenaway' - She's back by popular demand, our bright yellow and green creeper from the English countryside.



Annuals - I will have a limited amount of tall cut-flower varieties this year and I'll try to hunt down some photos on my next post for you. I have several types of Cosmos in white, pink, and crimson with bi-colors as well, including 'Double Click Mixed' which look like Zinnias! Black Ball batchelor's button, Striped Marvel marigold with maroon and gold stripes in a 30 inch tall French style, and several Sunflowers in gold, deep merlot red, bi-colored, and lemon. I might even have a few Nasturtiums left over! And, if they will hurry up . . . Shoe-Fly plants with some variegated ones. These turn into great bushy plants with periwinkle blue and white flowers followed by seed pods that resemble paper lanterns!

Okay . . . back to the greenhouse! Work, work, work. . .Brooke

Wild sex and throwing snow! Look out January ! ! Or How I Spent My Winter Vacation.

It's 2 pm. . .
Do you know
where the sun is?

Ohmigosh ! Has it really been that long since I've been gone? Call it blogburnoutitis or something.
I've been up to my nose in sawdust
building birdhouses for last winter's shows, making jewelry . . .

Anchorage Museum of Fine Arts Show

and adjusting the thermostat in the greenhouse until I'm blue in the face, and . . . feeding the local magpies - Pica pica- and raven - Corvus corax . Just one raven, for now, at least.

Pica pancakes with sunflower hearts and bacon fat!


Wow. What a bizarre winter we've had. No snow in October and November, but, lots of sub-zero weather and wind! There's nothing like a little wind and -40f chill factors to say 'Goodbye' to what was left of last year's sempervivums and sedums. Of course, along came December and the snow load like we haven't seen in 15 years or more!

My fellow anthropologists would refer to this as a form of sympathetic magic. See, we have this D6-sized 1954 Allis Chalmers Crawler Dozer. I know. It's a mouthful. We just call her Alice around here. She's our snowplow and our lifeline if we're stuck, need to haul logs, or push gravel. Unfortunately, she tends to not like getting stuck up to her navel. . .levers. . .in freezing muck. It just pisses her off something fierce and she throws a fit. I mean. . .a track.




You do not want to know what a pain it is to clean her up and get that track back on when it's about 10f and the wind's blowing and you're writing a check for #$#$#$ !!%&*$$$ to the guy you had to call to pull her out of the muck!




So, she's parked for the winter. Her batteries are in the shop. And, here's the magic part, we're at the mercy of the snow and the guy we hired to plow us out for the winter. The drive's 1/10 of a mile long, so, a lot of snow makes it pretty tight. When Alice is happy and running we just get enough snow to keep her occupied. If she's in a pinchy mood and on strike we get inundated with heavy snow! I'm now the proud owner of a 30" Poulan 11hsp. snow thrower. Oh, well. I just think of it as a bigger rototiller. Beats doing 30 minutes on the treadmill at the gym. Rationalize, rationalize. Somebody please donate some tickets to Hawaii or Bermuda will ya!?

Later. . .I've got to gas up and throw more snow. And I was just kidding about the wild sex part. Actually, we were just standing around in our skivvies after a sauna. But, that's another blog, eh? Brooke

Celebrate World Naked Gardening Day Sept. 9, 2006!

Celebrating World Naked Gardening Day Alaska style!

I can’t remember if I stumbled upon this wild event on Amy Stewart’s blog , www.dirtbyamystewart.blogspot.com or Garden Voices , http://voices.gardenweb.com. September 9, 2006 , but I had to pass this along to my fellow nature lovers and garden gnomes. This September 9, 2006 is the 2nd annual World Naked Gardening Day or WNGD! Wow! This is going to be a real challenge for you gardeners in the suburbs! But, for all of us who abide in more rural areas it could be fun. Could be. Unless…you live in the subtropics and are prone to being whisked away by mosquitos…you live in the subarctic regions and are prone to being whisked away by mosquitos in down parkas! Along with a few moose who are likely to be spooked into a frenzy at the sight of my over the hill birthday suit.

Ah, well. It’s a great way to end summer and have a little fun. Mind you, we didn’t get too naked…our average daytime temperatures in the late afternoon are down to about 50f and the leaves are just starting to turn colors. By this time next month the leaves will probably be history until next spring. So, break out the champagne, pitchforks, and wellies and have a Happy World Naked Gardening Day!

For more information about the origin of this craziness go to http://wngd.org.

Gardening With Moose and other Ungulates!

Are your cabbages taking over the garden? Too many crowns of broccoli sucking up the nutrients around your blue ribbon dandelions? Try the new improved Moose Bubba Veginator! The 2006 model comes complete with tool rack, is self-cleaning, and is very efficient.


Ours came with an orange safety cat that keeps the Bubba from running amok in the prized weed bed. The control tower was a rather exotic extra that we just couldn't live without. The Smoochinator loves it though!
We're officially closed for the season, but, still home. I still have leftover sale stuff, so, if you're out our way give us a call to see if I'm here. I'll probably been in the workshop with my head stuck in Audrey 2, the man-eating plant! If you're interested in seeing my other theater creations click on the link to Christian Heppinstall's website. If you look in the Gallery of Productions and click on Androcles and the Lion you'll see my costumes and set designs.

Don't forget to cruise the new garden blogs I've added to the links page!

We're having a plant sale at long last!

Smoochie's rolling in delight at the idea of a plant sale! That means I won't have so many pots of plants to store over the winter and he won't have to run interference with the mice out in the snow!

Perennials are 50 % off, we have a few shrubs left at 30% off, and the last of the colorful house plants at 20% off. We have a couple of birch twig benches with cedar seats left as well. We're open August Friday 11 - Sunday 13th from 10 to 5. If you can't make it just call and see if I'm here ...746-3606.

Remember, you can still plant perennials and
shrubs right up to frost. I'm just now getting around to planting in my own garden!

Of course, I'm also building an exotic plant in my workshop! Yes, I'm building a man-eating space alien plant called Audrey 2 for the upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors at Mad Myrna's in Anchorage, Alaska. I'll keep you posted on the process. The last theater production I worked on I had to build a 25 ft. tree with a 12 ft. root base for the Legend of Sleepy Hollow at the Performing Arts Center. Hmm. I smell a trend here. Maybe I need to branch out and do more costume design!