As you may have read on our events calendar, facebook, twitter, etc. we are providing some of the plants for Trees Atlanta’s 1st Annual Native Perennial Wildflower Sale.  Just to be clear: they’re selling perennials and this will be a recurring yearly event.

We have had their plants in the greenhouse for a few months now to get them to break winter dormancy a little early so they’ll be all leafed out in time for the sale April 6th.  Here’s a few shots of the sorts of plants you can buy at their sale.

 The Red Columbine (Acquilegia canadensis) have already started to bloom!

 The Celadine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) have also started blooming, but that’s normal even outside the greenhouse.  The ones in my backyard look very similar.

 The Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) are the main impetus for speeding up the plants’ spring awakening.  They are notoriously hard to grow in pots and the roots tend to rot over the winter if left out in the rain, so we wanted to make sure we had good strong viable plants.   Looks like they made it.

 The False Blue Indigo (Baptisia australis)  has leafed out very nicely in the past few weeks.  The foliage is a striking blue-green hue that looks great in bright sun.

 The (sadly) rare and threatened Georgia Aster (Stmphyotrichum georgianum) never lost it’s leaves.  It’s one tough plant.

 The Narrowleaf Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) is starting to demonstrate its ability to grow very large and spread rapidly.  It’s a great plant if you’ve got a lot of area you’d like bathed in bright flowers and bees.  It might just take over smaller gardens, so plan wisely.

 One of my favorites, Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata), sending out multiple stems.  This is a clumping mint, not a running one, so it won’t spread quite as fast as some of the other members of the mint family.  The flowers are truly unique in their color and structure. This picture is from last summer just so you get the idea:

 Pink sepals that fade to green at the stem and yellow tubular flowers with brown spots.  You have to see it close up to appreciate the complexity of these blooms.  You’ll probably have to wait in a long line of bees to do so.

 Last but not least there’s Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) which also has very interesting and brightly colored flowers.

 

These are just some of the plants that we grew that will be in the sale.  There are going to be many more species from a variety of other growers.  The full plant list can be found here.  At least one member of the Beech Hollow staff will be present to answer questions, so come on out and say hi!  We’d love to see you come out and help support Trees Atlanta’s environmental education efforts by taking home a few plants to brighten up your yard/garden/neighborhood.  The birds, butterflies and bees (as well as Atlanta’s schoolchildren) will thank you.

  Mark your Calendar: April 6th, 8 am to 1 pm.

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