The Nature Center Sale is always a fun event, a kick-off for our season, and a great way to connect with our friends and customers. The next two days we’ll be gathering our plants to load for the sale this Saturday, April 27. Here’s a little preview of some that we’ll be bringing.
We’re bringing four different colors of Agastache: red, gold, yellow, and hot pink. Agastache, hummingbird mint, wild hyssop–whatever you call it, it’s a great plant for hummers and butterflies. This year we’re focusing on the natives that are the toughest; the Plant Select plants that bloom the longest; and, the vegetables that are the tastiest.
Hymenoxys scaposa PERKY SUE
Hollyhock ‘Halo Red and Yellow’
Hollyhocks are so tough they grow in the alleys in Pueblo, neglected but still beautiful.
The succulent craze continues, and we’re bringing some of the coolest Hens & Chicks you’ve ever seen. We have plenty of hardy sedums, too. They laugh at the kind of spring we’ve been having. One of the 2013 Plant Select winners is Sedum sediforme, Hardy Burro’s Tail:
I’ve been mildly obsessed with native grasses, too, inspired by Lauren Springer Ogden’s slide show at the Western Landscape Symposium a couple of years ago. This blue grama called Blond Ambition is one of the Plant Select winners in 2012. It looks good in a xeriscape or a large container, or a wildflower meadow. It’s a must-have, really!
Bouteloua ‘Blond Ambition’
We’re bringing tomatoes especially selected to do well in Colorado: Sungold Cherry (everyone’s favorite); Cherokee Chocolate (Heirloom); Gold Medal (Heirloom); Stupice (Heirloom); Early Girl (classic); Glacier (earliest and best of the early, Heirloom); Valencia (Heirloom); Champion II (hybrid beefsteak; early and tasty); Indigo Rose (Cherry; Open-Pollinated) Carbon (Heirloom and one of the most productive blacks) and more–too many varieties to type them all!
We have broccoli and cabbage plants this year, and both Italian and Greek oregano. We’ll bring basil but you have to promise to protect it until the nighttime temperatures stay above 40 F. Basil is one of the most tender plants we grow–and one of the most delicious.
If you want us to bring something for you, call us at 719-489-3843 before noon on Friday. That way we’ll have plenty of time to get your plants loaded on the van. If you get our voice mail please leave a message. We check it often this time of year. Hope to see you Saturday at the Nature Center.
