With the advent of longer days and warmer weather (at least on some days!) we now have seedlings emerging in great quantities at the nursery. We covered our hoop houses with poly film a month ago and over the next four weeks the little plants have popped up. Some species, especially from the shrub steppe, […]
Opening soon (I hope!)
The pictures above and below were taken March 8th. At this time the previous four years we had the hoop houses covered with poly and little seedlings were emerging. Not this year! While much of the nation has experienced record high temperatures over the past month, and spring is arriving earlier then ever, our corner of […]
What are these magic beans?
What native plant from Chelan County yields such large and distinctive seeds? Why, it’s our only native peony! Brown’s peony (Paeonia brownii) is one of only two peony species native to North America and the only one in Washington; all others are found in Eurasia. It was one of the most prized specimens found by the […]
The first seedlings pop up
It never ceases to thrill me; the snow begins to retreat from the seeded containers and there they are, the first seedlings of 2012! The first to appear are the species from the driest habitats, particularly the shrub-steppe: balsamroot, silky lupine, several species of buckwheats, big sagebrush. These drought-adapted species may only have their cotyledons […]