End of the season musings
November 15, 2025: During the season ending days at the nursery Tom, Earl and I are putting the nursery to sleep and Jeri is trying to get inventory squared with what we actually have in the nursery. Retail traffic is much slower and our lunch & break times are a little longer. Many times, we gather in the store talking plants, wondering why this plant or that plant didn’t sell when they looked so good? I love the banter of a less hectic environment that is part of our earlier months. It gives us time to share our love of plants.
While the three of us are putting plants away a question will comes up, “why is it called red osier dogwood”, what does osier mean. Tom will say, ”we’ll look that up on break”. We were putting ferns away and I blurted out Polysticum polybrepharum which is Tassel Fern. Again, “Let’s look it up at break”. These are just two examples but you get the message. All of us are pushing each other to learn more about this world of plants and during the busy season we just don’t have time to do this but as the season closes we find the time.
So, osier means long flexible shoots…makes sense. blepharum means eye lash type bristles, (when you look under the frond of the tassel fern, you’ll see the many bristles). When you understand the language, you’ll understand the meanings.
A few years ago, as we were putting plants away and noticed how many witherrod viburnum we overwintered and couldn’t figure out why we had so many not sold. If you aren’t familiar with this plant, it has many attributes; glossy foliage, large flower followed with a fruit that starts out white with a blush of red and turns to dark blue and in late fall shrivels to a raisin texture. Tom and I decided we were going to made a concerted effort to sell more of them. Fast forward to this autumn, we will overwinter none.
Another plant, Dwf. Fothergilla, has always been a favorite of mine. Not well known but should be. Jeri found a great source this summer. I’ve never seen this plant looks so good coming off the truck. They were beautiful. The autumn color was stunning (orange, yellow red, burgundy). I’m hoping their spring flower will encourage gardeners to purchase. Deer don’t bother, a good foundation plant because it doesn’t get to big. Just a great plant but not well known. We’ll help change that.
What about Prague or Winterthur Viburnum. Both with great foliage, flowers and fall color. Prague seems to be semi-evergreen (still has mostly green shiny leaves). Prague is a new one for us and we think it’s a great new plant to introduce to gardens.
There is never an end to learning the plant world, whether figuring out why a plant has its name or why a plant isn’t selling well.
November 24, 2025
Today as we closed the nursery down. All the plants were put away, store was cleaned and there was a sense of melancholy. We gave each other hugs in saying our goodbyes. There is a love of plants and a love of each other that is special, a work environment I always wanted to create.
Thank you for all of your nursery support this season. You are more than customers; you are all part of our family of gardeners and plant lovers. Enjoy your holidays, winter and we’ll see you in the spring.