Perennial Favorites

One of the Mother’s Day traditions here at Perennial Favorites is our drawing for a hardy shrub rose. This year we’re giving away a Canadian rose called ‘Winnipeg Parks.’  It’s a beautiful, super winter hardy rose, grown on its own roots. I wish I’d win it!

The rose drawing is at 1 p.m. and right after that Josh McLeod is giving a talk on hydroponic gardening. The talk is free and open to the public. If you have any interest in this type of gardening, it will be a great chance to come and see a how to set one up in your own home.  We have the kits that Josh made for sale here, and they’re a great deal at $50 for everything you need to get started.

We’re open 9-5 every day in May. Click on the directions tab here on the website for more information.

What a beautiful sunrise!

And looking west, Greenhorn Mountain with new snow in May.

It’s been a long, cold, spring, but this weekend is going to be glorious.

Don’t forget our drawings for free plants this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The drawings are at 1 p.m. each of the three days. Today we’re giving away an apple tree! Saturday’s drawing is for a hummingbird basket, and Sunday is a rose, a hardy shrub rose that laughs at winter!

For all our birder friends, this promises to be a great weekend for hummingbirds and the spring songbirds. See you soon,

I promised I’d post this on Facebook, but I thought I should share it on the blog, too.

We loaded this car late Friday afternoon, and couldn’t believe everything really fit. There was room for three people, too, but it was a tight fit and they had to drive back home to New Mexico the next day.  One of the people in the picture above, Jeanie, has been our customer since the Farmer’s Market in Acacia Park started in Colorado Springs. She always brings a neighbor with her, and her daughter, and they shop, camp, and have a great time. I hope the two apple trees made it back to Albuquerque okay!

Chance of RAIN, not snow. Pretty exciting! And it gives all of us who depend on the weather for gardening, ranching, and life in general, some hope. Our spring, the underground source that provides water for us to drink and water for the plants we grow, has been really low the last few months–the result of two years of extreme drought–but just yesterday it started flowing and rushing like it should! We are so grateful for that water.

This past week, when people got out of their cars and walked around the nursery, they would say, “It’s so green!”  It hasn’t been this green for a few years. We don’t water our grass here, it depends on natural precipitation. Because this land has been farmed and ranched since the 1870′s much of the grass is pasture grass or bluegrass–planted by previous owners.  In the last few years quite a bit of it has died, and when I look at those patches I plan to replant with blue grama grass and other native grasses.

Maybe you do something this: I look at a big patch of bare ground or a particularly weedy section and envision a beautiful meadow.  I look at this

But in my mind I see this

Lauren Springer Ogden garden.

That’s okay, the first step to creating anything is to see it in your mind’s eye. I’ve already started planning and planting this spring. I want to replace the old dairy grass and weeds with something that fits the landscape and will survive in the coming years without tons of water from a hose. I want natural and beautiful.  Check out Lauren and Scott Ogden’s book Plant Driven Design to get some ideas for your own yard. It’s inspirational.

I hope, when you hear “chance of rain” you don’t think about planting the same old thing in your garden. If we have a slightly wetter year this year (and the jury’s still out on that one) let it be a chance to get native plants and other xeric plants from compatible climates established.

It’s a sunny beautiful day! The snow is melted. the grass is green, and bulbs are blooming. Today we’re going to put plants out on the shade house benches.

The hummingbird left seconds before I took this picture, but we’ve seen three this morning. The numbers are growing!

We’re open every day in May, check the Hours tab for more information.  http://www.pfplants.com/?page_id=449

Last Sunday I planted some columbine in the hummingbird garden. I didn’t cover them with anything at all last night and the snow and the 23 F.  won’t cause them any harm.  Hardy perennials, trees, and shrubs can be planted this time of year–it’s actually one of the best times to plant them.  We have quite a few plants that have been overwintered in unheated cold frames and they will go from there to your garden without missing a beat.

Hummingbirds love our hummingbird garden. It’s filled with columbine, agastaches, red-flowered penstemons, Stachys coccinea, and a red-flowered honeysuckle.  This time of year, though, nothing is blooming so the feeder is very important to them. I couldn’t believe this male black-chinned hummingbird was defending the feeder this morning, chasing away a female and potential mate. What was he thinking?

Black-chinned hummingbird sitting on Lonicera sempervirens.

Today is our first day of the season and it’s snowing! We decided a couple of years ago that the weather is so unpredictable we would be open every day in May–that way we’re bound to have a few nice days, right? This week it looks like Friday and Saturday will be the nicest days of the week, so we hope you can visit us then. We will have a repeat of our drawing for a free plant on Friday! Think of Friday as our opening day…that’s what we’re doing.

If you do come today, we’ll be here to help you. We might be huddled near the fire in the patio fire kettle, wearing many layers, but we’ll be here!

Check the Hours and Open House Schedule tab for more information.

Hope to see you soon,

Diana Capen, Merrilee Barnett, and all the gang at Perennial Favorites