Spring has taken a Running Start!

And now the news. It’s been a great spring so far! All the flowering trees have bloomed on schedule! The Snow fountain Weeping Cherries, the Royal Burgandy Cherries, our vast collection of Crabapple, Hawthorn, Helesia and flowering Red Horsechestnuts have been putting on one of the greatest shows I have seen in years. Temperatures were traditionally cold in March and April keeping the buds tight, preventing them from opening and getting frosted like last year.

We started growing some new varieties of Columbine this year after taking a break from the species for a few seasons. The one that really stood out was the Aquelegia Swan Pink and Yellow cultivar. The flowers were large and the coloration on this plant was light, but so clear. Consider adding this plant to your perennial garden for early spring bloom. After growing a Purple Asperagus and a green Asperagus for three seasons Patty and I were able to harvest some spears for fresh eating. The Purple was very tasty! It seemed a little sweeter than the green Mary Washington variety although it was good as well! I noticed as of late that the Concord and Cacao grapes we have been growing are showing a little bit of fruit after three years of growing them. If you are interested in growing fruit we also have several varieties of Blueberry, Thornless Blackberry, and Golden Harvest Raspberry bushes. The golden Raspberries are very sweet, I highly recommend them. The bushes are quite large as well so you can purchase a plant that is already producing fruit. We also grow fruit trees such as Apples, Cherries, Peaches, and Apricots. Summer flowers are starting to bloom in the greenhouses. A few of the summer flowers always come on a little early if they are in the greenhouses. So far the Trollius and Yarrow are blooming. The coreopsis are setting buds and should open up in the next few weeks. I even saw some garden phlox that have started blooming yesterday. Our landscape division has been extremely busy planting lots of trees. We did the front of a house in a subdivision around the corner from the nursery that ended up looking extremely sharp! An interesting combination that came out of this design was pairing the Stainless Steel Coral Bells with the Brigadoon St John’s Wort. The pink silver overlay on the Coral Bell paired with the golden foliage of the Brigadoon just glowed in the shade of this garden, awesome! This year we stumbled upon a young man growing conifers in our area that we have started stocking in the nursery. In particular he grows White Spruce which I think is a better choice to grow than a Norway or Blue Spruce, although we carry them all. I like the color on the White Spruce because it is a nice gray, green blue. The needles are a little shorter than the other spruces giving them a soft to the touch feel. We also have Serbian Spruce back in stock! Serbians are nice because they have needles that are green on top and blue on the bottom. This gives a great two tone appearance! The branches droop down and sweep upwards giving them an interesting appearance as well. Serbian Spruce also take up less square footage in the landscape as well so if space is limited consider them for your planting. We just received a very timely significant rain the other day. If you are one of the many folks that has been waiting for the absolute perfect opportunity to plant something, this week could be one of the best opportunities we have had in years. Come out to Blue River Nursery and let us help you get your project started. If you do not live in the immediate area we are still shipping plants. Availability is still good as it always is! Place your order today and we can have your plants on the road tomorrow!