Grab some grasses, sedges, rushes, and ferns this weekend and we'll take 15% off at checkout. In stock now but more coming up to retail from our nursery today as well:

Adiantum pedatum (Northern maidenhair fern)

Ammophila breviligulata (American beach grass)

Andropogon gerardii (Big bluestem)

Athyrium angustum (Northern lady fern)

Carex appalachica (Appalachian sedge)

Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)

Carex scoparia (pointed broom sedge)

Carex stricta (tussock sedge)

Carex vulpinoidea (American fox sedge)

Cyperus strigosus (Straw-colored Flatsedge)

Dennstaedtia punctilibula (Hay-scented fern)

Deschampsia flexuosa (wavy hair grass)

Elymus canadensis (Canada wild rye)

Elymus virginicus (Virginia wild rye)

Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple lovegrass)

Juncus tenuis (path rush)

Muhlenbergia capillaris (pink muhly grass)

Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive fern)

Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern)

Osmunda regalis (Royal fern)

Osmundastrum cinnamomeum (Cinnamon fern)

Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern)

Sporobolus heterolepis (northern dropseed)

Thelypteris palustris (Marsh fern)

NEW PLANTINGS: The season you plant, the weather, and the location of your planting, will help you determine how often you need to water to establish your new plants. The goal is to put the right plant in the right place so that you don’t need to water it at all *once it is established*. However, these are still young plants and will need some watching over while they get settled.

How long to become “established”. It depends on many factors, but usually by year 2 your plants can take care of themselves.

NEW PLANTINGS, water deeply:

The most important advice we have for successful planting is to water deeply and less often. A mistake new gardeners often make is to water just *a little*, daily. This creates shallow roots in your plants that won’t be able to handle droughts in other years even once established. Watering deeply, and less often, allows your plants to send their roots down as deep as they can, building roots that can deal with droughts in other years.

Keep an eye on your planting for the first few months. These are just guidelines, you will need to pay attention to what your plants need though:

•  Planting in average soil with cooler rainy weather? It’s possible you don’t need to water unless the weather changes.

• Planting in average soil with cooler dry weather? Water once or twice a week deeply for the first few weeks.

• Planting in average soil in the heat of the summer with a little rain here and there? Water two to three times a week, deeply for the first month.

• Planting in average soil in the heat of the summer with an added drought? Water every other day deeply until the weather normalizes. Once or twice a week after that.

ESTABLISHED PLANTINGS: Forget everything you’ve read before this section! If you have established native plants and they are in the correct location for their needs, you should not have to use supplemental water. Rain should suffice.**

Pictured is established spotted Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum), planted about 6 years ago. The photo on the left was after those 10 or so extremely hot and rainless July days. Once the rain finally fell the whole plant perked back up. By not watering during this short drought this plant was encouraged to grow deeper roots.

**If you do find that you will lose plants in a drought, water deeply and early in the morning. This is understandable, especially if you have an investment in shrubs and trees.

SUSTAINABILITY: Here are a few ways you can establish a garden in the summer while considering sustainability:

• Choose plants for the soil you actually have, don’t try to amend the soil for the plants you want. There are wonderful native plants for every type of soil.

• Install new plants when you know you will have a few rainy and cloudy days coming up.

• Focus on planting shadier sites during the heat of the summer.

• Water your plants in their pots well before planting to lessen transplant shock.

• Use a rain barrel to collect rainwater to use on new plantings. Just 1/4 inch of rainfall on an average roof will fill a rain barrel.

• Collect water to use from the beginning of running your shower while you wait for it to warm.

• Avoid watering mid-day to avoid evaporation. Hand water with a hose to also lessen evaporation.

• Add mulch to the top of your soil to limit evaporation from the soil. Keep any mulch pulled back from the stem and leaves of the plants. 

Did you know our pots, pictured here, are made from recycled plastic? We will also gladly take them back and reuse them as well! We currently are in need of our 1.25 quart pots.

We will also take back and reuse our plant tags if you don't want to keep them.

We try to do things sustainably here are Blue Stem and this is one of the ways. You can drop off any pots and/or tags that you have from us you can just leave them near the fence by our checkout shed. Please note that we cannot take outside pots due to outside chemical use, sizing issues, and branding. We suggest you take any outside pots back to where you bought them though!

Want to know how else we are being sustainable in our growing?