Don't forget to protect tender new growth tonight from frost damage if possible, especially on your smaller plants. Native plants shouldn't be killed by frost (unless they're annuals, they might be), but the recent heat wave did speed up budding out.
number one question this market:
"Can I grow it as a houseplant? I don't have a yard."
... y'all, I suck at taking care of houseplants and had long since given up on it, but I'll give it a shot
for science.
I get that everyone is competing against one another. Bigger corps are in the business of data-mining. Smaller businesses copy to get through the noise.
As a former marketer still in touch with my humanity: go back to being old-fashioned. Trust in reputation and word-of-mouth. Go around the noise.
This is why it's important to set boundaries.
Businesses: pick a method for reaching customers and stick to it. If you do email, one per week is enough.
Consumers: don't be reachable 24/7. Patronize those that are respectful of your time and assume you know how to find them without being clingy.
If you have a stash of nursery pots that are intact, clean (rinsed out) and non-branded (just need the plain stuff), bring them with you when you come shop. Since most nursery pots are not recyclable, I make an effort to collect and reuse used pots as much as possible until they fall apart.
In case this is your first time shopping with me, most of the plants I specialize in are woodland, conservation, lesser-known (rarely offered at nurseries), and edible wild plant species. As a native plant farm/nursery, I grew 95% of what I have to offer from seed or spore myself!
Cerastium strictum in full bloom at The MagiK Garden
Come see me tomorrow at the Earth Day Celebration at Skippack Village!
I'll be selling all sorts of awesome native plants next to the Earthware Sustainable Goods store (10am-5pm), like this native large-flowered chickweed (Cerastium strictum) which makes a lovely groundcover!
Viola sororia potted and arranged in trans pride flag colors: blue freckles, magenta, white, whute freckles, magenta, blue freckles
🏳️⚧️
Garlic mustard, garden bed in the background
Mustaaaaaaaaaaard
Cerastium strictum in bloom (large white flowers) at The MagiK Garden nursery
Aquilegia canadensis Little Lanterns in bloom (just like the standard red flowers, only compact) at The MagiK Garden nursery
I am definitely bringing these along this weekend to the Earth Day Celebration at Skippack Village! Stop by my booth if you're in the area!
That's great too - but I think we can live in a world with fewer extremes. It's not a novel concept, we just need to move away from the colonial mindset of what agriculture is supposed to look like. We can do things in a way that sustains both habitat and humans alike.
The book gets into all of that.
"Sustainable land use is that which meets the needs for production of present land users, while conserving for future generations the basic resources on which that production depends.
Sustainability = Production + Conservation"
- Anthony Young (Agroforestry For Soil Management)
I'll be selling those this year as well, they're babies right now.
close-up of Trillium cuneatum reproductive organs and petals
Trillium cuneatum, aka little sweet betsy
Antennaria neglecta blooming among pavers set in soil waiting for the plants to fill in, with a house in the background
Neglected toebeans.
Antennaria neglecta.
I'm changing the common names of all Antennaria henceforth.
That's amazing! I would've just passed it off as Trillium luteum, granted my experience with Trilliums leaves much to be desired. Is there overlap, and could they be hybrids? I know trilliums hybridize. I take it that they don't smell like fruit loops (which is what I associate with T. luteum).
Totally coincidental (we must be on the same wavelength) when it comes to my "WTF Did I Sow?" page, NPSNJ recently posted a lecture with Dr. Randi Eckel. Randi is the owner of Toadshade Wildflower Farm, and a friend and inspiration to me as a nursery grower. Highly recommend checking it out!
I mix my own (check Zine #2 for the recipe). The quartz sand just goes on top for any seeds that require light to germinate. It helps to weigh them down and maintain contact with soil without blocking the light.
Chick grit for other seeds, serves the same purpose
The second page is "WTF Did I Plant?"
This is for anything you may have planted, but now you've lost the tags for them or maybe (like so many of us) thought you'd absolutely remember planting it and didn't bother.
I will continue to update both throughout the season and in future years.
As your plants and seedlings start popping up, I've created two really fun pages that feature mostly eastern US native plants, though there are a few veggie plants mixed in as well (because I have them, and why not).
"WTF Did I Sow?" shows cotyledons, first leaves, and anything else worth noting.
Aquilegia canadensis 'Little Lanterns' photographed in bloom April 24, 2025. Nursery plants are in their 2nd year of growth and will likely put out some blooms this year!
Reminder that I'll be at the Abington Garden Festival tomorrow 1-3pm to kick off spring (event includes a free seed exchange, raffles, crafts, goats and wild animals)!
Come on by with your family, and bring home some native plants to add to your garden (like the Little Lanterns in the photo)!
Dark brown, almost black bird's nest fungus cups with some black eggs in some of them surrounded by a bed of woodchips, and a small maple leaf back-side up stuck tucked underneath the top cup
This is the largest bird's nest fungus I've seen yet. Usually the ones I find are a bit smaller, maybe half that size.
I still enjoy finding them. They'd probably make a good dollhouse bowl or something that goes in a diorama of sorts.
Photo showing the difference between treated and untreated Enemion biternatum seed. On the left is an undeveloped seed that hadn't been treated. On the right, treated Enemion biternatum seed is much more developed. Both were in warm moist treatment for 3 days (post treatment and control)
Treated Enemion biternatum seed is starting to germinate.
I'm starting to experiment a bit with gibberelic acid. Ibought some a year ago but was afraid to use it until now. I know the dangers of overdoing it. That being said, Deno was a huge fan of them, so I wanted to give it a go and see what happens.
Enemion biternatum responds well to the treatment.
Is Rupert Sheldrake reading my zines? 👀
(I know, I'm behind by 2 weeks... was taking advantage of the false spring, plus cleaning up for my son's birthday playdate this weekend. I'll get back to the zines soon enough.)
Dangly catkins on speckled alder, planter visible in background
Close-up of red female flowers
Male and female flowers
Alnus incana subspecies rugosa in bloom
Your feed is like my seed shopping list
If someone tells me they found something buried in their yard, snake wouldn't be on my list of things to guess.
like who even thinks that?
It was UNDERMAN
Trifolium carolinianum tiny cotyledons growing in cell tray covered in chicken grit
Phaseolus polystachios true leaves emerging from a cell tray covered in chicken grit
Strophostyles helvola bean-shaped clamshell structure with leaf emerging within growing in cell tray covered in chicken grit.
Desmodium glabellum kidney-shaped cotyledons emerge from cell tray covered in chicken grit.
More cotyledons! Similar to Apios americana, it would appear Phaseolus polystachios is also a hypogeal germinator, meaning the cotyledons remain below-ground. Instead, here we see true leaves. Desmodium glabellum has interesting kidney-shaped cotyledons. Strophostyles helvola is really neat.