The best thing about a warm and snowless winter for me personally, is that all the time and energy spent on shoveling, plowing and blowing of snow can be put to more productive use here making new perennials for you to try. Just going that 125 feet up the hill to work is so much easier on the grass than it is on icy frozen foot tracks.

Nice weather last November and December (the warm spell that we had after the October blizzard) made it possible for me to expand our cold frames for winter storage, add to the shade house in our production area, and build a boulder-lined shade plant display bed under the trees in our backyard. Wow, I’m getting tired all over again just telling you about it!

The most fun I had with the free time granted me by the mild winter was planning and ordering new perennials for sun and shade to expand our variety list by at least 50 species. Some of the new introductions are choice cultivars from Holland for your shade garden. We are growing 3 different Brunnera, “Looking Glass”, “Emerald Mist”,and “Jack Frost”, which is the 2012 Perennial Plant of the year. Brunnera is an interesting foliage plant that will tolerate dry shade, and most common garden conditions. It has delicately patterned leaves, yet is as tough as nails. On the greenhouse bench picture you can see torrents of tiny blue flowers produced first thing in the spring. Brunnera is a relative of “Forget-me-not”.

[gallery] We also added 3 different Ligularia, a part-shade taller exotic leaved perennial with beautiful contrasting yellow flower spikes in late summer. They are: “Brit Marie Crawford”, “Osiris Fantasie”, and “Little Rocket”.

See the updated species lists in the site for all the new introductions. I added quite a few ground covers for sun and shade, and many new Hostas in all sizes from Large to miniature. As always, all the plants sold here, without exception, are raised here from scratch, and most have been here through at least one winter, to ensure your success in planting them in this hardiness zone.