Chasing Sheep

 Just our morning aerobic exercise.

Wind Damage

 Here's some of the damage here.

Pueblo Master Gardener's Sale--Saturday May 7, 2022

This is a busy week at Perennial Favorites! In addition to our normal deliveries to garden centers, we'll be taking plants to the Master Gardener's SHED sale.  SHED stands for Supporters of Horticultural Education and is a fund raiser for scholarships and field trips in our county.  It's also a great place to find vegetable starts, cactus and succulents, perennials, native wildflowers and everything interesting in the plant world! 

The sale is at the Pueblo Fair Grounds, Agricultural Palace, and goes from  9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

 Steller's Jay January 2022

The sun is shining after yesterday's snow. It started snowing New Year's Eve and kept on all the next day. After the last five months of drought, the snow is welcome. Hoping for a year with "normal" precipitation, and good gardening season for all of us!

Finding Our Plants in 2021

We are growing and selling plants this year, but only as a wholesale grower. You can find our plants at the following locations:

Fox's Garden Supply:  329 South Santa Fe Avenue, Pueblo

Peppers and Petals: 2115 Santa Fe Drive, Pueblo

The Horticultural Art Society's Gigantic Spring Sale: May 7 & 8  and May 14 & 15:  224 Mesa Road Colorado Springs

SHED Sale: Saturday, May 8 at Pueblo Fairgrounds in the Palace of Agriculture (use Beulah Ave gate to enter)  9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

L & M Ranch,  198 County Road 440, La Veta, Colorado.  They are opening their farm stand on May 27th, where they will be selling plants of native wildflowers, perennials, vegetables and herbs. This is a beautiful spot, worth a trip to La Veta! For more information check out their website: L & M Ranch

Rocky Mountain Chapter of North American Rock Garden Society:  Saturday, May 22 at the Apex Center in Arvada. It is called the Simms Street Recreation Center. 11706 West 82nd Ave. Arvada CO.

Mid April at Perennial Favorites

Just a few pictures we took in the nursery today for your viewing pleasure.

Picea pungens Colorado Blue Spruce

Lamium 'Pink Pewter'

Heliopsis 'Summer Nights'

Pinus edulis Pinyon Pine

Sedum 'Cherry Tart'

Desert Willow Seedlings

A lot of the seeds we started in January are ready to transplant right now. I'm talking about perennials and shrubs that we're growing from seed, not annuals. Perennials are usually slower to germinate and slower to put on much growth as a tiny seedling. The time difference between transplanting an Indian paintbrush seedling and a tomato seedling is measured in weeks, not days. 

Chilopsis linearis, the Desert Willow, is native to New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, but not Colorado. Nonetheless, it thrives in Colorado, along the Front Range, and up to elevations as high as 6900'.  It is slow to leaf out in the spring, often not showing new growth until late May here in Rye.  It germinates readily, but then the little seedlings just sit there for a month or so. Here they are, ready to transplant.

Chilopsis is vulnerable to damping off, a fungal disease that attacks young seedlings, so it it important to wait until the little plants have at least one set of true leaves. We move them from the seedling flat to two and a half inch pots.  Moving a seedling to too large a pot makes the watering much trickier. It's very easy to overwater a seedling if you stick it in a gallon pot at this stage.  We were able to get eighty plants from the seedling flat! Here is a flat a few days after we transplanted:

The Desert Willow is a beautiful tree. Here is one in bloom.

Desert Willow provides nectar for hummingbirds and bees. It's a great tree for your xeriscape.

Evening Grosbeaks After the Snow

 

Fall Colors in Southern Colorado

Yesterday was one of those perfect autumn days and we took a drive up above Rye. The aspen trees in the national forest are clinging to some golden leaves, and the Gambel oaks are turning red! These first two pictures were taken near Lake Isabel.

The next set of pictures were taken here at the nursery. The best red foliage in this area comes from our native currant and from Virginia creeper. Despite the name, Virginia creeper is native, too.  Deer don't bother either of them.

There are some flowers still blooming, too. Russian sage has been blooming for months. Helenium autumnale started blooming in late summer, and, living up to its name, it's still blooming in autumn. 

Hope you get a chance to check out the colors of the season, it's beautiful out there.

Mid June in the Garden

Asclepias speciosa with painted butterfly.

We're gradually uncovering the gardens that have been so neglected the last few years. And things are blooming!

Allium caeruleum

Coreopsis --The Pink One

Hummingbird at Lonicera 'Major Wheeler'

One of the best plants we've ever planted for our hummingbirds. Long-blooming and "mostly" deer resistant.

June 2

Cuphea 'Batface'

June 1

Hello all, and welcome! 

This is our new website that will replace our pfplants.com website.  We are looking for a simpler (and free) method to communicate our love for plants and birds and all of the natural world. It's the beginning of a new chapter!