Cait's Garden

Well, fellow gardeners, it may seem that I’ve taken a long time off from this blog, but I assure you, I haven’t stopped thinking about gardening. Right after the holidays, the traditional “reading of the garden catalogs” began in earnest. I try not to purchase many plants from catalogs because the plants are just so small it can take forever for them to amount to anything. Plus, now you can eventually find most plants in a garden center if you look often enough. Still, these catalog plants are so incredibly tempting! I usually flag dozens of pages, and then taper my choices down to a handful of must-haves. This year, there were two must-haves for me from Bluestone Perennials, a company I’ve had good luck purchasing from in past years.

The first is Asclepias Verticillata, a member of the milkweed family and a prairie native plant also called “Horsetail” because the whorled leaves are supposed to resemble a horse’s tail. I have many gorgeous aslepias plants in my yard in an attempt to coerce monarch butterflies into hanging around, so I could not pass up this rare white version.

The next plant I couldn’t pass up was “Agastache cana Purple Pygmy” (in the hyssop or hummingbird mint family). I have only recently added an agastache to my garden (Golden Jubiliee) and based on that success, I decided to try this one. This plant is a miniature version that stays low to the ground and is supposed to be covered in purple flowers all season. We shall see.

In just two weeks, I will be heading to my local nursery for the annual buying of the pansy flats. Then there will be a slight shopping drought until May when the first waves of perennials start rolling in. In between, there will be many happy days cleaning up the yard in the crisp Spring air.