MAY 2026 NEWSLETTER

Abundance

May often takes me by surprise with its speed and abundance.  All of a sudden the trees are clothed in pale green leaves and the forest floor is carpeted with flowers. Somehow I don’t feel ready for all the beauty. 

It is also a very busy season where we plant all our seedlings.  We start in early May with species that enjoy cool weather such as the sedges and end in late June with the warm season grasses. Our greenhouse is bursting at the seams with new life.

The spring ephemeral wildflowers are not to be missed. If you are lucky you might find some unique species like Two-leaved mitrewort, with its tiny flowers that look like snowflakes.  Also flowering is Prairie Smoke and Wild strawberry. Make sure to carve out some time for a walk in the woods to enjoy their brief but magical display.

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Here are the highlights from this month’s newsletter:

• Right plants in the right places and also in the wrong places
• New land!
• Species that do not need stratification
• Our ferns at the NANPS plant sale, May 9th

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Right plants in the right places and also in the wrong places

Part of the spring planting puzzle is deciding the right location where each species will thrive. We are growing a wide range of native species with different requirements for soil moisture and light.  Most of the time we guess correctly and the plants eventually flower and set seed. But sometimes we guess wrong and the plants struggle and disappear. 

I usually advocate for selecting plants that will grow well in your garden conditions, just the way they are, without adding lots of amendments, inputs and extra watering. (But make sure to mulch!) However, we all fall in love with at least one species (or twelve) that want to grow in soil conditions that are exactly the opposite of what we have. Containers or raised beds can be a great solution to this problem.  They provide the soil conditions you need without trying to amend the soil of an entire area of the garden, which can often be unsuccessful.

Our soil is very sandy and dry.  We wanted to be able to grow species that needed moist soil conditions, so we lined raised beds with plastic so they did not have any drainage.  In these beds we grow Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Flat-topped white aster (Doellingeria umbellata), Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), Blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) and many more. A large container without drainage would also work well.

Perhaps your soil is moist and rich and you would like to grow some of the native species that like dry, sandy soil, such as Field pussytoes (Antennaria neglecta) or Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum).  Fill your container with a 50/50 mix of sand and soil, make sure it has lots of drainage holes, and place it in a sunny location. 

Maybe you would like to grow some of the spring ephemeral wildflowers that need rich soil with lots of organic matter, but the soil in your shady areas is dry and full of tree roots.  A large container with soil mixed with lots of compost could be the answer.

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New land

While our raised beds were a good starter solution for wet species, as we expand our seed production they were not practical on a larger scale. We are thrilled to announce that we have acquired an additional four acre parcel of land that has areas of moist soil where we can produce species that enjoy wet feet, along with lots of room to expand our seed production for sun loving species. 

We have been busy this month preparing the new land for planting this spring. We have chosen to cover the soil with tarps to kill the weeds before we plant thousands of plugs. 

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Species that do not require stratification

If you would like to start some native plants from seed in May we have a number of species that you can either directly sow into your garden or sow into pots and transplant later. You can check out our Species you can Plant Without Stratification page for a list of species that you can start now.

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Ferns at the NANPS sale, May 9th

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I hope you are overwhelmed by beauty this May,

Andrea