Spring plants are coming up (Hopefully a new one will be available soon!!!)

Despite overnight temps in the 20s and the occasional dusting of snow, many spring plants are coming up here. The ones I have pictured here are eastern columbine, Jacobs ladder, woodland phlox, and marsh marigold. We have the columbine and Jacobs ladder for sale on our site and Etsy shop, but many woodland native plants can be challenging to reproduce. Few are producers of very many seeds. Plus these seeds can be finicky to germinate Many work better putting them in a soil tray outside all winter rather than the usual stratification/ planting methods. Others require a double dormancy, which means unless you use some creative trickery, you won’t get seedlings for two years and then some of these take another 3 years before they bloom. Talk about being in it for the long haul! We have tried for several years to get seedling from various woodland natives with mixed results. One that we have attempted are wild leeks (allium tricoccum). Also known as ramps, they are popular with foragers and even in some restaurants. In some places, over harvesting and unwise collection methods have led to their decline. They really green up a woodland in spring. Their foliage dies down in mid summer. But in late summer stalks will appear and produce clusters of small shiny black seeds. (Look very similar to nodding and prairie onion seeds) Their seeds need a double dormancy. After almost giving up on them, today I saw a tub that I had put seeds in two years ago now has little sprouts all over. You can see in one of the pics. Pretty exciting! So hopefully we will be able to add these guys to our plant list soon.