Plants for Sale on Tuesday through Saturday: 10 to 5

Happy Earth Day! Today marks the 49th anniversary of Earth Day when more than 20 million people participated throughout the country to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development. People were brought out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.

A great way to celebrate our earth and reduce the overall carbon footprint is to start planting your garden now. Plants reduce carbon dioxide in the air, produce oxygen and help promote a healthy lifestyle.

Regardless of whether you plant flowers for your enjoyment, vegetables in a backyard garden, maintain a patio herb collection or grow tomatoes in containers, you’ll be making strides toward a healthier planet and a healthier you. Plus, by growing your own vegetables you will always know what you are feeding your family. The produce you pick is packed full of nutrients because you have picked it at its prime.

And yes, we are ready for you this week! Running as fast as we can to plant in our garden, and to get your plant starts out to you! We will have more than one planting, but this is perhaps the nicest selections of the year, with a wide selection of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, flowers, eggplant and other vegetable plants. We encourage you to start planting in the ground before it gets hot. Here is the list of what is ready to go this week. We are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 5.

Flowers

See our flower page on the website.

• Nasturtiums — A low growing border plant with bright colored flowers in yellow, orange, and red.
• Benary Giant Mix Zinnias — These are the standard for the professional cut-flower industry.
• Benary Giant Colors — Separate colors for you to pick what you want. This year we are growing Scarlet, Purple, Salmon Rose, Golden Yellow, Coral, Wine and Mixed
• Oklahoma Mix Zinnias — These prolific zinnias have bright colors, excellent vase life, and low susceptibility to powdery mildew.
• Brocade Mix Marigolds — This charming French marigold is an early and continuous bloomer.

Peppers

The following peppers are ready.

• Sweet Peppers — Carmen, Lipstick, Sweet Banana, and Boldog Hungarian Spice Paprika.
• Sweet Bell Peppers — Purple Beauty, Flavorburst, and Revolution Bell.
• Hot Peppers — in order from mildest to hottest, ranked by Scoville units. Tiburon Ancho/Poblano (2,000 Scoville, called Pablano when green and Ancho when dried), Czech Black (2,000-5,000 Scoville), Jalafuego Jalapeno (5,000 Scoville), Serrano (6,000 – 16,000 Scoville), and Red Cayenne (30,000 to 50,000 Scoville). Thai Hot and Habenero peppers will be ready soon.

Tomatoes

Hybrid Tomatoes — Our selections are the large beefsteak Big Beef, the American Selection winner Celebrity, an improved Early Girl called New Girl, the wonderfully sweet little Juliet, and the sweet, earthy Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye.

Heirloom Tomatoes — See our heirloom tomato section.

• Black Krim — This one convinces you to grow heirlooms.
• Cherokee Purple — With a rich, complex sweet flavor you find in only your sophisticated heirlooms.
• German Johnson — Sweet and delicious Brandywine type, but with much better yields.
• Prudens Purple — Productive, crack resistant and more disease resistant than many heirlooms.
• Pineapple Bicolor — The gorgeous, delectable Pineapple heirloom tomato is one of our absolute favorites to grow and eat.
• Valencia — Excellent flavor and texture and few seeds.

Paste Tomatoes — The paste tomatoes we have ready to plant are Amish Paste (great flavor for cooking, canning or fresh eating) and Speckled Roma (back by popular demand, this elongated plum tomato is renowned for its rich tomato sweetness and good texture).

Cherry Tomatoes — See our cherry tomato section.

• Czechs Bush (dwarf) — A rugose, regular leaf, dwarf variety, that is loaded with ping pong ball sized cherry tomatoes.
• Sun Gold — A perfect combination of deep sweetness with a hint of acid tartness.
• Jasper — We sell little half-pints of these at market and they are extremely popular with our customers and a real favorite of children.
• Yellow Pear — Popular, sweet, tasty and crack-resistant little pear-shaped goodies.
• Tommy Toe — This heirloom from the Ozark Mountains is excellent in salads or for juices.
• Black Cherry — Two-bite cherries with the dusky color and complex flavor typical of the best black tomatoes—juicy and delicious.
• Honey Bunch Grape — The Honeybunch gets its name due to the incredible, luscious over-the-top, honey-like sweetness that could be habit-forming.
• Five-star Grape — Sweet, juicy, bite size.
• White Cherry — They have a very pleasant sweet/tart flavor.
• Super Sweet 100 — Classic sweet, red cherry tomato.

Eggplant

The following eggplant varieties are ready to be planted. Galine (Italian), Rosa Bianca (Italian), Rosita (Italian) and Orient Express (Asian). Ping Tung Long will be along in a couple weeks.

Herbs

See our herbs page on the website

• African Blue Basil — This grows equally well in sun or light shade. You can use it make pesto, to sprinkle over roasted potatoes and to flavor drinks and salads. Note: We will have more basil varieties in a couple weeks.
• Greek Oregano — If you want to “true” oregano, Greek Oregano is the one to plant.
• Sweet Marjoram — Sweet pine and citrus flavor, and easy to dry for later use.
• English Thyme — A favorite for cooking.
• Chives — Hardy perennial with lilac-colored flowers that bloom in June and July.
• Curly Parsley — Will easily grow a foot tall, giving you large bunches for repeated cuttings.
• Flat Parsley — Vigorous growers with very big, deep green shiny leaves with an exceptionally mellow and sweet flavor.
• French Tarragon — This is the real thing, propagated from root division and not by seed.
• Berggarten Sage — The flavor of this common sage is excellent.
• Pineapple Sage — The leaves and flowers are edible and really do smell like pineapple.
• Purple Sage — The most effective medicinal variety of sage, produces beautiful purple flowers making it a great focal point of a any garden.
• Mojito Mint — Genuinely Cuban, this spectacular culinary herb provides the distinct, aromatic and complex taste to the celebrated beverage.
• Lemon Balm — A member of the mint family, with broad leaves and a pleasing lemony scent, lemon balm has a genial nature that can best be described as kind.
• Calypso Cilantro — Excellent eating quality and lots of leaves on this variety.
• Bouquet Dill — Delightful herb with many culinary uses.
• 12″ Oval Herb Planters — with four mixed herbs.

Other Vegetables

• Squash — Wonderful summer squash includes Patty Pan, Yellow Squash and Black Zucchini.
• Cucumber Plants — Little-leaf Pickling, Super Zagross Middle Eastern, and Marketmore Slicing.
• Lettuce heads — Sold in six packs. Get them now as this is the last planting of this cool weather lover. Selections are Buttercrunch, Pirat Butterhead, Blushed Butter(head), Olga Romaine, Sweet Valentine Romaine, Forellenscluss Romaine, Green Leafy and Red Sails.
• Lettuce Mix — Swiss Chard, sold in six packs throughout the spring.
• Arugula — in six packs.

And last, but not least, we have freshly cut arugula for your salad bowl this week. Just ask or we might forget to remind you.

Yours in the hoophouse,