To Warm our Spirits, New Plants for 2013

It's winter, and here in Nova Scotia we're in the grasp of a frigid spell, when only a few short days ago we had temperatures that were springlike. How do we gardeners cope with winter if we don't flee to warmer climes? 

If you run a nursery, you spend time planning your new catalogue, ordering new plants, and preparing for the arrival of spring. We are in the process of developing our 2013 Baldwin's Nursery catalogue, and thought we'd return to the blogging world with a few of our tempting plants for this coming season.  

With the popularity of the blue poppies we had last season, we will have quite a few more of them this year. 

Our nursery is known for its diverse selection of rhododendrons and azaleas, including some of our own hybrid seedling crosses. We are bringing in some new cultivars this year, however, including the striped azalea 'Ribbon Candy', 

 And the dazzling 'Cheerful Giant', a double-flowered deciduous azalea.

 We all love blue spruces in our conifer plantings, but how about a blue pine? This is Pinus flexilus 'Extra Blue', a roughly-pyramidal, blue-needled pine that can reach as much as 50 feet tall.

 There is something exotic and lush about flowering cherry trees, and we're pleased to offer a great specimen tree, the Japanese weeping flowering cherry, Prunus 'Kiku-shidare-zakura'. This is grown for its ornamental value, not for its fruit, but we do carry a number of great fruit trees.

Goji berry has exploded in popularity in recent years, being touted as a fruit loaded with health benefits. Also sometimes referred to as Wolfberry, this native of the Himalayas has significant amounts of vitamin C and Beta-carotene, and the fruits are somewhat tart in taste. We're keen to see what local gardeners think of this plant. 

 We love perennials that do double-duty, having great foliage as well as wonderful flowers. Pollinators love ligularias, and we are excited to carry this chocolate-foliaged form, 'Midnight Lady'.

 While some of the coreopsis varieties released in recent years haven't performed all that well, we find the best way to grow them is to give them excellent winter drainage. This variety is 'Sweet Dreams', with a cheerily rose-coloured flower.

We carry a number of wonderful woodland plants, ideal for planting in shady conditions. This is one of the liverworts, Hepatica--we will be carrying two species this year...

 And this is the Hart's tongue fern, one of a number of fern species we have on offer.

 We are pleased to have a section of oddities/zone pushers for this year's growing season, including such delightful choices as prickly pear cactus (Opuntia). We have these in several colours, and they work brilliantly in your alpine or rock garden.

That should be enough to warm your spirits for a day or so. To keep up more regularly with what we're doing, please like our Facebook page, where we do (usually) daily posts. We should have our new catalogue available as a pdf download in a few weeks time.