From 10am to 4pm on Saturday, August 22, 2026, we’ll be celebrating the grand opening of our new location at 29 Sawyer Hill Rd, Berlin, MA. What plants will we have available? Look no further! Allegheny monkey flower (Mimulus ringens) Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) - 1st year shrub Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta var. pulcherrima) - only two left! Black elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) Blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) Blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) - plugs only Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) - 2nd year shrub Clustered mountain-mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) Coastal plain Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium dubium) Common bur sedge (Carex grayi) Common ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) - 1st and 2nd year shrub/tree Flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus) Foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) Grass-leaved goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia) Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia/intercedens) Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans) - back in stock!

After much searching, I’ve found just what Red Trillium Gardens needs – a space to grow and sell plants that isn’t my own small and difficult-to-find backyard! I’m excited to announce that I’m setting up a storefront at 29 Sawyer Hill Rd in Berlin, MA (sharing the space with Garden Easy, another small nursery). This location has a long history, with commercial greenhouses on this spot since the 19th century. Really makes me feel like I’m carrying on a tradition!

Sadly, I am late to bring you this month’s market schedule. But there are still plenty of markets ahead of us this month! (And be sure scroll to the end of this post for a special announcement…) Beverly Garden Party In conjunction with Grow Native Mass, we will be at Beverly’s Garden Party this upcoming Saturday, August 8, 2026, 12-5pm, on the Beverly Common at 31 Dane Street, Beverly, MA! This event celebrates the 400th anniversary of the city of Beverly – that’s pretty old!

So uhhhh… I’m not great at time management, and I forgot to put out this announcement beforehand. And it is now – looks at clock – 9:30am on the day I’m scheduled to do the… Newton Tuesday Farmers’ Market Opening Day Join us for Newton’s first Tuesday farmers’ market of the season! TODAY, Tuesday 6/23/2026, from 1:30pm to 6pm we’ll be at Cold Spring Park (1189 Beacon St) in Newton, MA, selling our native plants.

I survived May! That’s always an accomplishment, lol. Though, given the number of markets we’re doing in June, this might be the more difficult month! June Markets We’ll be doing our first June market this very weekend: the Leominster Farmers’ Market, June 5, 2026, from 10am to 1pm in Monument Square in downtown Fitchburg, MA! Once again, thanks to NCM Markets and the ever-competent Shelby Renaud for making this happen!

We’re going into my busiest time of the year – market season! We’ll be at the following markets in May: Our spring sale! We will be holding a spring sale at our home nursery. This is scheduled for Saturday, May 9th, 2026, from 11am-5pm, in Lunenburg, MA. Please email lise@redtrilliumgardens.com for the address. As this is my home, I’d like to ensure that internet randos don’t show up at my door.

Sure, our spring sale is in early May – but we’ll be making appearances before then! Lunenburg Earth Day The Lunenburg Conservation Commission is organizing an Earth Day event this year! Even better, they’ve coordinated with Grow Native Mass to turn it into a full-on GNMA popup market, so we’ll be joined by other nurseries such as Mystic Meadows of Pepperell, MA. Join us on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2pm-6pm, at the TC Passios Building, 1025 Massachusetts Ave, Lunenburg, MA.

Updated August 9, 2026. Note: markets are removed below when they have passed. The 2026 season approaches fast! And we mostly know where we’ll be this year! Leominster Farmers’ Market Our current plan is to be at most of the Leominster Farmers’ Market events organized by North Central Mass Farmers Markets. These are generally the first Saturday of the month from June to October, 10am - 1pm, in Monument Square in downtown Leominster, MA.

Before you squish that ant you find crawling on your native plant, consider this: ants play a vital role in supporting native plants. How? Read on! Myrmecophytes The word for a plant that has a symbiotic relationship with ants is a “myrmecophyte.” This is just a conglomeration of the Greek words for “ant” and “plant.” That relationship can take a number of different forms. In ecological terms, they are often mutualisms, where both the ant and the plant benefit from the interaction.

Updated February 18, 2026 Most of the plants we sow here at Red Trillium Gardens are winter-sown – meaning that they are sown outdoors in plug trays in the winter, giving the seeds the cold, moist conditions that many require in order to germinate. We also sow some species indoors for availability early in the season. Usually these are seeds that require little or no stratification. This year we will be sowing some annuals indoors so that they are available much earlier in the season.