What's blooming in the gardens? Plus Gardner Farmers' Market this weekend.
By Lise Fracalossi
What’s in Bloom at the Nursery?
Mid- to late summer can be a questionable time in the garden, depending on how you’ve planted! There’s a tendency to avoid planting in the summer, thinking that plants won’t tolerate the heat. However, this can lead to a lull in color at this time of year – especially if one only buys plants that are blooming!
Even we’ve got a bit of that going on right now! However, in amongst our pots for sale and our personal garden – plus the woodlands of our property – we’ve got pops of orange, yellow, and even purple.
Here are just a few:
Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), still going strong! (Available for sale).
Pasture thistle (Cirsium discolor) in our garden, stunning against the woodland backdrop.
Tall white aster (Doellingeria umbellata). Available for sale now.
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) -- a bee magnet!
The tiny blooms of Indian tobacco (Lobelia inflata). Currently waiting to be potted up; available for sale later this season.
Fleabane (genus Erigeron). A wild volunteer in one of my beds!
Black eyed Susan 'Goldsturm' (Rudbeckia hirta x fulgida). The deer were kind enough to give this one a Chelsea chop this season! We have a couple of second-generation plants from seed collected from these available at a discounted price.
Redwhisker clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra). This funny-named annual is available for sale.
Do you need to add some summer blooms to your garden? See our Buy Plants page for our full list of available species!
Gardner Farmers’ Market
We’ve joined another market! We’ll be at Gardner Farmers Market for two dates only this season – Saturdays, August 16th and October 18th, 2025. The market runs from 9:30am to 1pm at the Waterford Street School in Gardner, MA. I’ve heard it’s a bigger one, with 20+ vendors, both crafters and farmers. (Personally, I’m hoping to pick up some honey while I’m there!)
We’d love to see you there!