Each winter, we offer plants at Seattle's Northwest Flower and Garden Show and Portland's Yard, Garden, and Patio Show.  These shows are an excellent opportunity to get bargain prices on fine plants that are

1) outstanding new introductions,

2)  in high demand and very limited
     supply, or

3)  hardly ever available.

We offer scores of choice varieties in clean, easy-to-carry packages.

Visit Sundquist Nursery for choice hard-to-find plants!

Feb. 17-19, 2012 - Portland Yard, Garden, and Patio Show booth 1168 

Feb. 8-12, 201 - Seattle Northwest Flower and Garden Show booth 2236  

Easy-to-carry bare root plants at the thriftiest prices of the year!

Spend $60 at the show, get a free False Solomon's Seal Smilacina racemosa,  a native plant and a Great Plant Pick!  - $8 value 

Here are a few highlights of what we'll have at this year's February shows! 

Sundquist Nursery is one of the nation's leading growers of epimediums, ferns, and fine shade garden companions that are fun, reliable garden plants.  We have some choice epimediums this year, including 'Black Sea', 'Bandit',  'Purple Prince', and 'Thunderbolt'.   

Choice ferns at the shows include 'Burgundy Lace' painted fern, one of the very best forms for purple color.   We'll have other great ferns, too, including frilly 'Ocean's Fury', reasonably priced!  

For passionate plant lovers, here are rare

 golden orchids, hardy in Puget Sound!

Hosta fans can choose among fabulous new varieties and favorite colors and textures, including 'Cherry Berry',  'Designer Genes', 'Orange Marmalade' and the 2010 and 2011 Hostas of the Year, 'First Frost' and 'Praying Hands'.    

Our designer foliage plants include dark mysterious Disporum 'Night Heron', and a naughty Epimedium named 'Enchantress'.

And this is just the beginning!  

Got sun?  We have tough beauties and hot new designer favorites for your garden!

 'Cosmic Eye' Coreopsis will colorize your border!

Astrantia 'Hadspen Blood' provides a long season of deep red blooms on burgundy stems, great for bouquets and drying!

Classic 'Hewitt's Double' meadow rue is a hard-to-find, tough and beautiful heirloom variety with constellations of tiny double blooms, lovely in bouquets! 

Geranium 'Pink Penny', a strong rebloomer much like sensational 'Rozanne', but ...  pink! 

 Kniphofia 'Timothy' is a remarkable creamy

salmon-peach color, a pink poker plant! 

'Starlite' Prairieblues Baptisia, 2010 Perennial Plant of the Year!

We have the 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year, too!  Do you know what it is?

'Cranberry Cupcake' dwarf Echinacea

is not the Perennial Plant of the Year. 

Yet.

Uh-oh.  The Echinaceas are here.  Geeez!

We'll have a super selection of pom poms, flaming queens, and boadacious big bloomers.

'Tomato Soup' 

 'Tiki Torch'   

How about a 'Big Blue' sea holly to go with them?

The biggest and bluest one yet - and a reliable grower!

You could plant some exciting

foxtail lilies with your cone flowers and sea hollies....

three colors to choose from!

'Burning Hearts' Dicentra - bestill your heart!

And one last highlight among many:  our native shooting star! 

-  one of several outstanding natives we'll offer. 

This is still only the beginning!  We have about a hundred great varieties at the shows.  Whether your garden ideas are sublime or outrageous, we have a plant that you need, and our prices are fair.  This is our best selection ever.  Come see us! 

- Nils Sundquist

       Sundquist Nursery  

How to take care of your plants from the show

The most important thing to do with "bare root" plants is to get them out of the package and into soil.  Moisture buildup or drying can occur in the package or out of the package.  Too wet or too dry conditions are the enemies of plants.  Promptly getting plants into soil helps stabilize these variables.   

Plants left in the package too long will eventually rot and may even seem to disappear.  

When we get home from the store, we put perishables in the fridge.  When we get home from the garden show with living bare root plants, we need to keep the plants away from heat, and then get them into soil within a few days.  If we do that, they're fine.   

Unlike us, plants aren't warm blooded.  They don't care if it's cold outside.  It's fine to plant outdoors even if overnight temperatures might drop well below freezing.  Cover your plant's crown with a little compost, and it should acclimate and come up fine.  The only exception to the rule of immediate outdoor planting would be east of the mountains where the ground is frozen or temperatures of 20 degrees or less are common through winter.  Here, gardeners might transplant into the ground or into pots buried in protected foundation beds, beside compost bins, or in coldframes or cool greenhouses, and wait for spring to transplant into garden beds.    

Where planting depth is concerned,  a good rule of thumb is 1" deep for the top of the roots or "crown" from which the roots grow down.  Epimediums, ferns, and salvia should be a little shallower.  Tubers such as alstroemeria can be laid sideways if the top shoots aren't obvious.  If the "up" end is apparent, tubers can be set with more of an up and down end.  Any plant's shoots should be just below the surface unless they're elongating and greening or coloring up, in which case they can be left exposed a little.   I like light airy composty mulch in the cover layer because it provides coverage without smothering and a good "fudge factor" for different depths and soil types.  

Dormant bare root handling of plants is a transplanting method that's been used successfully for thousands of years.  The material in our packages is formulated to help buffer against extremes of moisture, drying, or cold while the plants make the journey from our farm to your garden.  Your plants need to be processed promptly when they arrive at their new home.  Keep them cool, and plant them within a few days after purchase.  Prompt planting is necessary to ensure success. 

Thank you!