A superb perennial catalogue

last year

last modified: last year

I admit it, I often idle away too much time gawking at these catalogues especially during the off-season. There is one that I have always been 'extra' impressed with. The nursery is no longer in business :( but I appreciate it that they have left most elements of the site still up and viewable.

It is FREE SPIRIT Nursery, once residing in BC Canada. I did do some mail order from them maybe 3 years ago and received very healthy specimens. (I even mailed the owner a plant I had they he was interested in :)).

Anyways the "full colour Illustrated Manual" can be found here and is available for dload on this page https://www.freespiritnursery.ca/plant-list-and-manual/ (there is the B&W version but I enjoy seeing the colour photos)

It doesn't take long to see, reading some of the detailed descriptions that it was prepared by people who know and have experience with these perennials.

A quick example:

gigas Z5 (3) burgundy180 cm x 90 cm ❍ ◗ Aug-Sept Biennial. Spectacular, dark, burgundy-red flowers on tall stems make a statement in your perennial border. The flowers attract a fascinating array of flies and wasps. Usually reseeds reluctantly to provide for a new generation. It’s important though, to make sure the young seedlings are not inadvertently discarded in early spring. They look like two small, opposite, grassy-green blades, spreading horizontally from a tiny white stem marked with red.

Featured Answer

violetsnapdragon

last year

OMG - finally had a chance to download it and take a look. That is some seriously great garden porn they've got going there!

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Comments (11)

mazerolm_3a
last year
Lots of great information!! Do you know why they closed? Seems like it was a great place!
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked mazerolm_3a
violetsnapdragon
last year
Thanks so much--I love catalogs that give great, detailed information like that.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked violetsnapdragon
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FrozeBudd_z3/4
last year
Dang, they did have plenty I would have LOVED to obtain !!
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked FrozeBudd_z3/4
rosaprimula
last year
Cheers for this, Rouge. I am poring over such catalogues continually at the moment, choosing what seeds to order from HPS. I can have 30, plus another 20 for my eldest offspring, who is a joint member...so worth the subs for that alone.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked rosaprimula
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
One of my treasured garden possessions is a collection of catalogs from the original Heronswood Nursery. Started by renowned plantsman Dan Hinkley and his partner in the late 80's, Heronswood became the preeminent plant collectors mail order nursery in the US before its takeover by Burpees and subsequent closure (it has since been restored as a botanical garden).

Dan is an excellent educator and public speaker and with a deft hand at writing as well and the catalogs are a treasure-trove of growing information as well as highly entertaining horticultural pornography :-)) No illustrations at all, the catalogs are just high quality gardening poetry! I remember haunting the mail box after the first of the year, waiting for the newest copy to arrive. These are fat, thick catalogs, much like a paperback book and I would go through them thoroughly, making notations of what plants I wanted to get for the coming year.

I refer to these catalogs almost constantly....they are a superb resource!!
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
rosaprimula
last year
last modified: last year
Yep, Heronswood was really something else and Dan Hinkley is a legend.. Peter Beales rose catalogue was another great resource for me. I used to feel vaguely guilty, getting one, cos I never bought any roses from them, preferring a rival rose nursery (Trevor Whites). Not only a great catalogue, but also an active forum for a few years.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked rosaprimula
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
Original Author
last year
Do you know why they closed? Seems like it was a great place!

@mazerolm_3a, as I recall, the nursery was bought out for a housing development or for a new road...something like that.
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
last year
Downloaded the manual. Thank you. I am interested in one plant on the home page. The plant fourth from the left looks like a salvia. I love the red and purple shades. Does anybody know what it is? I couldn't find a suitable plant in the salvia section of the catalog,
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
The plant in question is Lobelia tupa. I would be very skeptical of its suitability for your zone.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
last year
I just downloaded it as well, thank you for that rouge! Great garden porn indeed!!