Black Cap Farm

05/07/2026

It is the flowering season of the Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa). Flowers come 4-6 weeks earlier than Black Elderberry on this large, understory shrub. The red berries are ripe in early summer for birds and other wildlife. A common misconception is that this species is a good cross pollinator for Black Elderberry. They are distinct, and their cycles do not overlap. The Red Elderberry is found commonly in our region, in healthy woods and along water bodies. It peppers the trails at Pete’s Woods, and grows at Black Cap Farm under a spruce canopy and also out of an upturned stump near a creek. These and other wonders will be available when we open May 21st!

05/06/2026

Don’t feel blue, Black Cap Farm wants to see you too! Opening May 21st!

05/05/2026

Enjoying your springtime hikes in the woods? We are stocking many of these charmers right now, like Dutchman’s Breeches. We’ll also have a selection of White Trillium, Blue Cohosh, Mayapple, Wild Geranium, Jacob’s Ladder, Foamflower, Woodland Poppy…

05/01/2026

It’s going to be a fantastic gardening season in 2026. This year, create a dedicated spot for every garden trimming and piece of debris and start building compost to return nutrition to your plantings. Leaves and debris are loaded with minerals.

We open for the season May 21. Join us!

“Say It With Flowers”, 1963, by Kurt Ard

02/18/2026

The familiar refrain towards late Summer is "too much yellow!". Yes, there is a lot of yellow on native flowers but for good ecological reasons. That's another story for now, as this post is a short list of some of the most vibrant native flowers for gardeners who want to pursue a greater range of colors throughout the growing season.

Earliest Spring: Virginia Bluebells has a mixture of blues, purples, and pinks.

Around Memorial Day and thereafter: Prairie Phlox is the cheeriest of pinks, Hairy Beardtongue has some seriously emotive pinks and purples, and Jacob's Ladder brightens the shade garden with periwinkle.

High Summer: Cardinal Flower is one of those rare red natives on a striking stalk, Fireweed is a lovely pink useful as a groundcover, and the Blazing Star family of plants are nothing short of magenta.

Post Labor Day: Obedient Plant is a great size plant with rows of soft pink flowers which the Bumblebees love to crawl inside, Nothing beats New England Aster in a mass planting for that royal purple finish to the season.

If you need help selecting perennials for your specific situation, send us an email to [email protected]

02/11/2026

Not all birds use houses. If you are interested in encouraging a greater variety of bird species to nest on your property, there is much more you can do besides nurture an ever-expanding native garden. You can target certain species based on their nesting preferences.

If you create a large shrubby and/or brambly area with dense vegetation, it will draw the nesting interest of Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Gray Catbirds, Indigo Buntings, and Eastern Towhee.

If you construct a small shelf under the eaves of your house or under your deck supports, perhaps 6"x6", it won't go unnoticed when the Eastern Phoebe, Mourning Dove, American Robin, or Barn Swallow neighbors go looking for nesting spots.

Many species of our most lovely birds depend on a dense conifer tree or shrub to secure their nest: Black Throated Green Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Golden Crowned Kinglet, Chipping Sparrow, Purple Finch, Common Grackle, Blue Jay, and Swainson's Thrush, to name a few.

A large gravel area, sometimes a parking area and sometimes a flat rooftop, will resemble the natural nesting habitat for Killdeer and Common Nighthawks.

Can you lend your chimney to a nesting pair of Chimney Swifts? They are dependent solely on human structures now to replace their former nesting sites inside old growth tree trunks. For the most passionate birder (compassionate birder?), there are designs online to build a chimney swift standalone structure that resembles a chimney. They really will use it!

Of course, having the right plant or right structure doesn't guarantee bird visitors that just can't exist in your locality. And a general wood birdhouse does provide habitat for a dozen native species. Unfortunately, few among us can secure large tracts of healthy habitat for those birds that just aren't going to appear in a backyard. Still, it is so important that each of us understand how many species will not or cannot breed successfully without habitats that encompass 10's and 100's of acres of healthy land. This should make many of us in Northern Michigan glad to see the vigorous work being done by our conservancies to identify and protect these large tracts. We are also fortunate to exist among the various large tracts of state and national forest land which provide unbroken habitat. Not all of the country has such large parcels of nature remaining.

Speaking of nesting, the Brown Headed Cowbird presents a serious stumbling block to songbird reproduction by parasitizing the nests of other birds. Studies have demonstrated that, as a bird of the open field, the Brown Headed Cowbird is unlikely to venture further than 300 yards into a forest. Good news for the birds who use these larger conserved tracts of land, bad news for the birds that exist in thin ribbons of woodland that are spared throughout suburbia.

In general, we all have the opportunity to use what land we do control to save the birds, the bees, the butterflies, and the rest of creation. Every native patch helps, every native tree feeds, every little wetland patch is a frog highway. And as we have found here at Black Cap Farm, every tray of plants seems to be a nesting opportunity for song sparrows!

Illustrations by Virginia Jones. Bobwhite Quail nest, Common Grackle Nest, and Red-headed Woodpecker nest.

02/08/2026

“Winter Interest”, right?

02/06/2026

We are observing deer browse similar to last winter. With deep and consistent snowpack, they are focused ever more on branch tips and have the ability to get that much higher up into the tree or shrub thanks to their snow-step. In harder winters with persistent deep snow, we have seen deer turn increasingly to evergreens which in mild winters see minimal browse. That means the lowest tiers of our local pines are starting to look pretty see-through.

Despite the pushback this topic inevitably receives from some observers, the scientists who study our eastern forests have raised alarms for over a decade that the biodiversity and regeneration of our forests is hindered by historically high deer populations. The more you read about and understand the processes of forest succession, the better you recognize the four horsemen facing our remaining woodlands: suburban sprawl, invasive species, fire suppression, and deer populations.

I like this 2024 article from Audubon magazine that details a very creative solution from Cornell. In short, they logged a section of forest to encourage sapling regeneration and used heavy equipment to build the tree tops and slash into a deer fence. The brush piles ended up 10 feet high and 20 feet deep and surrounded 70 acres of forest. As with every deer exclusion photo set I have seen, the results on the inside were exciting. Robust tree germination, wider variety of tree species, increases in both bird population and species diversity.

Obvious issues include the inability of most people to do this on a large scale and the inevitable decomposition of the hedges which will allow deer to return. Nevertheless, I thought the article provided a creative solution for our many landowners which are spending time and energy removing large autumn olive, honeysuckle, etc. Can that material be set up on a smaller scale as a guard for species you want to encourage? If you can get a sapling through it's first few years that tree may stand the test against herbivores.

"Trees from Seed" is a tremendous page based out of Ohio that has promoted creative tree planting methods for years. They deal regularly with invasive callery pear management in their area and have promoted their use as a dead hedge protection for valuable native tree species.

If nothing else, maybe you would enjoy this article because it is a success story for conservation. We need some of those.

Important habitats for many bird species ‘are in imminent danger of collapse,’ one expert warns, and the federal government may need to step in.

02/03/2026

We are busy getting everything lined up for a Spring that is sure to come. Opening day 2026 will be Thursday May 21! The species list at our website has been tweaked to reflect a few additions and subtractions for 2026. This year we are welcoming some new friends which include Goldie's Woodfern, Short's Aster, Rosy Sedge, Roughleaf Dogwood, and Shining Sumac. There are several more species we hope to introduce throughout the season which need additional time to mature. Late last year we also put out our first crop of Mountain Maple, Acer spicatum. This understory maple has a great shade tolerance and nice habitat value. Especially eye catching are the flowers and ripening seeds. Don't overlook this addition to your woodland spots!

01/20/2026

Have you ever observed a "Hummingbird Moth" in your garden? We frequently encounter them in the nursery, and in 2025 witnessed a specimen lay a dozen eggs on our Snowberry crop. Two species of "Hummingbird Moth" exist in our range, the Snowberry Clearwing and the Hummingbird Clearwing. Our best plant for attracting them has always been Penstemon hirsutus, Hairy Beardtongue, but Monarda fistulosa, Phlox pilosa, Liatris species, and other tubular flowering plants are all preferred. To really attract these daytime moths, and to truly support their life cycle, consider including their host plants in your landscape. The eggs will only be laid on the host plants, and their larvae depend on the host plant for survival as they are adapted to eat nothing else. Viburnum shrubs, Snowberry shrubs, and native cherry trees serve the Hummingbird Clearwing. Northern Bush Honeysuckle, Snowberry, and the herbaceous Dogbane serve the Snowberry Clearwing. If you have these moths in your garden we'd love to know what flowers you see them visiting!

01/16/2026

Love to see all that white fertilizer right now. Anecdotally, dozens of customers last season commented what a unique season it was for lush growth, abundant insect life, and generally abundance. It felt to many like something was going right in our area after several years that had included prolonged droughts and brown winters. Like last winter, the current season received early snows in late November which have more or less “stuck”. The constant snow cover, melted down and added to on repeat is the consternation of the shoveler. Yet the ecological benefits of snow cover are probably obvious...let’s outline them.

Snow is an insulator. It protects your root stock from extreme cold and bitter, desiccating winds. That means less dieback over the winter and a healthier plant in spring. It is part of the reason we are encouraged to mulch our plants with Fall leaves to boost the insulation factor. Snowpack also lessens the harm done from a freeze and thaw cycle. If you have ever done a late Fall planting of small plants, you’ve likely seen some of them heaved out of the soil during midwinter thaws.

Snow is a slow motion means to add soil moisture. Imagine how much water is absorbed through a weeks-long spring thaw compared to the runoff associated with a summer deluge. For those of us on sandy topography, infiltration is especially important.

Snow is a means to fertilization! As with rain, snow accumulates nitrogen (critical for photosynthesis and lush growth!) and other trace minerals in the atmosphere and brings those down to the soil surface. In a rain shower, much of these nutrients are lost through runoff. But a slow melting snowpack allows for the nitrogen and other elements to be absorbed by the soil and taken up by the plants. When I contemplate the overall lushness of plants under my jurisdiction in 2025, both in the garden and in the wild, I suspect that snow played a part.

We really appreciate hearing from shoppers about what they are seeing (or not seeing) in their landscape and on their hikes. Hope you find something interesting this weekend!