06/14/2026
***Monday morning delivery, I had my days wrong when I wrote this post Sunday morning. I thought it was Saturday morning because I'm sleep deprived from long work days during hot weather!
No delivery on Sunday.
Vashon Thriftway delivery planned for early Monday morning!
They are running a 10% off sale through Tuesday night for the whole nursery plant floral department, so go there now and get some deals.
What are we delivering?
Lots of flowers that bring the butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators, plus new crop of cucumbers, Delicata and Green Kabocha winter squash , Holy Basil and Red Shiso.
What kind of flowers for delivery?
In bloom:
Salvia patens, 3 colors
Red Salvia
Marigolds: Burning Embers and Fireball
Zinnias, lots of colors, including Persian Carpet and Green Envy.
Gomphrena, 5 colors
Nicotiana Lime Green and Grey Gardens
Edible Flowers:
Nasturtium, lots of colors
Calendula
Annuals for cut flower gardens:
Cosmos, 10 colors including Apricotta
Apricot Asters
Annual Phlox, 3 varieties
Snapdragon Rembrandt
Nigella Love in a Mist, light blue
Billy Buttons Craspedia
For part shade containers and window boxes:
Coleus, lots of colors!
Nicotiana suavolens, incredibly fragrant! Attracts hummingbirds!
Cuphea in bloom, 6 different colors! Attracts hummingbirds.
Perennials:
Stipa tenuissima grass, wonderful in pots or the edges of gardens and along walkways. Waterwise.
Verbena bonariensis, ideal in large pots or planted in drifts in the waterwise garden.
Heliopsis Burning Hearts, black leaves! Great in large pots or well watered front of the garden border.
Dianthus carthusianorum , waterwise perennial , stunning planted in drifts.
Rudbeckia Prairie Glow, not technically a perennial in our climate due to our wet winters. Native to the tall grass prairies of the Midwest. They like snow.
No matter, easy to save seed and start lots every March. Worth the effort.
Amazing rainbow of fire colors for mid summer through hard frost.
***Pictured here is the Tiger Swallowtail that came to visit the blooming Cephalaria gigantea yesterday when we were on our lunch break.
Cephalaria is a very cold hardy, long-lived perennial in the Umbelliferous plant family. It is native to Japan and maybe one day I will see the fields and fields of it growing in the wild.
A sight to behold, I'm sure.
It grows to 7-10 feet tall on thin, wiry stems and is best interplanted with other tall, thin growing plants, like Verbena bonariensis. The cool, branching stems hold aloft large seedheads that persist all winter and look lovely when dusted with sparkly frost and spangled with dew covered spider webs.
Extra neat, the seed heads attract chickadees and other songbirds!
I am sold out of them for this year, but look for them next year, I always grow them to sell as they are one of our most favorite perennials.
I will always continue to plant all things in the Umbelliferous plant family because that plant family is the number one type of flower head shape that brings the butterflies, along with flowers in the Compositae or Asteraceae families---Zinnia, Sunflower, Dianthus , Daisy, Asters---any flowers with a 'landing pad' shaped flower.
Dandelions too, of course!
Think about Queen Anne's Lace, Dill flowers, Scabiosa, Ammi, Ferula, Ridolfia, Didiscus, Fennel flowers. . .all Umbelliferous flowers!
And once you begin to learn how to classify plants within this system, everything becomes clear.
And then we have plant family Boraginaceae---Borage, Anchusa, Echium, our native blue flowered Hounds Tongue which looks like Forget Me Not on steroids, and of course, Comfrey.
Don't be intimidated by learning about plant family classifications, it's so much fun once you begin to see the plant world in this way.
Roses and apples. Same plant family. Rosaceae family.
See how cool it is?
