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Annuals

We define annual flowers or annual color as plants that emerge, grow fast, bloom, set seed and die  in one Berkshires’ Spring through Fall season.

We receive our first Annuals in late April – typically pansies!  The large greenhouses begin to fill with more annuals in early May and our widest selection is right around Memorial Day, when we are safely past the average frost date for spring (around May 18 here in Great Barrington).

We offer flowering annuals and annual accent plants for full sun, part sun/shade and full shade.  These include petunias, portulaca, annual geranium, marigold, coleus, bacopa (million bells), fuchsia, begonia, impatiens and more.  Some more unusual annuals include nicotiana, amaranth and annual salvias. Accent plants, typically not grown for their flowers, include vinca, spikes, ivies, annual grasses, sweet potato vine, licorice plant, eucalyptus and more.

Plants perennial in the tropics may have a long blooming season  here in our summer and will populate our greenhouses as annuals. These usually include tropical hibiscus, bananas, elephant ear, plumbago, jasmine, and mandevilla.

Vegetable starts follow a similar schedule with cold-tolerant kale, lettuce, and cabbages leading off and as we near the end of May, beets, leeks, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, squash starts and so on. Garlic bulbs are available for planting around the first week of October.

Herbs are available in late April as well, ready to plant in containers that move inside when cold weather threatens. Again, the largest variety of herbs can be found in late May and into June.

Beginning in December, we also offer a large variety of organic and heirloom garden seeds (mostly annual herbs, flowers and vegetables) for the next growing season. You’ll find all the seed-starting supplies– trays, domes, starter soils, peat pots and more — along with the seeds on the back wall of the Garden Center. Our seed suppliers:  High Mowing Organic Seeds, Renee’s, Botanical Interests, and Hudson Valley Seed plus new this year: Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seed– the organic, biodynamic and heirloom seed-growing source from New York!

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