Forest Lakes Nursery

Last year about this time, I began focusing on our Nursery in a way I had not been able to in the past. I acquired many types of seeds, some from far away! I have had mixed luck over all, but there are two types of Salvia I am quite pleased with! Salvia Barrelieri and Salvia Hians. I had to bump them up to 1 gallons this morning. The Barrelieri already has wonderful bloom stalks with color showing! I am attaching photos from the place I purchased the seeds for your viewing pleasure....

We have been very busy here at the Nursery. I have a planting maniac and Julia has been moving dirt, moving pots, relocating plants I finished potting up! Thankful for our John Deere. We expanded our broadleaf plants this year. Most of these will take a year to be impressive, but it is possible I went a little overboard.... Our clematis are really starting to show off! Some of the varieties we have are very hard to find and the blooms are spectacular. Those of you who live around here, be sure and come by the Arcata Farmers Market, or call and make an appointment to visit the Nursery. Saturday I will be bringing 2 varieties of spirea japonica, 'Golden Princess' and Gold Flame'. Both will most likely have the flowers open as well as the incredible foliage! Forest Lakes Nursery. 707.726.9371, or [email protected]

Yesterday, Julia and I began planting up our Christmas Tree stock. Some of our Colorado Blue spruce had to into tall 7 gallon containers! We try and keep everything at 5 gallon for ease of transport. That won't happen this year! We have a bumper crop of Norway Spruce as well. Looks like about half of those will go into the tall 7 gallons. We also have a great crop of Fraser Firs. These liners are so big they have to go into 2 gallons already! Good thing we have a 7 acre farm,... I'll run out of room this year! I was able to acquire some very unusual and beautiful other spruces. Picea jezoensis, the dark-bark spruce. Beautiful form. Picea wilsonii It is found only in China. Cones very early and has grey bark. Lastly we have a small number of Picea glehnii, the Sakhalin spruce or Glehn's spruce. Green and blue and very full. Email me if you are interested in any of these. [email protected] Back to the planting! Steven See more

Yesterday afternoon, I transplanted my Dahlia seedlings. 52 of 'Bishop's Children', and dark-leafed single blossom type, and 44 of a Dinner-plate type called 'Premium'. Last summer I learned about propagating Dahlia's from cuttings, so every Dahlia we grew became a stock plant! Between the seedlings and cuttings (and even a few divisions) we will have literally hundreds of Dahlia's for sale this year! I recently potted up some Dahlia's I had ordered to fit holes in the range ...of colors and size and flower type. We purchase all of our Dahlia's for our own garden collection from Swan Island Dahlias. All of the plants we purchased this year, will be available next year, for sale. We only purchase non-patented varieties. If there is a Dahlia that you must have this year, get it from Swan Island. Every tuber I have purchased from them is superior in vigor. I have never had one arrive soft, or with any hint of mold. These folks really know what they are doing. I think they are the very best in mail-order Dahlias. The sun is shining, the garden and Nursery is calling. I hope you have a blessed week! See more

My truck is jam-packed with plants for the Market. I am bring soft-fruits this morning (Strawberries, Blue Berries and Haskaps, or Honeyberries) along with the best selection of Heaths and Heathers! For the Bonsai enthusiast I have some awesome serpentine cotoneasters 'Strieb's Findling'. These will not last and I have a limited quantity, so come early! It is a super exciting time in the Nursery, things are growing and popping! I cannot believe the growth on our Clematis, setting buds right now.

Even though it is Winter (calling for the possibility of snow here at 1500 feet), I am growing many perennials from seed right now. My son and I converted an unused portion of a shed into a propagation room. We took down the old galvanized roof and installed polycarbonate sheets, and a big window. I say we....I held the ladder while James did all the real work! This new setup allows tons of light into this space. I am not currently providing any heat to the seed trays, but it... doesn't seem to matter. Out of 50 Dahlia seeds, I now have 40 seedlings! The Spanish Salivas have also germinated at an 80% rate, same goes for the English Geums. We are so very excited to be growing these perennials from seed! I have a busy winter, still have over 2,000 seeds to plant! I am really hoping for Astrantias to come up from seed. I am trying 5 different kinds, but this a notoriously difficult plant from seed. I'll try cuttings this spring from the plants purchased last summer. I want to offer these from seed, as many of the choicest varieties are patented and I cannot vegetatively propagate those. See more

16 years ago we started working with some wonderful folks in Idaho, who sold us grafted liners of fagus sylvatica purpurea 'Purple Fountain', and abies lasicoarpa arizoncia 'Glauca Compacta'. I have been propagating off of these trees since then. I have 20 or so 5-year old grafts of 'Purple Fountain'. They are just starting to show the silver bark this year. This is a faster growing tree in the ground, but does work well in containers. Almost everyone who comes to our Nursery... asks about it, as we have a wonderful specimen planted next to the entrance. See the photo for a slightly younger plant. It took me several years to figure out who to graft all of the fagus. They are picky about how the cambium layer mates. The subalpine fir, abies lasiocarpa, tends to hold it's beautiful blue color in areas where Colorado Blue spruces do not. This dwarf only get to about 12 feet at maturity, not ten years, but maturity. I fell in love with them when I encountered them growing outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. All of our Fagus (European Beech) are available for shipping right now. Our huge selection of abies are available for shipping starting March 1st. Our website redesign is moving forward, but it is a ton of work. My youngest, Fiona is working hard on it. I am very picky and am most likely the cause for the slower pace.....Those of you who know me, I'm sure are surprised by this... :-) Steven

This spring we will have a limited quantity of a rare dwarf form of Scots pine, pinus sylvestris 'Janssen witch' Originating from a witches' broom in 1981, this rare dwarf conifer grows 2' tall by 3' wide. Branches are extremely dense supporting smaller-than-normal, twisted, 2" long needles. Winter needle color is a handsome medium to dark green. Excellent choice for the sunny rock garden. It looks like 10 of my grafts from last year are big and healthy. This is grafted onto pinus sylvestris root stock. Photo to follow. These second year grafts will be ready for shipment the first week of March. The conifers are really looking good throughout the nursery

This is Pinus contorta var. latifolia 'Chief Joseph' a rare for of lodgepole Pine. He turns a brilliant gold starting after first frost and holding this amazing color all through the winter months. He never gets to large for the garden space.

We offers a large number of conifers for sale. It is our largest quantity of any plant. I graft them, I do rooted cuttings, and I buy them as fresh grafts from other folks who have bigger Nurseries than we do. I cannot grow all of the varieties I want to, and still maintain our priceless view. My wife would cut down anything that spoiled her view..... Last year was very difficult for the conifer growers as most of the grafters come from Mexico and other locations to the South...Continue reading