Hip, hip, hooray, spring must be on its way! Our Annual Tree Sale is happening.
We’ve got some exciting fruit options this year. Eat local? You betcha! Nothing more local than fruit from your own yard or patio. ‘Babycakes’ blackberry is thornless and as happy in a container as it is in the ground. ‘Meteor’ cherry was developed by the University of Minnesota nearly seventy years ago and is still one of the top selling dwarf pie cherry trees.
We’re offering two different blueberry bushes. Not only is the fruit yummy, but the lovely red fall foliage is an extra bonus. ‘Standing Ovation’ serviceberry is a narrow variety of the native serviceberry and can produce edible berries. ‘Edelweiss’ grape, also developed by the University of Minnesota back in 1978, produces juicy, seeded grapes suitable for juice, dessert, and sweet wine.
If your mouth isn’t watering yet, maybe its still frozen? Seriously, though, we’ve got some beautiful flowering items to make your dreams of summer seem closer than they were before you started reading this. ‘High Voltage’ rose has it all: fragrance, hardy in Minnesota winters, double flowers of beautiful yellow, low maintenance. ‘Diamond Ball’ clematis is a unique re-blooming clematis producing 4″-5″ blue-white flowers all summer long. ‘Miniature Snowflake’ mock orange is a favorite of our returning customers so we just had to offer it again. Smells amazing, doesn’t take up much space, and tolerates drought like nobody’s business.
For our tree lovers, and huggers, we’ve got you covered with some great selections that are all native to this part of the country: Northern pin oak, Hackberry, Ironwood, and White Fringetree. For shorter tree huggers, there’s the native American Hazelnut that only grows 6′-8′ high and produces edible nuts.
The dwarf bush honeysuckle rounds out the 2018 slate. It has beautiful fall foliage and summer foliage looks fresh with light green leaves and red highlights. Bees and other pollinators love its yellow flowers.
Speaking of bees and other pollinators, we choose our selections with them in mind. We also look for hardy items that are drought tolerant, that have fragrance and year-round interest, that produce fruit, seeds, or nuts, and that we can’t resist but deer can. Knowing that many of us have smallish yards, we try to offer plants in all shapes and sizes.
We hope you’re as excited about our offerings as we are. They have their beginnings locally, right down the street at Bailey Nurseries. We will have them delivered to only one pickup location this year, the Ramsey County Parks Garage located at 2015 Van Dyke in Maplewood.
Delivery costs and policies made it impossible for us to continue with two sites. We hope this isn’t too inconvenient for you but this also means you get to meet more of our board members and volunteers because we’ll all be at the same fun place on May 5 from 9:00-1:00 when you pick up your plants.
Order today at https://shop.friendsoftheparks.org/annual-tree-sale/
Orders must be placed by April 20.
Donations to parks can also be made at the same link. We work with over 20 communities in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to facilitate donations to their park systems. Reforestation is increasingly important as cities deal with the devastating effects of emerald ash borer.
