RENEGADE GARDENER™

Terrific Mail Order Perennial Nursery

 Ambergate Gardens

Their 2007 catalog just arrived in my mail, and flipping through it immediately as I always do I was again reminded of the amazing selection of “Distinctive Perennial Flowers” contained within its pages. Sometimes I forget that not all visitors to this site live nearby a good specialty perennial nursery. Ambergate’s catalog certainly makes up for that.

Established in 1985, Ambergate Gardens has grown into one of those specialty nurseries appreciated by gardeners “in the know.” Their selection of perennials is not gargantuan, but if it’s in the catalog, two things are known: First, it’s a perennial worthy of space in your garden. Second, when your plants arrive, you will be impressed by their size and vigor. Ambergate ships all their plants “bare root,” in sealed plastic bags with damp peat moss, as mail-order perennials should be sold and shipped.

You’ll find plenty of wonderful perennials for sunny sites, a deep selection of shade plants and a fine selection of grasses. And I don’t mean to imply that every perennial in the catalog is hugely esoteric—you’ll recognize many solid, widely grown, standard plants. But you’ll also find amazing perennials such as Senna hebecarpa (Wild Senna, a ravishing late-summer bloomer that will hit six feet tall), Kirengeshoma palmata (Yellow Waxbells, a Japanese woodland native that stuns in shade) and Lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’, a red-leaved fringed loosestrife that will never be found at your standard garden center.

Lysimachia ciliata ‘Firecracker’

One of their specialties is Martagon Lilies, and if you’ve never grown Martigons, get on with it. This shade and part-shade species of genus Lilium is not widely known or grown by American gardeners, but buy a half dozen bulbs and you’ll soon see why they are touted in the Ambergate catalog.

Proprietor Mike Heger (co-author of the unsurpassed Zone 2-5 perennial book, Growing Perennials in Cold Climates) is a noted plantsman, lecturer and author. Assisted by his wife Jean, Mike grows and knows everything he sells, in his Minnesota fields and gardens, to make sure that a new variety of perennial that has caught his eye isn’t some over-hyped flash in the pan.

Ambergate ships healthy, hearty perennials to healthy, happy gardeners across 48 states and Canada. To order their bare root catalog, visit www.ambergategardens.com. Their growing range and retail nursery, where they sell their perennials in containers, is located near Victoria, Minnesota, just west of Minneapolis. Visit the site for directions and hours.

Don Engebretson
The Renegade Gardener