The Flower Factory

Last night I made my first spring trip to The Flower Factory, a perennial farm of sorts located south of Madison, west of Stoughton. The FF specializes in locally hardy perennials, selling no annuals, shrubs, roses, edibles or trees. Just thousands and thousands of perennials of every variety you cold dream up-sedum, phlox, penstemon, heuchera, hostas, lilies, peonies, and more. I was in a state of bliss slowly browsing aisles while dad took the boys to get milkshakes, and then to play in the sandbox at the FF.

I had been to this place once before, in late when it was freezing and raining and they were putting things away for the season as I shopped. I bought my sedum 'anegelina' and gentiana makinoi 'blue' there, two of my favorite plants currently.

I can't emphasize how great the prices are that this place! I almost paid $10 for a plant more locally that they sell for $6, likewise for another I almost paid $12 for, they charged only $8. I usually pay $5 for a small perennial starter, and most of theirs are $3.50. Clematis the same size as theirs are $20 here, and they sell them for only $8.50!

Here are a few pictures of my journey through the place.

I spent a good amount of time in the clematis house. I love clematis, and a few were even blooming. I came home with a variety I have wanted for some time, clematis hybrid 'multi blue' although it was not in bloom yet, thankfully. I did not write down the names of these varieties, but they sure are pretty. The second one is a non-clinging variety of clematis, which I never realized there was such a thing. Cool. Bushier, still tall, but bigger stronger branches and leaves.

This is also the place I discovered my obessesion with blue balls as accents in the garden. Here are a few of their blue ball decorations. They had one giant blue ball on the ground surrounded by groundcover geraniums, but I missed getting a picture. I will next time, b/c it was gorgeous.

These are the treasures I came home with:

2 delphinium belladonna-oriental blue garland delphinium-bright blue

delphinium elatum-russian wild dissected leaves-dark blue spikes

delphinium tatsiense (reseeds) ferny dissected leaves brilliant blue

helianthus strumosus woodland sunflower yellow daisies 36-72 inches in height (yay tall!)

helenium autumnale 'helen's flower' yellow daisies 36-40 inches in height

centranthus ruber 'jupiter's beard' red rose color 24 inches (like my mom grew up with)

lupinus perennis-wild blue lupine-true blue spikes

aster azureus 'sky blue aster' -blue daisies

aster laevis 'smooth aster'- blue daisies

echinacea green coneflower 'green envy'

bluemist shrub 'summer sorbet' (amazing foliage!)

clematis 'multi-blue'

huecherella 'alabama sunrise'

stokesia 'honeysong blue'

We were there until the sun began to set. So delightfully relaxing.

Happy Gardening everyone!