Once we start ordering garden magazines, glossy mailorder catalogs start filling our mailboxes. Many of these lead to disappointment because their hype and pictures belie the rather lousy plants they send. But, as we persevere in our gardening, we learn that there is a whole world of small, specialty nurseries out there who not only grow their own, they grow truly unusual and hard to find plants. Slowly, many of these nurseries are coming online, to the great good fortune of all of us greedy gardeners.
Ellen Hornig's Seneca Hill Perennials in Oswego, New York, is one such nursery. Owner Ellen Hornig grows what she fancies and has fun doing it.
Ellen's been online for at least as long as I have - maybe longer - because her name became familiar to me from posts on email mailing lists like Alpine-L and Arisaema-L, soon after I joined them several years ago. But her website is brand-spanking new. She makes no bones about it's being "a working, plain-vanilla website", but it is well organized, easy to get around on and lists the plants and that's what's important. It also has instructions on how to order by snail mail or email.
The Plants, The Plants - Oh! The Plants!
It just so happens that what Ellen fancies takes my fancy, too. This is another list that brings greed to the fore. Arisaema, Arum, Cyclamen, Gentiana, and more. The nursery name says "Perennials", but she also has some woodies like Salix, Sambucus and Rhododendrons that look mighty tempting.
Ellen sent me some slides to scan for this article so I could show you some of these goodies. All the images in this article are from her garden and nursery.
The Aroid Clan
I think one of the first plants I got from Ellen was a lovely tuber of Arisaema candidissimum, pictured here. This beauty from China, hardy to USDA zone 5a (-20F; -28.89C), is late to wake up, but when she does, you will agree she was worth waiting for. The large, tripartite leaves will reach a bit over two feet (70 cm) tall and come after the inflorescence has developed. If you don't grow this one, get it!
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