READ THIS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NEW TO GARDENING OR NEW TO WORKING WITH VERY YOUNG PLANTS
Resources for small business owners often suggest that the path to success begins with identifying the ideal customer. This has always struck me as an odd and maybe even ridiculous prescription. Like, to the point of idiocy. I am also a visual artist and pretty bossy, so my go to answer is this: my ideal customer is "the person who shows up who didn't know they needed this thing, but there it is." And who is the first person who needed the thing that wasn't there? Well, obviously the person making it. So, following that logic, my ideal customer is me.
What does this have to do with the Available for Spring Pre-order List you may well ask. If, when I was just gathering my overly passionate, obsessive head of steam regarding plants, I had come across a nursery like mine, willing to sell me landscape plugs, and small bare-rooted shrubs and trees, and seedlings of under-known plants barely out of babyhood, I would have jumped at the chance. So this list is for those gardeners, sometimes excited beginners, sometimes quite experienced, but on a limited budget, or with limited space, or time, or those who simply enjoy shepherding young things into a more mature phase and get a lot out of that.
These offerings are available for a limited time, because they represent, for the nurserywoman, the developing of a catalog that is one, two, even three or more years in the making and comprise part of the efforts to do what is called "developing stock". All nurseries are sowing seed, buying in plugs, and whips, and things in 2.5" pots. They are collecting "mother plants" from which they will take cuttings or seeds at a later date. They are planting small test plots of plants that are new to them in order to learn more about them. All of this goes into providing what, in the trade, are called "retail ready" plants. Retail ready plants have a presence right away in your garden. And, they cost more money. Because that is what time and attention accrue to in an exchange economy. By the way, if you make something good, that I need, I am happy to trade my labor and material for yours. So, let's talk.
All of this is a long way of saying none of these offerings will remain on this list for very long. Pre-ordering is a springtime activity. Get jazzed, be experimental, have fun, act now, but...
Think. Know thyself. These little rooted twigs and seedlings want to grow and like all beginning things they have needs and their own pace, but they DO require care of some sort. All these goodies need to be up-potted or planted in the ground, watered, and some (especially the trees and shrubs) need to be protected from browsing while they get going. A bit of special care is required. I know you are excited, but set yourself up for success. I am happy to advise.
