On a rainy April day we visited with Nursery Manager, Troy Pike of Schartner Farms in Exeter, RI for a behind the scenes look at how they provide their customers with quality trees and shrubs. Our tour started in the greenhouses where we learned where shrubs come from and how they are grown at Schartner’s.

Many shrubs arrive at Schartner Farms as bare root plants. We looked at Buddleia davidii ‘Pink Delight’, more commonly known as the butterfly-bush. Schartners purchases the butterfly-bushes as bare root plants from a grower in Washington State. The plants were propagated from cuttings, a vegetative method that guarantees that the new offspring will be identical to the mother plant. At the nursery in Washington, the cuttings were grown under optimal conditions in greenhouses for six months so the plants would develop a strong root system. The grower harvested the plants late last fall, before the ground froze. The plants were kept in cold storage (bare root), until they were shipped to Schartner’s in early March.

When Schartner’s received their shipment of shrubs, they potted them in a rich potting mixture of vermiculite, perlite, peat moss, pine bark and micro-nutrients. They give each potted shrub a handful of slow-release fertilizer (Osmocote or similar product) and leave them in the warm, humid greenhouse for several months of development. When the plants have grown into full bushy shrubs, they are moved to the retail garden center for sale in June.

One of the shrubs being grown this year in the Schartner greenhouse is a new cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla (bigleaf hydrangea) known as ‘Endless Summer’. ‘Endless Summer’ is an exciting new cultivar that offers the promise of more reliable and continuous blooms because it blooms on new wood as well as old wood and is hardy to zone 4. If you have had trouble with reliable blooms on your hydrangea, look for ‘Endless Summer’ at your local garden center this year.

Thanks to Schartner Farms and Troy Pike for the behind the scenes tour. For more information, call the URI MG Gardening Hotline @ 1-800-448-1011.