Think Snow

While all of you basked in the sun and sought relief from the heat in cool waters a few days ago, Dan Jeffrey at Pequot Plant Farm in Stonington prepared soil for this week’s poinsettia planting.

At the very instant you’re reading this column after its initial posting, Jeffrey and the folks at the 591 Wheeler Road plant farm are thinking and acting Christmas, as they go about planting the red or white or pink holiday flowers that will decorate homes, churches, shops and restaurants in December. 

“We’re always planting poinsettias on the hottest day of the year, it seems,” Jeffrey said. “It’s just crazy.”

Along with Christmas holiday flowers, they grow lilies for Easter and supply flowers for weddings, parties and special events. Around this time of year and into the fall, people browse the grounds for perennials, trees and shrubs.

The plant farm also is beginning to grow mums, with some just looking like little starters that will become robust yellow, white, maroon or purple plants decorating our yards, doorsteps and window boxes this autumn.

The 42-year-old plant farm off of this still rather rural town road is home to nine greenhouses and a selection of trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials. Lining the greenhouses, you’ll find dogwood, boxwood, Andromeda, rhododendron, fruit trees, bamboo, butterfly bushes and more. In another section, you’ll find a variety of roses.

They also offer advice on whether that shrub you’re buying will be something the deer will stay away from (although Jeffrey says if they’re hungry, they’ll eat it, even if it’s supposed to be deer-proof) or what kind of fertilizer works best for your roses.

“We try to do everything for the gardener,” he said, even trying to locate that hard-to-find, unusual plant.

In and around the greenhouses, you’ll find hanging plants, including a stunning mix of purple and orange flowers with draping green-and-white foliage flowing from a cone-shaped basket. Greenhouses offer rows upon rows of orange, yellow, red, pink and purple flowering plants, including gerbera daisies, begonias, impatiens and lobelia. 

The farm also purchased bonsai trees and staff will help you learn this ancient art of “miniaturizing and containerizing” plants. Growing bonsai, characterized as a marriage between art and horticulture, fosters patience, diligence and awareness.

They also offer varieties of soil, mulch and fertilizer, along with flower boxes, barrels and garden ornaments. Expansion plans are underway to become a one-stop garden spot, with fall inventory to include tools and birdhouses. 

And don’t forget: Think of the delicious warmth in which you were enveloped this summer when you’re scrambling around in the ice and snow and cold, loading those pretty red poinsettias into your not-quite-yet-toasty-warm vehicle.