Year 2012 seed collection here is just around the corner! My bluebell seeds will be ready in late April or May.... JUST CALL ME ANYTIME FROM NOW ON TO ORDER SEEDS; THEY WILL BE READY AROUND EARLY MAY WHEN THE PLANTS SHED THEIR SEEDS. I'LL COLLECT THE SEEDS AND MAIL THEM TO YOU IMMEDIATELY (IF YOU HAVE PRE-PAID).

Rare, hard-to-find
VIRGINIA BLUEBELL SEEDS FOR SALE

Virginia Bluebells - Mertensia virginica

for sale SEEDS for sale
200 Va. Bluebell seeds $20.00 shipping included

500 seeds $40.00 postpaid

You won't find these seeds in seed catalogs or in your local garden shop--
The beautiful, native Va. Bluebell seeds need to be planted immediately after they are shed by the plant in the spring. That's why you won't find them for sale in the supermarket or garden center!
I collect my seeds in my woodland garden in SW Wisconsin and ship them to you immediately after they have been shed by the plant. My Va. Bluebells are descended from the southwestern Wisconsin gene pool. Read more, below.

BUY ROOTS AND YOU WILL HAVE FLOWERS A YEAR SOONER! Normally it takes the perennial Va. Bluebell plants two to three years to reach flowering age when you start them from seeds.   But you can get a head start by buying dormant roots from me that are already a year or two old.  I raise my roots for at least one full season in pots, watering and fertilizing them so they grow at their optimum. When they go dormant by the end of that first summer, the roots are about 3/4" long, and can be safely shipped to you in that dormant state. I will pack them in moist peat and mail them to you.  The plants will possibly bloom the next spring, or for sure they will bloom the following year, provided you have planted them in a place they like. (Remember: gardening with native woodland wildflowers requires patience.  Bluebells usually take three years in the wild from seed before they will bloom.) As you can see from the photos here, Virginia Bluebells are definitely worth the wait!
10 roots for $40 shipping included ---- 20 roots for $75 shipping included

Call anytime to order your seeds or roots. They will be mailed at the appropriate time as long as you have already paid. When will be the appropriate time? Well, SEEDS will be ready approximately in mid to late May (depends on the weather). ROOTS will be ready around mid-July or early August. (I wait for the foliage to die back and at that point the roots have gone dormant.)

Janet Wissmann ~ phone 608-624-5511 - 9am-9pm CST

Soldiers Grove, Southwestern Wisconsin between Prairie duChien and LaCrosse

~ PayPal or checks are accepted (you can use your credit card thru PayPal)

Please phone me to order your seeds. I'll email you a bill and you can pay with your credit card using PayPal, or you can just send a check. WI sales tax is included.

just bluebell pictures + hort info

Basic Horticulture - Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica, are one of the very first species to emerge in spring in the Upper Midwest of the U.S.--so early, in fact, that the plants often get covered with a late snowfall. These tough, perennial woodland natives are treasured by American native plant gardeners because of their beautiful sky-blue flowers--a rare color in spring when yellow seems to be everywhere in the landscape. As spring wears on, bluebell stems gradually droop outwards and the leaves begin to yellow. By late June the mature plants have faded away and will remain dormant until next spring. This ephemeral nature makes Virginia Bluebells perfect for planting in between late-emerging shade plants such as hostas. As beloved as these shade-loving spring natives are, it's impossible to find their seed for sale in garden centers or catalogs. That's because the seeds need to be sown immediately after they are shed by the parent plant and they need to go through a winter chill period just before they sprout the following spring. You'll see plants for sale in nurseries, but since the plants die back early in the summer, the retailers cease carrying them. (Just try selling a one-gallon pot of soil, with no visible life in it, for ten dollars!)

That's a shame, really, because, as any native plant enthusiast will tell you, what lies beneath that seemingly bare pot of soil is a piece of azure blue sky just waiting to burst out the following spring--even bigger and more beautiful than it was the year before. The best bonus of all is that Virginia Bluebells will self-sow over the years. Even though it will take two to four years for your self-sown seeds to mature into blooming plants, the wait is by all means worth it. We gardeners know about patience!
When choosing a location for Virginia Bluebells, keep in mind the conditions under which they typically grow: under trees; along riverbanks; in other forested, moist areas (not swampy); along upper edges of floodplains and riverbottoms; in moist forest edges; and besides brooks and streams. They do very well in moist shade gardens filled with hostas, daffodils, bleeding hearts, and celandine poppies. In fact, most plant books repeat the mantra that they are great companions for hostas, and they are correct! Plant bluebells where they won't be disturbed or mowed until late June. This will give adult plants time to self-seed. With careful attention, you can collect their seeds and plant more colonies of these wonderful plants in other areas of your garden. Here's how.

DETAILED PROPAGATION INFORMATION FOR VIRGINIA BLUEBELLS, FROM SEED

Below is a photo of bluebells that have finished flowering. You can see the spent blossom tips where the seeds are produced (click on picture). Up to four fat, crescent-shaped seeds are produced per flower. It is from plants like these that I collect my seeds in my garden to send to you.

Directions for sowing seeds:
Clear a patch of soil in a moist shaded area. Within two or three days of receipt of your seeds, sprinkle them into that spot. The seeds need to be sown immediately, although they won't actually appear to germinate until early next spring. You can also keep them in moist sterile sand for a little while, at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.

Sow the seeds thinly (6 to12 inches apart), or else you'll feel guilty about how close they are by the second year and you will spend a lot of time transplanting, or god forbid, even plucking. I use the term feel guilty because I consider these to be so precious! You can cover them with a little bit of sand or potting soil to mark the area. Water them, cover them with a few leaves for the rest of the summer, and aside from keeping the area fairly moist, you can forget about them til autumn or early spring.***

MORE SEEDS ARE SHOWN BELOW - CALL FOR AVAILABILITY

The Following Spring:
The tiny seedlings don't have much strength to burst through a mat of wet leaves, so be sure to rake away most of the fallen leaves in the area in late autumn or as soon as the snow melts next spring. The eagerness of the seeds to germinate as soon as the snow melts is amazing, so don't wait too long to rake your leaves!

The seedlings are easy to distinguish: the leaves have a slight bluish/purplish cast. (click on pictures to enlarge.)
You can easily transplant the seedlings while they are in this cotyledon stage. But be sure to do it as early as possible. Any disturbance later in the growing season might cause them to go prematurely dormant for the rest of the year--which is not good, of course; you want them to stay green and happy as long as possible.

You can even transplant a few into pots and coddle them through June with weak liquid fertilizer and plenty of moisture and sunshine. This additional attention might give those plants enough energy to bloom a year earlier than they normally would.

A little bluebell seedling, sporting a flag-like first true leaf, will only be about 2" high by the end of its first spring.

It will take two to three more years for your plants to bloom for the first time. If you fertilize them and keep them moist throughout their first growing season, they might flower sooner.

After mature plants have flowered, the stems begin to droop and the green leaves begin to fade. At this point the seeds will ripen quickly. Watch your plants daily at this stage. Once you notice some of the seeds darkening from green to brown or black, snip off the flower heads into a bucket to catch the seeds before they fall. Your collected seeds will separate from these cut flower heads within a few days as they begin to dry, and any seeds that were still green will mature to black as they dry.
In future years, keep an eye out in your garden each spring for stray, volunteer seedlings. Babies may show up in surprising places!

So! A Virginia Bluebell typically takes three years to bloom from seed. But, oh, those gardeners who appreciate the azure blue of these lovely North American natives don't seem to mind the wait!




*** A slightly more elaborate way to plant your bluebell seeds: Prepare a nursery.
First, rake away all mulch or leaves from a bare, level, moist area. Then lay down a single layer of newspaper and moisten it, and then spread out good, weed-free potting soil about 1" thick over the moistened paper. Sprinkle the bluebell seeds on top of the potting soil, and gently run your hand or a rake over them to bury them a bit, tamp them down lightly, and then gently sprinkle with water. Keep the area fairly moist all throughout this year and into the fall. One way to keep the area moist, and to keep weed seeds from falling on the area during the summer, is to cover with a sheet of plastic and top off with a little mulch (to keep the sun from heating it up). But be sure to remove the mulch and plastic the minute the snow melts next spring because your bluebell seeds will be eager to sprout!

PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR BARE ROOT PURCHASES
I occasionally offer bare root plants at this website. Plant your bluebell roots in groups as soon as you receive them, spacing roots at about 1-2 feet apart. In a couple of years most roots will have multiple stems and you'll be glad you spaced them. If you are not sure how to orient a given root, just plant sideways and you will have good luck. Cover them so the crown is barely covered with soil. If you are planting on a hillside, I suggest you plant them at the top of the grade so that when they eventually set seed most of the seeds will be naturally deposited below the existing plants.

Celandine Poppy - seeds for sale - SPRING 2011
CELANDINE POPPY - Stylophorum diphyllum
Delicate and rare, clear yellow poppy flowers with uniquely-shaped glaucous (bluish) leaves.
The Celandine poppy is a native plant and is a great shade garden plant. It is a long-lived perennial which will re-seed and make more plants for you over time. Mature plants are 12-18 inches tall and 12-16" wide. They are lovely when planted with the sky-blue Virginia Bluebell because they bloom at the same time.

Like the Virginia Bluebell, you won't find Celandine Poppy seeds for sale in garden centers or grocery stores, because the seeds of Celandine poppies must be kept moist and must be planted right away. So they will not survive if they are dried and placed in those seed packets you see for sale on racks in stores. And individual potted plants in garden centers will be $10 each or more --if you can find them. One reason you don't find them for sale very often is that they don't transplant well.

Like the Va. Bluebell, Celandine Poppy seeds won't germinate until the following spring, but most woodland and native-plant gardeners are very aware that patience is a virtue!

The seeds I'm offering for sale are from my own plants which are just beginning to bloom this week... the seeds will likely be ready in late June. I will pack your seeds with moisture, and will mail your seeds to you as soon as they are shed by the plant. You will need to plant them ASAP so they don't get moldy.

TO PLACE AN ORDER:
Call now to order. As soon as the seeds are ready, you will receive 200+ seeds, plus growing instructions, for $20 postpaid. Please phone me, Janet, 608-624-5511 and I will reserve your seeds for you! I will mail the seeds to you, postpaid, as soon as they are shed by the plant.

Note that this offer is only good for a limited time; I do not store seeds here longterm, so you will need to order seeds from me now if you want to get started with this plant!

Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
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CARDINAL FLOWER SEED FOR SALE

~500 Cardinal Flower Seeds $20 postpaid
Sales tax and postage are included in seed price.

Horticulture of
Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
Cardinal flowers are absolute knockouts in the garden or the landscape! The eye-popping red is unlike any other; the intensity is bound to catch not only your eye but also that of hummingbirds, who will set up a territory and fiercely defend their plants!

Cardinal flowers grow easily from seed if you have the right conditions. They enjoy moist soils, and will even tolerate very wet soils that temporarily flood. You will notice them self-sowing in wet and moist areas. If you have drier soils, don't dismay, because you can very easily start plants in flats or pots and then later transplant them into your garden where they will grow very nicely for years to come.

Cardinal flower seeds need to overwinter before they will sprout; seeds that are planted one year will sprout the following summer, and bloom the summer after that. Now you see why cardinal flowers are so rarely found in commercial greenhouses!

Plant the tiny seeds on damp, open ground in late spring or summer, or in pots. Do not cover seeds with soil; simply loosen the soil, then tamp down after sprinkling the seeds. You may want to clip weeds down to the ground that first year as the tiny plants are getting started. Another way to plant your seeds so that weeds won't be such a problem: spread a layer of newspaper and then a one- or two-inch layer of weed-free potting soil on top of your exisiting soil--and THEN sprinkle the seeds on that.
Keep area constantly moist. Seedlings are very tiny at first. If weeds are kept at bay, each cardinal flower seedling will become a 6-inch diameter rosette by late fall. Will bloom the next year and all years thereafter.

Cardinal flowers are technically not perennials. The flowering stem and the roots associated with that stem die after setting seed. But the plant is in effect perennial as long as the lowermost leaves are allowed to grow new offsets from their axils.
Click photo to enlarge.

To facilitate this process and to keep your cardinal flower blooming year after year, keep them free of debris and competition so they will establish those new roots before winter. The low rosettes remain fairly green throughout the winter, ready to sprout their new stems in the spring. They will bloom in July and August, depending where you live.

A group of blooming cardinal flowers looks brilliant when planted in front of a dark background such as evergreens. Cardinal flowers prefer light shade, part to full sun. Zone 3-9. Blooms in late summer and early fall, for 3-4 weeks. 2 to 4 feet. These seeds are tiny, but if you plant them with just a little care, they will deliver a tremendous red glow to your garden or yard for many, many years!

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~500 Cardinal Flower Seeds $20 postpaid
Sales tax and postage are included in seed price.
Janet Wissmann
Please phone me to order seeds. These seeds are available any time of the year.
9am - 9pm CST ~ phone 608-624-5511
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Rare Fuzzy Pink Poppy Seeds For Sale

These beautiful, frilly pink poppies are annuals and easy to grow! Blooming in late June or July, Fuzzy Pink Poppies will reseed themselves each year for a lifetime of garden color. Their clear warm pink is always perfect, especially when paired with light blue delphiniums or a light yellow lily. Fuzzy Pink Poppies do well in all sorts of soils including gravelly soils. Part or full sun. You will receive approximately 100 seeds.

These seeds are available for sale throughout the year.
$5.00 includes postage. Please call to order seeds.

Plant Fuzzy Pink Poppy seeds at any time of the year. They will sprout early the following spring. Poppy plants generally do not like to be moved, so sprinkle the seeds in the location you want them to grow and lightly scratch them into the soil.

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100 Fuzzy Pink Poppy seeds - $5.00 postpaid
sales tax is included

Janet Wissmann ~ PayPal accepted
Soldiers Grove, Southwestern Wisconsin between Prairie duChien and LaCrosse
Please phone me to order seeds.
9am - 9pm CST ~ phone 608-624-5511
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Large-flowered Bellwort Uvularia grandiflora

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Uvularia grandiflora - SEEDS FOR SALE
also known as Merrybells, Large-flowered Bellwort

150 Uvularia grandiflora Seeds $20 postpaid --
Sales tax and postage are included in seed price.
Seeds of Uvularia grandiflora are available in late June. Give me a call in June, and I'll send you seeds as soon as they are shed by the plant.

Large-flowered Bellwort, Merrybells,
Uvularia grandiflora
This closeup of the flower as the plant unfolds in spring shows how Large-flowered Bellwort has a gently drooping appearance, especially early in the season. These plants are in the lily family. They bloom at the same time as Virginia Bluebells and so make a great companion plant, as their soft yellow and light green leaves nicely complement the sky blue of bluebells. Unlike bluebells, the plants will stay green and fairly bushy throughout the summer, and so will fill in where the bluebells have died back. They are an excellent native shade plant for woodland gardens, shaded borders, and wildflower gardens. Their pollen and nectar are utitilized by native Mason Bees and Bumblebees.
Another name for this plant is Merrybells. Some people use the name Wild Oats, but that is the common name for a similar, closely-related species, Uvularia sessilifolia.


Merrybells are good plants for the woodland garden because the foliage stays nice and green throughout the summer months. The leaves tend to begin as a lighter green (left), then eventually go darker as the summer progresses.
These two photos show the ripening seed pod. You can also see the perfoliate nature of the leaves quite well. Click pictures to enlarge.

After you purchase your seeds, plant them as soon as possible. They will sprout the following spring after having been in the ground during the winter. The baby plant will look like a miniature bellwort, only about 1 or two inches high with one to three leaves by the end of the first summer. They will achieve full size in three or four years, and each plant will eventually become as wide as a foot across, with many stems. Just like many native woodland species, Bellwort takes a long time to reach a mature stage, but it is definitely worth the wait!
Uvularia seeds should be planted as soon as possible after they are shed by the plant; they cannot be allowed to dry out. I collect my seeds from my extensive woodland garden, and then immediately pack them in moist sterile sand and mail them to you. Seeds will need to overwinter outdoors in your garden or prepared nursery bed*** before they will sprout. Please call or email to purchase seed; it is available only at certain times of the year.

***seed sowing and bed preparation for Uvularia is similar to that suggested for Virginia Bluebells, above.

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Janet Wissmann ~ PayPal is accepted
Soldiers Grove, Southwestern Wisconsin between Prairie duChien and LaCrosse
9am - 9pm CST ~ phone 608-624-5511
150 Uvularia grandiflora Seeds $20 postpaid --
Sales tax and postage are included in seed price.
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Uvularia canadensis seeds for sale. The common name is Large-flowered Bellwort, or Merrybells. 100 seeds $20.00 postpaid.

Large-flowered Bellwort, Merrybells seeds for sale.
100 seeds $20.00 postpaid. www.thegreenpostbus.blogspot.com
Also available:
Virginia Bluebell seeds for sale (Mertensia virginica)

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Janet L. Wissmann, Watercolorist
Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin
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For Sale: Hand-colored Wildflower Note Cards
Each card is an original work of art!
Hand colored by the artist, Janet Wissmann
A set of 10 assorted cards!

These wildflower notecards are made with four-fold parchment paper and are hand colored by the artist Janet Wissmann. Package of ten includes one of each of the flowers shown: Virginia Bluebells, Purple Coneflower, Snow Trillium, Bloodroot, Yellow Ladyslipper, Dutchman's Breeches, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Hepatica, Large-flowered Bellwort, Shooting Star. You'll love these cards! Blank inside. Package of 10 handcolored wildflower note cards with envelopes: $20.00 plus shipping; 3 packages (30 cards!) for $50. To purchase these little works of art, please email me ».