Vermont

• Green Mountain Transplants, Inc.

• Windham Wildflowers

GREEN MOUNTAIN TRANSPLANTS, INC.
RR 1, P.O. Box 6C, East Montpelier, VT 05651
802-454-1533; fax 802-454-1204
Dexter R. Merritt

Vegetable and flower seedlings.  Business hours April though June, Monday to Friday 8:3O-5. Saturday 9-noon. Fax open 24 hours. Greenhouses open in June to clear stock. Free catalog. Mail order. E-mail: GMThnspl@aol.com. Web site: www.gmtransplants.com.

Green Mountain Transplants Is a seasonal nursery specializing in vegetable and flower seedlings grown in its northern Vermont greenhouses. Its seedlings (called transplants) come in 38- and 7²-cell flats, shipped to customers from late April through June. Each seedling has a developed root ball and (in the 38-cell flats) soil volume about equal to a 21/2-inch pot. In effect, Green Mountain allows gardeners to oversee the last stage of seedling growth them­selves, rather than paying a retailer to finish plants for them. These seedlings transplant easily, and quickly catch up to garden center plants. The only hard part of Green Mountain’s system is completing the order blank, which requires figuring out which plants come in 38-cell packs, which come in ⁷²-cell packs, and which have a small per-plant surcharge.

While different varieties can be mixed within a single flat, glitches may occur with orders that are too complicated. To ensure timely delivery, we strongly recommend that simple, straightforward orders be placed early; remain free of alteration; and specify “no substitutions.” Be warned that the green­house staff is nearly impossible to communicate with during shipping season. Within these limitations, Green Mountain offers an excellent way to acquire spring vegetable and flower gardens at a surprisingly modest cost, without the trouble and mess of sprouting seeds under grow-lights in the basement.

Green Mountain’s catalog lists more than 650 varieties of vegetable and flower seedlings. Many are the kind of plants offered in six-packs by good garden centers. Vegetables include squashes, peppers, onions, tomatoes, melons, strawberries, asparagus, and more than 40 culinary herbs. Less common vegetables are also offered, such as celerlac, kohlrabi, okra, tomatillo, rhubarb, and sweet potato. The tomato list includes gold and purple tomatoes, heirlooms such as ~Brandywine’ and ‘Arnish Paste’, and a compact European variety called ‘Window Box’. The chili pepper selection ranges from warm ‘Hungarian Wax’ to ultra-hot ‘Red Habanero’. We especially liked all the lovely lettuces: red butterheads, green crispheads, frilly red Italians, and a green romaine with red freckles, called ‘Freckles’.

Green Mountain seedlings also include flower varieties, old and new. Among the annuals are good choices of impatiens, fuchsia, salvia, and verbena, and some interesting trailers and vines. A number of these have won AAS awards. We par­ticularly liked the broad selection of petunias (grandifiora, multiflora, millifiora, and trailing) and geraniums (zonal, ivy, and cranesbill), grown by the nursery from cuttings and seed. Perennial seedlings include yarrow, columbine, campanula, coreopsis, delphinium, dianthus, daylily, hosta, phlox, poppy, sedum, and veronica. An uncommon flower occasionally appears, such as the azalea-flowered snapdragon. The list includes some good ground-cover plants.

Green Mountain will custom-grow any vegetable or flower variety in a 38-cell flat (one variety per flat) if the customer provides or pays for the seed. We once tried this with a flat of Cerinthe major purpurascens, a dazzling container plant with blue foliage and purplish bracts. It would have worked beautifully if we had not been out of town when the plants arrived; as it was, half of the plants survived, which still made them a bargain. We recommend custom orders only to gardeners with stable schedules.

Green Mountain’s catalog consists of 50 pages of newsprint, listing flowers and vegetables by common name. Besides seedling flats, the catalog offers supplies such as plastic mulch, drip-irri­gation tools, and harvest baskets. Certified seed potatoes are sold in 5- and 50-pound bags, and onions and leeks in 288-cell flats or 25-plant bunches. Lily bulbs will accompany any trans­plant order at bargain rates. Orders are due by April 1 to guarantee spring delivery; anything later risks disappointment.

Although Green Mountain operates almost exclusively by mail-order, the greenhouses in East Montpelier are open to customers in June to clear out the remaining stock, They are located off the main highway, and getting there involves a windswept trip through dairy-farm country laced with mountain views.

Directions: Call for hours in June. From 1-91, take exit 21 onto Route 2 west, in East Montpelier, turn right onto Route 114 north, in about a mile, look for greenhouses on the right, behind some apple trees. Alternatively, from Route 89, take exit 8 onto Route 2 east. Turn left onto Route 114 north and follow directions above.

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WINDHAM WILDFLOWERS
P.O. Box 207, Westminster Station, VT 05159 (802) 387-4096
Ruth Vroman Gorius

Natural wildflower seeds.  Free catalog. Mail order. No visiting hours. CD-ROM pictorial plant encyclopedia. E-mail: cj@flowerseeds.com. Web site: www.flowerseeds.com.

Windham Wildflowers sells all-natural wildflower seed grown in the Vermont garden of Ruth Vroman Gorius, an experienced old-timer, formerly of Putney Nursery. Gorius says she began selling wildflower seed as “my answer to the many exotic wild plants Vermont would not allow us to mail.” The nursery’s brief “old tyme catalog” lists seed for 144 native wildflowers (for sun and shade), hybrid perennials, and alpines. Native seeds include Jack-In-the-pulpit, wild leek, wild bergamot, shooting star, Bowman’s-root, blue cohosh, and wild sarsaparilla. as well as many common meadow plants beloved of wildlife. Alpines include edelweiss, alpine poppy, sea pink, and a saxifrage mix.

Windham Wildflowers’ seed is sold by mail or through the Web site; many varieties are unobtainable from commercial seed sources. Seed is sold in indi­vidual packets or by the ounce (enough to cover 60 square feet). The nursery concocts unique seed mixtures for perennial wildflowers, cut flowers, butterfly and hummingbird attractants, and woodland perennials native to New England. A CD-ROM pictorial encyclopedia of 100 wildflowers is produced by the nursery. Seed orders are accompanied by homey wisdom from Ruth Gorius, including her endorsement of “scarecrows and cats” as effective plant guardians.

Nearby attractions: Alternative sources for mail-order seed in Vermont are High Mowing Organic Seed Farm, RR 1, Box 95, Derby Line, VT 05830 (802-89.5-4 696) (heirloom and open-pollinated vegetable seed), and Le Jardin do Gourmet, P0. Box 75, St. Johnsbury Center, VT 05863 (802-748-1446) (flower, vegetable, and herb seed; shallot bulbs). The Vermont Wildflower Farm, P0. Box 6, Charlotte, VT 05445 (800-424-1165) keeps a signposted wildflower meadow on Route 7 in Charlotte (visitors welcome); despite its name, this seed house is affiliated with a large horticultural enterprise in Missouri and its seed orders processed by a call center in Peoria, Illinois.

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