A Tour of New Moon Nursery

Being a member of the New Jersey Native Plant Society came with an unexpected perk this year. They held a fund raiser where we got to tour New Moon Nursery. They're a wholesale nursery native plant nursery, family run, started back in 2003. They do dabble in a few nonnatives but only under contract.

Before then the property used to be a chicken farm, and you can sort of see it in some of the buildings. Also they keep a couple dozen chickens around.

This is their shipping department, which was I believe they said were originally chicken cages from floor to ceiling. Basically one day a week, they go out and collect the flats to plants customers have ordered. They then take empty trays and assemble the orders from these flats and load them up into trucks or set them aside for customers to arrive and pick up.

It's at this point in the tour that we were given our free reign to fill up a flat of our own with with up to 50 plants, including a few things they had listed as limited supply and not available! The only real restriction was they had to be plug sized. This was a gift for just a $100 donation to the NJ Native Plant Society made well in advance. The nursery has 5 heated greenhouses, 10 row cover house, and a few outside areas filled with several hundred species of plants. Basically everything was up for grabs!

The tour continued into the greenhouses where they showed us how they start up seedlings in trays. I found it neat to learn they then take small cuttings of the seedlings after they germinate and root them to double plant production. The end product still maintains genetic diversity and they're able to mass produce cultivars that way.

Seedlings were a small part of the overall products they had. Pretty much everywhere else had hundreds of trays of plugs that we were free to take. It was actually fun just walking around the greenhouses, letting your hands glide across warm season grasses, rushes, Amsonia, and other perennials.

Around back they had an area setup for shade plants. These were mostly sedges which are more cold and shade tolerant than most grasses. They are also larger than plug size and thus not up for grabs, though each species was represented in the greenhouses where we were free to take them.

There was a small garden area back here where one native plant stole the show.

Spigelia marilandica, Indian Pink, is a shade plant with a brilliant red and yellow flower. Despite the slight warning "It will spread on you," this perennial remains one of the more expensive and in high demand native plants around. This is something of a contradiction that I don't know the answer to. (Probably should have asked while I was there, whoops.) I think the demand is created by the fact that so few growers grow the plant.

Around the front was the Pièce de résistance. This is where most of their plants are kept that are ready for sale. At this point the tour basically fell apart as everyone went and started filling up their trays.

Naturally I'm drawn to what brings in the pollinators, and this time it was a surprising number of cultivars. 

I had to just marvel at the number of Scoliid Wasps on their goldenrod they had. There must have been a thousand of them on this one patch.


Two Hours Later, here's what I brought home:

5 Helianthus angustifolius, my favorite Swamp Sunflower.
5 Spigelia marilandica, Indian Pink.
5 Senecio aureus, Golden Ragwort, which I'm trying out in the meadow garden.
5 Sedum ternatum, Stonecrop, which I'm giving a try for the first time.
5 Symphyotrichum laevis 'Bluebird', which I've seen in action among black eyed susans and they look great together. 
5 Symphyotrichum oblongifolius 'October Skies' which I have blooming now in nice fluffy domes of flowers out in the meadow.
5 Symphyotrichum noave-angliae 'Purple Dome'. This New England Aster is a compact cultivar, similar to S. oblongifolius.  I was going to alternate this with 'October Skies' to make a boarder.
5 Caltha palustris, Marsh Marigold, I've been trying to establish for years now and think I have a spot it might like to grow. 
5 Sisyrinchium angustifolium, Blue-eyed Grass.
2 Eurybia spectabilis, Showy Aster, was a last second decision. The flowers are larger than most Asters and certainly are showy, but I recall the overall plant not being that impressive.
3 Chrysogonum virginianum 'Superstar'. This is a selection of Green and Gold which is another first for my yard. It's a shade loving ground cover that blooms from April into June.

All and all I'd say it was a great trip.


Also Photographed:
In the cardboard are plants from Bluestone Perennials.
3 Solidago 'Fireworks'
3 New England Aster 'September Ruby'
I bought these two because they flower together and I love the combination of red and yellow.
(Also not photographed are a few dozen Tulipa clusiana 'Lady Jane' bulbs which I'm giving a try next year. I'm curious to see if species tulips are better at attracting pollinators.)


And a native Pitcher Plant which had some Sundews flowering in the moss. This came as a free gift from Aquascapes Unlimited. 

Chicken Coop Anyone?

This seems like a nice compact way of raising chickens.

Now if only it wasn't five hundred dollars. I'm sure it could be built for much less but it's a neat design to keep in mind when designing a coop.

We used to have a rooster back when my dad did Animal Control. Actually we had two but they were on separate occasions. They're a lot bigger then I was expecting and they actually did the rooster cry in the early morning hours. But it lacked the alarm clock quality I came to expect. (Our neighbors may have had a different experience though.) Maybe he was just defective.

Our cats were fascinated at first by the giant bird. I recall our youngest cat at the time actually jumping on top of the bird and biting down. This may have been effective had the cat actually managed to get onto of the bird or gone for it's neck. As it was though the juvenile kitten was only a fourth the bird's size. The Rooster quickly beat poor Buddy to the ground squawking ensued as the he was chased out of the yard. Buddy stopped after crawling under the fence thinking he was safe. The Rooster flew up onto our fence and continued the chase into the front yard.

We found him moments later clawing at the front door to get in. The Rooster slowly came into view down the driveway with his beak in a threatening hiss-like pose.

We kept the Rooster for a few weeks until my dad found a suitable home for it. A farm or animal shelter I imagen. A lot of the shelters here seem to have collections of odd animals. Peacocks, and Horses are at the bottom of the list. Exotic Snakes, Chinchillas, and Alligators are more commonly encountered then you would expect. Coming home to find a baby Alligator in our bathtub was another thrill but uneventful.

We had a Turkey once too. I don't know how but I believe it needed to be rescued or removed from someone's home or something like that. So my dad brought it home and put it in our dog kennel/cage. It's was a 12 by 9 area with a doghouse in it, of fenced in area with no roof. Having never had a turkey before we didn't realize it could simply fly out. Despite dragging a gowned of tail feathers behind it they can fly incredible distances.

My dad and I were doing things outside when we realized the bird was now on top of the doghouse. "How did he jump that high?" I recall one of us saying. We went back to doing whatever and next I recall hearing a tree branch loudly rustling from the Willow Oak right above the cage. "Where did the bird go?" I recall saying.

The turkey, now having enough elevation to take flew from the trees and over our neighbors privacy fence. It's wings flapped now flapping, my dad and I watched in awe as the bird started gliding two blocks over before finally crashing into the dark thatch of a 60 foot tall evergreen. It's branches shook as if massive gale of wind had struck the tree.

I ran to the person's house while my dad got into his Animal Control Vehicular. He needed to load up some things quickly so I arrived at the house first. "Uhh there is a Turkey in your tree." I said laughing at how stupid it sounded. The owner rolled his eyes (I think) and closed the door. I don't think he believed me. Having told him though, I went right into his backyard. The tree was somewhat unique so my dad had no trouble finding the place. He showed up with a ladder and a control pole. The Owner of the house eventually came outside when he saw my dad prodding his tree. The Turkey within, clumsily bumbled it's way down and went quietly after that.