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It's not even officially summer yet, but we're already thinking ahead to fall, picturing our front porches overflowing with autumn accents from our garden. Imagine bountiful vignettes of voluptuous
Pumpkins, colorful
Ornamental Corn, festive
Gourds and pots of frilly
Ornamental Kale. Beautiful! We're thinking of dried blooms for bouquets, too--how wonderful would it be to have flowers from your garden all winter long?
Luckily for us, we can grow all of these lovely things in our gardens right now! All of the flowers, foliage and ornamental veggies featured below prefer to be sown directly into garden beds in late spring for harvest in late summer and early fall--just in time for trick-or-treaters and Thanksgiving guests.
It may seem difficult to think of fall when summer's barely begun, but you'll be so happy you did come October!
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A Cornucopia of Autumn Accents
You'll have an especially festive fall with these wonderful decorations from your garden.
**All seed counts are approximate.**
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120-135 days. Lagenaria siceraria. Once mature and dried, hardshells can last indefinitely. This lovely mix contains the varieties Apple, Baby Bottle, Birdhouse, Martinhouse, Bushel, Cucuzzi, Long Handle Dipper, Maranka, Speckled Swan, Snake and Bottle. (OP.)
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Brassica oleracea. Prized in fall garden borders, window boxes and containers, Ornamental Kale is a hardy decorative annual that can last all winter in temperate climates. Growing to 12" in diameter, Nagoya Red has flouncy, ruffled green foliage with
a unique, magenta heart. (F1.)
A pack of 100 seeds is $3.95.
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110-120 days. Cucurbita maxima. Treasured for its bright orange flesh, sweet flavor and firm, slightly dry texture, this heirloom Pumpkin has a flattened oval shape and a tough, creamy-white rind that makes it a legendary keeper. Give the vigorous plants lots of room as they grow. (OP.)
A pack of 15 seeds is $3.75.
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110-120 days. This Australian beauty is shamrock-shaped with deep lobes and a very hard, shiny bluish-green skin. Its orange flesh is thick, succulent and sweet. (OP.)
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Physalis alkekengi var. franchetti.
A Tomatillo relative, Chinese Lanterns are prized for their decorative, bright orange pods.
Late summer/fall flowering. Height: 1' to 2'.
A pack of 300 seeds is $3.55.
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Brassica oleracea.
Stately Redbor is a tall, frost-resistant variety with striking, dark wine-red leaves that darken in color as fall temperatures drop. Height: 14" to 18".
A pack of 75 seeds is $4.75.
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New! 100 days. Glass Gem is the rock star of the ornamental corn world. The translucent kernels look like colorful glass beads and, while they make for wonderful autumn displays, they can also be popped or ground. Height: 6' to 9'.
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90-100 days. Cucurbita pepo. Your children can paint faces on these cuties, you can use them for tabletop or mantle fall decorations and you can bake or roast them in much the same way as you would miniature Acorn Squash. (F1)
A pack of 20 seeds is $3.75.
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90-110 days. Cucurbita moschata. Fairytale is as beautiful as it is delicious. It is a squat, deeply lobed beauty from the south of France ranging from 12" to 18" in diameter and up to 20 pounds in shades of burnt sienna on 10' -long vines. (OP.)
A pack of 15 seeds is $3.75.
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120-135 days. Lagenaria siceraria. A large hardshell-type shaped like a bottle with a long neck, this 10" to 12" long gourd makes one fabulous....you guessed it, birdhouse.
Cure gourds thoroughly until the Gourds are light and the seeds rattle inside the shells. (OP.)
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60 days. Brassica oleracea. This unique heirloom Kale is prized for its phenomenal color, size and leaf texture. The heavily savoyed, crinkled leaves grow as long as 18". The leaf color is practically indescribable, but deep silvery grey/blue/green comes close. (OP.)
A pack of 220 seeds is $3.45.
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100-120 days. Cucurbita pepo. This exciting, rare mixture is from Bob Koennders at Michigans Backyard Bouquet Farm. It contains unique varieties with ornate patterns, colors, shapes and sizes that bare little semblance to their Pumpkin parents. (OP.)
A pack of 20 seeds is $4.95.
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Brassica oleracea.
Celebrate the beginning of the cozy fall season with our new mixture of Ornamental Kale. It includes frilly, ruffled and round-leaf varieties in the classic color combinations of green with white hearts or green with magenta-pink hearts.
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90-100 days. Cucurbita pepo. Small o
rnamentals come in many shapes and sizes. So colorful! Our mix includes: Nest Egg, Baby Boo, Cou-Tors Native, Small Bicolor, Small Pear Bicolor, Small Orange, Small Warts and the Ten Commandments. (OP.)
A pack of 60 seeds is $3.35.
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90-100 days. Cucurbita maxima. This French heirloom produces a flattened globe with peach skin sprinkled with peanut-shaped warts. 10- to 20- pounds each, Gauleux d'Eysines has fragrant orange flesh that is silky, moist, exceptionally sweet. (OP.)
A pack of 20 seeds is $3.95.
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Flowers to Dry for Winter Bouquets
Enjoy flowers from your garden all year long with these blooms that dry beautifully for everlasting arrangements.
**All seed counts are approximate.**
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New! Lagurus ovatus. This adorable grass's tidy clumps of upright blades yield stems of irresistibe, ivory flowers that can be enjoyed for weeks in place, and then cut either fresh or dried to add to arrangements.
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Echinops ritro.
This is a striking, 48"-tall plant with spikey, 2" globes that mature to bright blue.
Deer-resistant, easy to grow and drought resistant, it's invaluable in gardens and in fresh and dried bouquets.
A pack of 100 seeds is $3.55.
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Nigella damascena. Nigella is an easy-to-grow heirloom with star-shaped flowers, spindly foliage and dramatic seed pods that are widely revered in dried arrangements.
Our mix includes the white, blue and rose-pink.
A pack of 400 seeds is $3.35.
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Celosia plumosa. Celosia is wonderful for fresh and dried bouquets. Our Century Plume Celosia Mixture yields a flock of exotic, fluffy, feathered plumes in cream, orange, rose, scarlet, yellow and vibrant red.
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New! Briza maxima. This little grass's delicate stems support dancing wands of irridescent green, pointed rattlesnake tails, often with pink shoulders. They are wonderful in fresh and dried bouquets.
A pack of 200 seeds is $3.95.
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New! Xeranthemum annuum. A dream in dried flower arrangements, Immortelle is an excellent everlasting with daisy-like flowers.
Our mix is a medley of double flowers in shades of pink and white.
A pack of 400 seeds is $3.55.
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Lunaria annua. Money Plant's pink or white flowers transform into seed pods that are flattened and the size and shape of a silver dollar. They dry from green to shimmering silver and are wonderful in dried flower arrangements.
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Celosia cristata, the Cockscomb. Taller than most other Cockscomb varieties, Triangle has wavy, inverted triangular flowers up to 2 1/2" long in yellow, orange, pink, rose and red. It is ideal for both display and cutting gardens.
A pack of 200 seeds is $3.75.
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New! Reseda odorata. M
ignonette has plump, dense spires of chartreuse and white flowers that fade to cream and are intensely fragrant, with a sweet and spicy scent. Even dried, the flowers retain their fragrance for several months.
A pack of 100 seeds is $3.45.
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We share our best-of-the-best
recipes
in our online cookbook so you can feed your family and friends well without feeling frenzied, and practical, hands-on
Horticultural Tips
to demystify gardening with seeds. It's not tricky or difficult: it's more like easy magic.
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[email protected]
or call us at (860) 567-6086. Lance Frazon, our seed specialist, is happy to help you in any way possible. He loves to talk seeds.
23 Tulip Drive * PO Box 638 * Bantam, CT 06750
Phone: (860) 567-6086 * Fax: (860) 567-5323
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