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Halloween Housekeeping

It’s certainly been an energetic October here at Pleasant Run.  We’ve been busier than ever, traveling state to state promoting our humble New Jersey grown container plants, hitting record sales back at home, and pushing ourselves beyond the limits of exhaustion.  Amidst the chaos, glimmers of beauty remind us why we’ve found ourselves in this green world to begin with. Chilly, misty mornings with dapples of the first sunrays lighting up the scarlets, burgundies, saffrons, chartreuses, and marmalades of the inward-turning trees reveal secret jewels nestled away from the brisk autumn air.

By Kate Irvine Read More

Shade Tree Season

With the advent of cooler weather and the forever-disorienting shorter daylight hours (I don’t know about you, but waking up well before the sun has never been my thing), the woodlands surrounding Pleasant Run have finally begun their autumnal transition en masse. You may remember when we highlighted the scarlet foliage of early transitioner Nyssa sylvatica a couple of weeks ago, delighting in a massive 40’ specimen found along the nursery periphery.

By Kate Irvine Read More

The Wild & Wonderful White Wood Aster

Somewhat accidentally, I’ve been noticing an abundance of white wood asters lately. Maybe it’s just a really good year for them, or maybe they’re popping up at a time when I need to see a bright, cheery, daisy-like flower the most. Versatile and found on nearly every continent, asters have been a symbol of renewal, hope, and fidelity across florilateral cultures, or those that place reverence in flowers and the messages they are emblematic of (yes, I made “florilateral” up just now, but spell check didn’t correct me and it just felt right). From my own backyard in the shady clay-soil suburbs to the naturalized preserved lands with reclaimed and aggregated soil around Pleasant Run, it seems Eurybia divaricata is experiencing something of a boom, and deserves to be venerated as such.

By Kate Irvine Read More