Fraser’s Thimble Farm 175 Arbutus Rd. Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 1A3 Canada Ph/ Fax(250) 537-5788 Specializing in Native, Rare and Unusual Plants at www.thimblefarms.com Hours of Operation: Open 9am-4:30pm daily March 1st through August September through February open Tuesday through Saturday 9am-4:30pm Welcome to our 2018 catalogue. We have been working hard all fall and winter cleaning , dividing, potting and inventorying plants to get ready for spring. We have a smattering of new plants throughout the nursery including Hostas, Hepaticas, Hellebores, Peonies and many more to add to our selection in the coming months, if mother nature cooperates. We made it through another dry summer and would again like to thank all those who have shown support for our water issues, particularly the Friends of Thimble Farm. We were able to add an additional 15,000 gallons of storage due to their efforts. We spent a good deal of time propagating this last year and will soon start seeing an increase in seed grown offers. For example, a great selection of new species primulas was sown so now we hope for good germination and will add them to the new plants list as they are ready. Our first major event in 2018 will be ‘Helleborganza’(Hellebores), March 1st-March 31st. Helleborganza is our celebration of hellebores and other early blooming perennials including species snowdrops, flowering cherry trees, Adonis and double hepaticas to name a few. We expect an excellent display from our hepaticas this season as we had great growth last year. We are absolutely hellebore crazy and love to see the reaction of people (especially those new to hellebores) when they see the incredible diversity in both blooms and foliage at a time of year when we can all use more colour in our gardens. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the dedicated hellebore breeders around the world who have toiled over the last twenty odd years to bring us so many fine plants. The event will run over a month this year as every day more and more plants come into bloom. As we did last year, we will also offer an assortment of smaller and larger plant sizes. Please see our website, www.thimblefarms.com for mouth watering pictures. This year we have increased our numbers in the varieties and strains we believe have the best flower colour and put on the best show, like the Winter Jewels strains. Discounts and specials will be offered at the nursery at this time. We would like to offer a PDF version of the catalogue via email as well as occasional emails about new offerings. If you would like to receive these emails please see the instructions on page two. New plants will be posted on our Facebook page as well as a new page on our web site called ‘New Plants’ before being posted in the main listing of the website. This way we will be able to post new plants throughout the year. There are new plant introductions scattered throughout the catalogue in almost every group of plants we grow. Please keep in mind we have thousands more plants available at the nursery (not listed on the website) including a huge selection of nursery stock, annuals, hanging baskets and one of the most diverse offerings of food producing plants anywhere. We would like to thank our customers, staff and suppliers for another great year and we’re looking forward to a sensational 2018, Thank you and happy planting, Richard and Nancy Fraser 1 Fraser’s Thimble Farm 175 Arbutus Rd. Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 1A3 Canada Ph/ Fax(250) 537-5788 Specializing in Native, Rare and Unusual Plants at www.thimblefarms.com Email list Get on our email list! If you would like to receive our catalogue as a pdf via email, please send an email to [email protected] with ‘pdf catalogue’ in the subject header. If you would like to receive periodic updates on the new plants available, email [email protected] with ‘New plants’ in the subject header. The advantages to being on the email list is that you will be alerted to additions to our plant offerings. By changing to an email and web site only catalogue we will be free to offer more plants to our customers more often. Thank you, Richard and Nancy Fraser Coming to the Nursery? Table of Contents Hardy Orchids ............................................................................ 3 The fastest way is a ferry from Ferns ........................................................................................... 8 Tsawwassen ( Near Vancouver) to Perennial Plants ......................................................................... 15 Swartz Bay( Near Victoria) then Grasses and grass like plants and Bamboo ................................ 62 Shrubs ....................................................................................... 64 another from Swartz Bay to Fulford Vines ......................................................................................... 70 Harbour ( Salt Spring). This is not Helleborganza & all things Hellebore .. ………………………...35 Deciduous and Evergreen Trees ............................................... 71 your only option as there are three Mail Order Information ........................................................ 75-78 ferry routes to SaltSpring Island so Where is Thimble Farms? ...................................................... 1&2 for Ferry information phone What to do when my order arrives ............................................ 74 1-888-223-3779 Or go to www.bcferries.com Table I. Hardiness Zones used in this catalogue. Temperatures are average winter lows. Fahrenheit Zone Celsius ___________________________________ below -50 1 below -45 -50 to -40 2 -45 to -40 -40 to -30 3 -40 to -34 -30 to -20 4 -34 to -29 -20 to -10 5 -29 to -23 -10 to 0 6 -23 to -17 0 to 10 7 -17 to -12 10 to 20 8 -12 to -7 20 to 30 9 -7 to -1 30 to 40 10 -1 to 5 2 Hardy Orchids Hardy Orchids Bletilla `Penway Paris’ (striata x szetschuanica) ................ $15.99ea Z5-6. Rose purple petals, sepals and lip with white keels on lip. This includes a diverse group of ground orchids from around the world. Some of these groups are relatively easy to grow like the Bletilla `Penway Princess’ (formosana x yunnanensis) $15.99ea Bletilla and Pleiones and some are more challenging like the Z5-6. Light rose pink sepals and petals, darker on the reverse. Lip Cypripediums. The cultural requirements for most of these orchids are spotted red and yellow with purple red margin. similar. They require well drained but moist soil when in active growth and excellent (almost dry) drainage in the winter when dormant. Light shade or partial sun works well. Bletilla are more Bletilla `Yokohama’ (striata x formosana) .......................... $12.99ea tolerant of varying soil conditions and require more sun than other Z 5-6. Pale lilac petals and sepals, throat yellow with lilac markings. species. Makes a nice clump in only a few years. Amitostigma kinnoshitae .................................................... $12.00ea Bletilla Yokahama Kate .................................................... $12.00ea Ht. 10-5cm. Z5. Lovely little new orchid from Northern Japan. The Ht. 50-100cm. Z5. A vigorous selection with light pink flowers with flower stalk arise from the tiniest tuber bearing showy white flowers. yellow markings on the lips and a darker pink trim. These seem to multiple fast to form a clump. Plant in semishade with good drainage . Bletilla Calanthe This is a large group of hardy and semi-hardy ground orchids from This is a wonderful group of easy to grow hardy ground Orchids. Asia. Most can be grown in the garden but the frost tender species These are best planted 5cm deep in light shade to full sun in a well should be brought indoors. They prefer a lightly shaded woodland drained humus-rich soil. In colder areas (Zone 5-6) they need to be setting with humus rich soil. Most spread quite rapidly, and are planted 10-15cm deep and in yet colder areas they can easily be grown extremely showy and rare in North America. Great companion plants in pots indoors or in an alpine house. for Ferns, Hostas, and Bleeding Hearts. These like to be fed a lot with a weak solution of liquid fertilizer while in active growth. Bletilla striata ....................................................................... $6.00ea Ht. 20-40cm. Z5-6. This hardy ground orchid has long, arching Calanthe aristulifera ............................................................ $33.00ea ribbed leaves and soft rose to magenta erect inflorescence of up to 10 Ht. 30-45cm. Z7. From Kyushu Island in Japan comes this beauty flowers. with spikes of large, soft pink flowers. Bletilla striata Big Bob ...................................................... $12.00ea Calanthe bicolor ................................................................... $20.00ea Ht. 50-90cm. Z5. A large, tall growing, vigorous selection of the Ht. 30cm. Z7. Similar to C.discolor in habit. Flower has a golden species. yellow, deeply cleft lip, occasionally marked with deep red. Upper petals are orange brown. Fragrant flowers in early summer. Bletilla striata Kuchibeni Crimson Mouth Bletilla ............ $12.00ea Ht. 20-40cm. Z5-6. A new selection with soft pale pink flowers with Calanthe discolor ................................................................. $15.00ea white ruffled lip crests that are infused with deep pink-purple at the Ht. 30cm. Z6. One of the hardiest species from Japan with spikes of mouth. bicolored flowers, usually purple-brown on top and white below. Easy in humus rich soil in shade to part sun. Bletilla striata ` Soryu’