Bare Root Plants for Sale
Thank you for your interest and happy growing!
PLEASE READ: If you are local or regional to the Finger Lakes area (able to pick up in person), feel free to reach out to hello@edibleacres.org with a clear wish list of plants and we will work to arrange a pickup.
We update our inventory on March 1st for Spring bare root sales and September 1st for Fall bare root sales. If you are visiting this page and see everything as sold out, please make a note in your calendar to revisit at our next ‘opening’ and pick up some lovely plants!
Our Fall offerings tend to have higher numbers of trees, shrubs, cuttings and a medley of our abundant and fall appropriate herbaceous perennials. Spring offerings will generally have more herbaceous perennials, grasses, etc and a smaller number of trees and shrubs. We weight our inventory in large part based on seasonal appropriateness for establishment. We hope you understand and visit again if you don’t find what you are looking for this time.
If you are super eager to get plants now, we now have a Permaculture Nursery page that lists friends of ours with ethical and thoughtful growing practices. We strongly encourage you to check them out and get some awesome plants from them too!
TIP: Use the tags above to help filter our offerings by characteristic (ie. click on ‘fruit’ to find any fruit bearing plants we offer, etc.) As we add more and more it is a helpful way to find a plant to fit your goals…
Senna - Wild Senna
Senna - Wild Senna
Senna Hebecarpa - also called Cassia Hebecarpa
Senna is a stunningly beautiful member of the nitrogen fixing Fabaceae family. We grow a very hardy and native ‘Wild Senna’ that has tolerated seriously challenging growing seasons with grace and vigor. It handled the driest growing season on record 2 years ago with no problems, came back easily after -15F winters, and produces incredibly beautiful, blemish free foliage and show stopping flowers every year. All while conferring what seems to be a potent force field of deer resistance. We’ve been trialling it in areas exposed to heavy deer browse and so far it has performed incredibly well in the dual task of feeding nitrogen to host trees and protecting them from deer damage (no promises, just sharing what we’re seeing!)
The heavy flower set begins in later July for us and provides a relished nectar flow for honey and bumble bees. It can be chop and dropped as needed for mulch and to keep it in check around smaller plants, and can be grown very easily from seed (can expand on it’s own in the landscape if all seed is allowed to drop!). Very reliable, predictable and beautiful herbaceous perennial N-fixer here. We love it.
This is also the source of the medicine Senna from what we understand but we haven’t tried to work with it this way.
We’re observing that Senna seed allowed to drop in the garden can come up with healthy vigor the following year. This can be a wonderful benefit if you want it, or a challenge if you are hoping for one Senna in one place. If you’d prefer the latter, plan to cut back mature seed heads late summer/early fall. Dry those seeds and save them so you can choose where to have hundreds more Senna’s later! :) A soak in nice warm water for a day in the spring and they should germinate very readily for you.
Size:
Tops out roughly 4’ to 5’ and can be pretty wide and may need support or to be pruned later season
Site Preference:
Prefers full sun but we’re seeing it stand some decent shade, too. As a pioneer species it is adapted best to full sun and doesn’t need amazing soil.
Hardiness:
Zone 4
Note:
When you get plant material from us, Senna can look pretty sad as a dormant, bare root plant. Having naturally pure black roots and a stem that dies back to the ground each year, it may seem your new Senna is DOA! Dig a nice hole, spread out the roots and plant it out in a nice open position, with some mulch. Be patient as Senna takes a while to emerge, but trust that your new friend should grow wonderfully for you!
