about

We are a women-owned business started by three friends who met at a local native plant garden club. Together we realized there was a lack of locally grown, native, pesticide-free plants in southeastern Massachusetts, so we decided to do something about it! We specialize in growing native plants from seed whenever possible, so as to encourage genetic diversity, and only straight-species, no ‘cultivars’. We are committed to using environmentally mindful growing practices (see more below).

The three of us bring different strengths to the business, all of which are centered on a passion to educate and share our love of native plants with our local communities. Collectively we have backgrounds in art, education, business, non-profits, farming, and medicine. We believe in leading by example using sustainable practices in our homes as well as our business, and our commitment to increasing bio-diversity and restoring our local ecosystems drive our daily actions and long-term goals.

We are so excited to begin this journey, and we would love for you to join us. Grab a shovel, let’s go! We have some planting to do!

Cheers,

Kristen, Jasmin, and Britt

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P.S. Why "Blue Stem"? We all REALLY love Little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium, a fabulous native grass.

Our commitment to the environment

As nurserymen...scratch that...as nurserywomen, We are dedicated to being ecologically mindful while minimizing environmental impact.  In fact, we are proud that our plants improve air, water, wildlife habitat, and communities. Here are a few of our commitments: ​

• Reducing and eliminating peat from our growing medium. We use sustainable coconut coir rather than peat. Peat bogs are the largest natural area of sequestered carbon in the world. These bogs hold twice as much carbon than all of the forests put together! Harvesting of peat releases carbon and depletes the bogs, contributing greatly to climate change. Peat moss takes thousands of years to be produced by nature and is therefore not sustainable in a nursery setting.  We aren't 100% peat-free yet as it's a challenge to find a peat-free growing medium, however, we are at least 95% peat-free this year, and continue to search for more sustainable growing mediums.

• Absolutely avoiding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The traditional nursery trade is rife with chemicals. For the environment, wildlife, and for people, we will not use these. When our plants need a little help while growing in their limited containers we turn to Neptune's Harvest organic seaweed fertilizer. You can read more about this great business here.

• Reducing the plastic consumption that has been a hallmark of the nursery trade. We source our pots carefully, considering different criteria. Some of the criteria we look at:

  • made from post-consumer materials

  • recycled 

  • reusable

  • compostable

• You can find more information about our pots on plant pages (e.g. perennials, shrubs, etc). We strive to avoid single-use plastics as much as possible. We will also gladly welcome back and reuse any of our pots when you are done with them (sorry, we don't accept any outside pots). You can drop off empty pots at any of our farmer's market events. In the future, once we have a permanent location we will have a pot drop-off spot.

• We source our seed only from reputable sources, and as locally as possible. On each plant's page, you can see that we list the plant's original seed origins. In addition, we occasionally buy plugs (essentially hardy seedlings) from a wholesale nursery. We pot these plugs up into large pots and grow them out so they will be ready for your projects quicker. The plug growers also do not use any neonicotinoids or pesticides.