Stories

Potatoes are one of the most rewarding crops to grow. With their diverse range of varieties and often generous yields, potatoes are ideal for adding home-grown goodness to the plate! Baker Creek offers both typical seed potatoes as well as micro tubers. Let’s discuss their differences and similarities so you can decide which ones to grow.  
 

Seed Potatoes, Not Potato Seeds?  

Potatoes will not produce true seeds and therefore are typically propagated clonally from pieces of sprouted potato tuber saved from the previous year. Tubers set aside for planting are called seed potatoes, and when purchased from a reputable source, they will have been graded for extra high quality for planting.  
 
Some of our favorite seed potato varieties this year include the beautiful Purple Viking,

Didn’t get garlic in the ground last fall? 

 
That’s OK! In most climates, there's a short window for planting in spring for fall harvest.  

Or harvest it as spring garlic. With its small single bulb and green stalk, spring garlic resembles a scallion. It delivers a milder flavor that’s still distinctly garlicky, and it can be used in the same way as garlic cloves or eaten raw in salads. Spring garlic takes much less time to mature and is typically ready for harvest about six weeks after planting. 

If you are planting garlic in the spring to harvest as bulbs in the fall, remember that garlic needs exposure to cold in order to promote bulb formation when the weather gets warm. Most of the plant’s growth happens in cooler weather. Once day length reaches about 13 hours, the garlic bulbs will begin to form, so it’s essential to give your garlic the longest possible head start. (Soil and air temperatures

 At Baker Creek, we are reflecting on another incredible year of gardening and seed saving and feeling so thankful for those who have joined us in nurturing the heirloom seed movement.  

Heirloom and open-pollinated seeds really are the gift that keeps on giving, and we love nothing more than sharing these incredible seeds and stories with you.  

Gardening is an act of love, of self-sufficiency, resilience, and health. It is truly special to grow heirlooms – varieties rooted in time and place, seeds that can be saved and shared, year after year.

As we enter the holiday gift-giving season, we wanted to highlight the creativity and expertise of a few of our heirloom gardening friends and encourage you to support their work by sharing it with others, as well as suggest some favorites from our Baker Creek catalog.

If you are looking for gift ideas for the heirloom enthusiast (or soon-to-be enthusiast) in your life, here are some ideas! 

The crocus is a small and simple bloom, and yet, as their heads begin to peek out of the snow in late winter, we often greet them with elation. If you are someone who eagerly awaits the arrival of spring flowers, you must plant this cheerful early bird!  

Crocus is a reliable, impressively cold-hardy, and easy-to-grow perennial spring flower that blooms extra early in spring. Crocus is native to the Mediterranean and has been documented as a beloved garden flower for many centuries.  

Why We Love Crocus 

• It's an excellent investment! Crocus easily naturalizes and spreads in the landscape.  
• It’s a pollinator plant! Crocus is one of the first sources of pollen and nectar that early pollinators need as they emerge in early spring. 
• It’s easy to grow! The bulbs are super care-free and require very little upkeep.  
• And versatile! Crocus is suitable for rock gardens, perennial

 
Spring may be the most visually stunning season. Verdant new growth and bold spring blooms saturate the landscape in color ... and yet, when we close our eyes to picture spring, we often recall the fragrances of our favorite early flowering blooms. There is some science to this fragrant phenomenon, as memories associated with smell tend to be more vivid!  

With its sublime overtones of jasmine, morning dew, and clove, hyacinth is

The ornamental allium is a stunning spring-flowering bulb grown for its mesmerizing, globe-shaped flowering heads.  Alliums are reliable and long-lasting perennials that return year after year, offering a dazzling display and a buzzing hub for pollinators. 

The allium is an inedible member of the onion family, but these ornamentals are a far cry from their odiferous cousins, as they are prized for their large ornamental flower heads.  

Why Should I Plant Alliums? 

They are tough! Native to Central Asia, this diverse group can typically be found growing wild in a range of intense habitats marked by hot dry summers, cold winters, and rocky, porous soil. The plants’ rugged nature is just one reason it has found a place in garden design over the centuries.  

They are diverse! This splendid plant family contains dozens of varieties that range in

FROM FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2022 THROUGH SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022, SALES OF ALL BAKER CREEK TOMATO VARIETIES

With their admirable adaptability, cheerful countenances and vivid variety of colors, is it any wonder pansies are so beloved? They really are flowers for all seasons. You’ll find them blooming in winter gardens of the southern and southwestern U.S., in summer gardens of the north, and everywhere in between. 

Pansies, or Viola x Wittrockiana, are a 19th century English garden creation bred from Viola tricolor, a wild pansy commonly known as heartsease. Its native range extends from much of Europe to western Siberia and northern Iran. It also has a long history of use in folk and herbal medicine, as a tonic and treatment for epilepsy, skin diseases and respiratory issues such as colds and asthma. 

But its use wasn’t limited merely to physical ailments, apparently. According to Roman mythology, one of Cupid’s arrows struck a wild pansy, imbuing it with powers of affection and d