About our plants

SweThank you for shopping with us at Iron Ridge Farms. We love growing plants and we love to see our customers succeed growing them. This page is here to help you understand what your are ordering from us. We want our customers to fully understand what plants we grow, how we ship plants and how to care for your new plants when they arrive.

The two most common complaints we hear about large online plant shops are:

"The plants were so much smaller than I expected" 

" They just sent me sticks with some roots". 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying young bare-root plants,  I'd actually argue that is the best way to purchase your new plants. Bare-Root plants are shipped in a dormant state during the winter, basically they're sleeping. When warm weather and rain wakes them up in the spring, they will already be planted into their new home, directly in the soil that they will live it. This is much less shocking to a plant then growing them large in rich potting soil,  then suddenly being dropped into a heavy topsoil. Many times, you can pull that potted plant back out of the hole a year later and it had never put any roots into the native soil.

We want to make sure that you know what you are buying so you aren’t surprised when they arrive.

Here are the sizes of plants that we offer and what you can expect to receive when you order them. To help understand this a little better, anytime you choose a size on a product page, you will see an example photo of what the plant will look like. Of course every plant is unique so don’t expect to receive the exact plant pictured.

RC = Rooted Cutting

A rooted cutting is going to be 4-8” tall with 1 or 2 ‘branches’ and a young but developed root system. Rooting a cutting is the first and most difficult step to propagating a new plant. These are more suited to the customer who is going pot them up and grow them out for another season, either for resale or to then plant in the garden. In the nursery, we generally pot our rooted cuttings into 2.5” pots. They will do fine in any pot unto a trade gallon but we find that rooted cuttings tend to grow faster if we start them in smaller pots, but that also means you’ll be re-potting them again within a few weeks. We don’t recommend planting rooted cuttings directly in the ground. It certainly can be done but success rate will be low with such an immature root system.

#1 = 1 year

A #1 size plant is going to be a 1 year old cutting that has been cut back once and grown out another half a season. These will have several branches and be ready to pot up into 1 gallon pots for spring/summer sales. #1 size plants can be planted directly in the garden, but with caution. They are still young and will need plenty of water to get established.

#2 = 2 year

A #2 size plant is going to be a 2 year old plant that is ready to go into 2 or 3 gallon pots for spring/summer sales. These plants have been cut back several times and will have a nice branch structure and a solid root system. This is the best size plant if you plan to plant directly in the ground but will still require watering to get established. This is the largest size plant that we offer for shipping. This is basically the size of a fully grown 1 gallon plant. A few weeks of spring growth and these plants will be larger than most 3 gallon shrubs your local nursery sells for $40+.

 

3" Pots

3" size plants will be in a 3" square pot.  3" size plants are typically 1 year old plants and ready to thrive in your garden or a larger container. This is the size we plant our rooted cuttings into for grow-out. Once they fill these 3" pots, they get moved into gallons. They are still a young plant so be sure to keep well watered while they adapt to their new home.

 

Gallon Pots

Gallon size plants will be in what is called a "trade gallon pot", which actually holds slightly less than a gallon. These plants will have a larger root system and much fuller size than the quart plants. They will still need water while adapting to their new homes but they will take less time to adapt and start growing again.

 

Shipping

Potted Plants: Our main shipping seasons for potted plants are spring and fall, and these are the best times to plant.  We can ship during summer if requested but the heat can be quite stressful to plants during transit. We carefully pack and protect plants for shipping so they arrive to you in great condition.

BareRoot Plants: Our only shipping season is in the winter while they are dormant. The dates can vary slightly depending on weather but is roughly December through February. Early winter is the best time to plant these plants so they can start putting down roots, but anytime that they are still dormant and the ground isn't frozen works perfectly fine.

Planting

When you receive your bare root plants, you want to unpack them and make sure the packing material is still moist. Don't ever let bare root plants sit out in the sun, and don't let the roots freeze. Once they are planted in the ground, freezing won't hurt them.   If you are storing them for any period of time, keep them cool and moist but don't let them freezeIt is best to plant or pot-up as soon as you receive your plants. 

First decide if you are planting into pot or in the ground:

Dormant bare-root plants can be planted anytime from fall to spring, when the ground isn't frozen. Dig a hole large enough to spread the roots out in the hole and only plant deep enough to cover the roots. Fill with hole and bury the roots with the soil that you removed from the hole. Mulch to conserve moisture and water well. Your new plants won't need much, if any, additional water until spring when they start to grow leaves. At that point, add some slow release fertilizer and keep the soil moist, but not soggy, for the first few weeks until your new plant gets some new roots out. By now you should only need additional water if you see them starting to wilt. That's all there is to it, enjoy your new plants.

If potting into pots, use a lightweight potting mix that is very well draining. Our growing mix in the nursery is 80% ground pinebark and 20% compost. We use this for everything in our nursery and it is the combination we recommend. It holds just enough moisture the keep plants growing but drains freely to so rot doesn't occur. Potting in the winter allows the plant a head start by establishing roots before leafing out in the spring.