Walking through a local family-owned central PA greenhouse, Madi and I are so ready for spring color. Halligan’s Greenhouse is located outside of Thompsontown, PA in the rolling countryside and hosts several polytunnels of perennial, annual and vegetable plants for the home gardener. I began shopping at Halligans in the late 1990s with my mother and it has been a family tradition for us to go get our plants there each season. Read more about Halligan’s Greenhouse in the 2019 post about it here.
Currently, it is mid-April, and while earlier in the weekend we were wearing short sleeve shirts and prepping to open our pool, today rain and snow are forecast with highs only reaching 36 degrees. The kids still have a day left of Easter break, so I invited Madi to pop up to Halligans with me to grab their 2022 season catalog. We typically check out their offerings and daydream about plants we want to grab for our garden borders and planter pots. The last frost date for us is around mid-May in our zone 6b garden. Finding your hardiness zone and last frost date on the USDA zone map is the easiest way to ensure you don’t plant precious tender annuals, or even perennials too early. I don’t like having to fuss and cover too many plants, so I typically wait to plant as long as I can stand. However, that doesn’t keep me from planning!
Basically, we went to check prices and grab the catalog because they do not maintain a website or social media because of religious beliefs. The only way to find out about this place is local word of mouth, or now the blog posts and videos I share. (you’re welcome!) I do have plans to go shopping at two other local greenhouses with a friend later in the month. I will try to film or gather info on those for you as well. I love virtual plant shopping almost as much as irl plant shopping, and I love to add to that content.
Plants We Swooned Over
My daughter loves herbs. Each year I give her a designated spot where she can plant her own curated herb garden. This allows her the freedom to fall in love with her own collection of plants, and us them as she pleases. Other than helping maintain the watering or weeding, it’s all her’s to pick and pull. Some of the herbs she’s eyeing this year: sweet marjoram, cilantro, stevia, parsley and chocolate mint.
I also found a eucalyptus cultivar called “baby blue” which said it was particularly bread for cut flower production. We only took home a few plants today, but that was one I couldn’t pass up. I have dreams of growing it to cut and hang in our shower like we live at a fancy resort.
Along with the eucalyptus, I also took home two “cinnamon” petunias. Last year I didn’t grab them early, and that was a mistake! When I went back, they were gone. I did not want to repeat that unfortunate event this year, so we added them to our tray right away. I think this spicy red/orange, white and yellow color with touches of blue and purple will probably be my focal color palette this summer. Think sun setting behind a wildflower meadow- that’s the vision.
Mostly we went to grab the catalog, so we left a lot of flowers behind, but we will for sure be back in just TWO WEEKS!
If you can grab the catalog or list from your local grower it is an invaluable resource if you want to do some research before you purchase. Since we got our corgi pup in 2020, I check all of the flowers and plants she might come in contact with to see if they are harmful to dogs. A great resource to check your interests against is the ASPCA Toxic Plant List and rover.com. I make notes right in the catalog so I know what is dog friendly while I shop. That way I make sure to come home with the most beautiful family-safe plants for everyone to enjoy on the patio and around the pool area, the places where pup is most often.
Along with this article, Madi and I filmed a quick tour of the greenhouse for you. Almost no one was there because of the bad weather, so we basically had the entire place to ourselves. Enjoy the tour on Youtube and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more videos in the future!
I hope you enjoyed this little plant tour of Halligan’s Greenhouse! Happy planting, friends! Janice
If you have visited Halligan’s Greenhouse or have additional local businesses you would like to see me profile, please leave a comment below or share a by tagging me on social media @laruedefleurs. All written work and photographs are original content and are copyright protected; kindly give due credit by linking back to my website if you use or share.
(©2022, Janice Bailor // laruedefleurs.com)