About Our Plants

Helping people re-connect with nature and the seasons through their gardens is a great joy. We supply folks with edible and useful plants—annual and perennial herbs, flowers and vegetables, and plants that provide food and habitat for all kinds of wildlife, like beneficial insects, butterflies and birds. 

Our Head Farm Girl Teresa has a weakness for old fashioned heirloom varieties, and each year brings a new batch of exciting plant rediscoveries to share with you, as well as the return of old and trusty favorites. 

Our maritime Northwest climate can be a challenge, so we focus on growing plants that will adapt and thrive in our region, or that will do well given a little assistance and attention for those gardeners willing to go a few extra steps for a really great plant.

At Ostman Farm, we grow plants that are healthy, happy and well-adjusted. We start with the best ingredients we can source- quality seeds (organic wherever possible), healthy cuttings, and our own mix of potting soil made with great local ingredients and mixed with nutrients that plants in the Northwest need to thrive. Two trusty greenhouses help us get a jump on the growing season, but as soon as they can make it in the great outdoors, our plants are gently pushed out the door to harden off and live outside, so they are ready to be planted when you buy them. Most of our perennial plants spend the winters outdoors, in the rain, wind and snow- we will over winter a few tender treasures inside (like the scented geraniums, or lemon-grass) and will give you advice and instruction on how to do the same at your house.

We grow our plants in 4” or 1 gallon containers to encourage a healthier root system, offering them for sale when they are the right size to transplant, not when they have been forced into bloom. We do not spray any growth regulating hormones on them- a common practice in most large scale commercial nurseries. It may slow growth and extend a plant’s ‘shelf life’, but we feel it does not make for a strong and healthy plant that will grow well in your garden. Plus it is just plain wrong, like those horrible supermarket tomatoes that are picked green and then gassed to turn them red, and then taste like nothing.  We would rather spend time talking to our plants, not drenching them in a strange brew to make them bloom longer than they ought to.

Although we have struggled with the decision, because we know it has appeal, we do not sell plants in little plastic six-pack containers. Yes, it gives customers more plants for their money, and that is a good thing- but plants will not live happily very long in that size of a container without chemical assistance, and the plastic containers are flimsy and not re-usable. The thought of adding that much more plastic waste to the environment just doesn't sit easily with us, so for now we will stick with our sturdy green 4" pots for smaller plants, and yes we will recycle them for you- but only our green 4"pots, please, we cannot take any others for you. We agree, there really ought to be a good way to recycle nursery containers! Perhaps some enterprising young person will figure that out, and save all of us environmentally conscious plant fanatics a lot of grief.

We grow things thoughtfully here on Ostman Farm, and try to consider the impact of our actions and choices.  You won’t find weird chemicals that you can’t pronounce, or plants blooming before they ought to here, just clean, healthy, quality plant starts to brighten your garden and enliven your palate.