The nursery
Plants for the Part of the Garden That Never Gets the Sun
Ferns, hostas and woodland perennials, grown under shade cloth on a half acre at the edge of Portland and sold from the gate four days a week, May to October.
Every garden in Portland has a corner the sun never reaches: the strip along the north wall, the passage between two houses, the ground under an old maple where grass gives up by July. That corner is all Vynumbra grows for. We pot ferns, hostas and the low woodland plants that like the same conditions, and nothing that wants more than four hours of direct light.
Marit began in 2016 by dividing the ferns and hostas under three sugar maples in her own back yard and selling them off a table at the end of the drive.
By 2019 the plants had outgrown the yard. They now live on a leased half acre at the edge of the city, in two shade houses and along the north bench, and every pot has spent at least one Maine winter outside before it is sold.
That last part matters more than it sounds. A fern raised under glass further south often sulks for two years when it meets a January here. Ours have already met one.
Everything for sale this season is on the stock list, with pot sizes, heights and prices. If you have a dark corner and no idea where to start, we will come and look at it, draw a plan, and plant it if you want us to.
The gate is open Thursday to Sunday. Monday to Wednesday we are potting, delivering or out on a planting job.
What grows here
Three Groups of Plants, All for Shade
Ostrich, Christmas, lady, maidenhair, Japanese painted, cinnamon, royal and the evergreen autumn fern, from 4 inch pots for filling gaps to gallon pots for the back of a bed.
The ferns on the listSold by leaf rather than by name: blue, gold, plain green, white-edged, cream-centred, the miniatures for pots and the giants that take a whole corner. The thick blue ones stand up to slugs best.
The hostas on the listWild ginger and foamflower for ground cover, Solomon's seal and bleeding heart for height, epimedium for dry shade under trees, and hellebores for the first flowers of the year.
The woodlanders on the listPrices, briefly
What Things Cost at the Gate
The full list prices every plant. These are the numbers people ask for most.
Plants
- Ferns, 4 inch potor 3 for $24$9
- Ferns, 1 gallonmaidenhair and painted at the top$16-24
- Hostas, 1 gallon$14-22
- Blue and miniature hostas, 2 gallonslow growers$28-38
- Woodland perennials$12-26
- Ostrich fern divisionsfirst two weeks of May only$7
Collections
- The Dry Shade Dozen$210
- The Damp Shade Dozen$195
- The Fern Trio$42
Plans and planting
- Site visit with written noteswithin 25 miles, taken off any job over $600$95
- Drawn plan, up to 400 sq ft$180
- Each further 200 sq ft$60
- Planting, per persontwo hour minimum, plants at gate prices$65/hr
The Friday van
- Delivery within 30 milesfree over $300, smallest order $120$25
A job we are proud of
Four Feet Wide, Two Houses High
The best thing we have planted is a side passage on Munjoy Hill, four feet wide and running between two triple-deckers, with about an hour of sun at midsummer and none the rest of the year. The owners did not ask for a garden. They asked for the bins to stop being the view from the kitchen window.
We put in 140 plants: Christmas ferns along the wall that takes the most rain off the roof, lady ferns down the middle, and wild ginger all along the path edge so the soil never shows. Three summers after planting, the ferns meet over the path and you walk through them to the bins.
I go back every June to look at it. Nobody has asked me to. If you have a passage like that, this is how a planting job runs.
Marit
The season
Open From the First Thursday of May
The gate opens on the first Thursday of May and shuts after the second Sunday of October. In between, it is open four days a week.
- Thursday9am to 4pm
- Friday9am to 4pm
- Saturday9am to 4pm
- Sunday10am to 3pm
- Monday to WednesdayClosed for potting and planting
From mid October to the end of April the nursery is closed to visitors. The plants stay outside under leaves and burlap, which is the point of growing them here. Pre-orders for spring open by email on 1 February.
The full calendar, what is ready in each month and the closing note are on the season page. Anything else, write to us.