MONTVILLE, Maine — On a cool, misty May day, the shaded beds of Fernwood Nursery and Gardens seemed to hold delights around every turn.
From the elusive yellow lady’s slipper to showy trilliums in full blossom, from woodland peonies to hundreds of varieties of hostas, the nursery specializes in plants that thrive in or are native to Maine — and owners Rick and Denise Sawyer said that’s no accident. It’s the culmination of 25 years of labor that began when Rick Sawyer got tired of working at a Massachusetts nursery that specialized in ground cover plants.
“I got seriously tired of putting in ground cover,” the soft-spoken nurseryman, a native of western Maine, said. “I always loved the woods as a child. I loved ferns, and I much prefer working in the shade than the sun. I’m very happy in the woodland, and with the plants there.”
So he came back to Maine and started a nursery that would allow him to spend his time with the many woodland plants that make him happy. Twenty-five years later, the Sawyers haven’t lost sight of the goal of the business they describe as “Maine’s shadiest nursery.”
“I would say that in many ways we’re a unique nursery,” Denise Sawyer said. “Most often, they’re not plants you’ll find at a common nursery. We propagate the majority of plants on site, and that’s not typical.”
Propagating, or breeding by natural processes from parent stock, means they do not head to the forests to gather their plants. The state of Maine advises against collecting certain rare plants in the wild, including varieties of the lady’s slipper.
“None of our plant material are wild dug,” Denise Sawyer said.
The Sawyers also have developed several cultivars of hostas and other perennials they have introduced to the market, including a fragrant lily of the valley they call “Fernwood’s golden slipper.”
“We’re not high tech,” Denise Sawyer said. “It’s about having a relationship with a plant. When you’ve spent 35 years with a plant, you know it pretty well. A lot of our work is watching for things like unusual mutations.”
That doesn’t happen overnight and can, in fact, take years. But the work and the patience is worth it. Customers come from all over the state and New England to find plants here. And for the Sawyers, their success with the nursery is a testament to the care they put into their plants.
“It’s an avocation and a passion as well,” Rick Sawyer said. “We love it.”
His wife agreed.
“I’m still amazed that you put a seed in the ground and it turns into a plant,” she said. “It’s just that deep for us.”
Fernwood Nursery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday in May and June and Tuesday through Saturday from July to September. It’s located at 58 North Ridge Road in Montville. For more information, call 589-4726.