The ginseng garden is waking up!
The ginseng habitat garden is a small area of land on a piece of our property that was once logged. Over the past ten years, I’ve worked toward restoring the native plants as the shade has filled in to provide a better environment for them. It is open to the public by appointment, and though it’s definitely nothing fancy, it’s a great way to learn how to identify American ginseng as opposed to the common lookalikes. I have ginseng of various ages scattered throughout the plot, in a natural setting.
Polemonium reptans, Jacob’s Ladder 
One of the bellworts, maybe Uvilaria grandiflora. 
Caulophyllum thalictroides, blue cohosh 
A 2-prong American ginseng, Panax quinquefolius 
A 3-prong with flower bud still unfurling 
Another bellwort
On the lower end of the plot, I have some terraced ‘shelves’ to hold potted plants of ginseng seedlings, a few specimen collections in larger pots, and the various companions that often grow in the same habitat as ginseng. These are the plants I sell each year to those wishing to start habitats of their own. The ginseng is all ‘wild-simulated’, which means they originated from a seed I planted. Either in the pots or out in the woods. The ones I sell as first year bare-root plants are started in the woods and dug in fall to ship. The companions have either been started from seeds or cuttings.
Doll’s eyes, with flower bud unfurling 
Black cohosh 
Witch hazel (not sure if vernal or fall blooming) 
Goldenseal in a companion pot with others still asleep.
American ginseng and almost all of the companions have long cycles for starting plants from seeds. Most of them produce seeds that then wait a full year in the ground before sprouting. Cuttings and root divisions are faster ways to propagate once I get some going from seeds, so that’s my preferred way to do it for those that respond to such techniques. Some just have to begin with seeds and wait the long wait for plants mature enough to survive transplanting.
Email me if you’d like to visit the habitat. As soon as the seedlings begin to unfurl, I’ll have an idea of how many potted ginseng seedlings I’ll have available in May. Some are already spoken for, so those will be taken out of the totals when I come back to report them.