The term micro-nursery is more then just a novel new catch-phrase, it really encapsulates all of what Native Haunts is, and especially, is not.
We do not have huge monocultures of the "Top 10" plants that you can find at every garden center. We do not strive to become an immense growing machine producing tens of thousands indivduals of a single variety.
Like nature itself we have a diversity of plant material, that changes every year, and in varying numbers. Different plant adventures each year yield new collections of seeds to be planted, some thrive others do not. Even the plants that we try to propagate every year do not always pan out. We rely on Mother Nature to provide us with many of our seeds; most often she is reliable as to what is produced, just as often she is not. Sometimes the seeds are consumed by animals before I reach the shrub to collect them, and we get no propagating material for that season. Other times the seed is planted, but germination is poor.
In the last 5 or so years that Native Haunts has been up-and-coming, I have been working out the details of a core list of species that I will have to offer most every year; the propagating material is reliably available, and cultural techniques have been ironed out.
There are woody species that I gather seed for every year, but have had poor success in raising to any appreciable size. However, with each year that goes by, I get closer and closer to hitting the right growing conditions. With any luck, I will be able to offer these in the near future-
Spore grown ferns are being started too. Here again, there is still a ways to go before I can offer any one species reliably.
Club mosses and Princess pines are in the early stage of propagation by spores, they will not be avilable for awhile. Click on this link to read a short paper on the Clubmosses of Maine.