April 2024 Newsletter

April is a month of excitement and anticipation here at Unity. We are eagerly awaiting the longer, warmer days ahead. Days that can be spent outside in your own park-like setting, or at an actual park like the one Unity Landscape recently completed in Caroline County for the Town of Hillsboro.

The project began with the design phase, followed up by major cleanup of the existing site. A meandering walkway and new parking area were installed with pavers. All new parking and walkway construction surfaces drain to rain gardens to manage stormwater runoff and to prevent it from impacting neighboring properties. Two circular metal archways were custom fabricated as entrance features. Picnic tables, benches, and a bike rack were installed along with a monument to memorialize members of the community who have served in either the armed forces or in the community.

The final piece of this exciting project was the installation of numerous native trees, shrubs, and perennials for the benefit of both humans and wildlife. We are very grateful to have had a share in creating such a beautiful outdoor living space.

Sandy Appel, Chief Operations Officer

Lucas Lees, Coastal and Environmental Designer

Town of Hillsboro Park - Before

Town of Hillsboro Park - After

Unity Church Hill Nursery

The perennial showcase is looking beautiful, even this early in the season, with a number of phloxes already in-bloom and a great deal of other plants just starting to return from dormancy! The tables are all filled out, and hopefully the new layout will make it easier to browse our native perennial selections much more easily!

Perennial Showcase

Filling up our Shrub Showcase with new additions.

And now our shrub showcase is filling up with some recent additions including four varieties of blueberries, Calycanthus floridus (Carolina allspice), Clethra alnifolia (summersweet), 3 varieties of Distylium, cultivars of Hydrangea arborescens and paniculata, Chindo viburnums and Myrica cerifera (southern wax myrtle) to name a few! With an easy layout of a variety of full to part sun shrubs ranging from wet to dry conditions, you can easily compare the heights and appearances of our many varied shrub selections once things start to bud out a bit more over the next few weeks!

Mason Broderick, Nursery Sales & Production Associate

Tomato plants in greenhouse

We have our cool weather herb plants and veggies plugs out in our front tunnel ready for your gardens. Tomato plants are growing nicely (see photos above) and will be available towards the middle of April while more heat-loving plants (that don't tolerate cold nights) including peppers, eggplants, and basil will be available at end of this month.

Achillea millefolium

Eupatorium purpureum

Rudbeckia hirta

With the days growing longer and warmer, everything is leafing out and starting to grow a little faster. We will continue seeding, potting up and growing out plants. Some of the plants that we started with seeds back in January are now ready: we have plugs of Achillea millefolium, Eupatorium purpureum, and Rudbeckia hirta available (see photos above). Others will soon follow!

We just dug some beautiful crape myrtles and fringe trees that were growing here at Unity and now have these large specimens available as B&B (balled and burlap) along with some beautiful large Ilex opaca Satyr Hill hollies (see photo below) ranging from 7/8' to 12/14' that we brought in from a local nursery.

Theresa Mycek, Production Manager