Our “designed gardens” are for everyone.

Perhaps you have never planted a garden, or you think you don’t have a green thumb and don’t know where to start when you look at your site; our role is to provide you with the right tools and information so you don’t feel intimidated, but rather excited to experience your own garden!

Perhaps you’re the professional landscape designer in need of a perennial garden to incorporate into your overall design for a client; our kits offer the professional designer and their client a collaborative experience.

Perhaps you have dabbled in gardening and feel overwhelmed with the amount of information and choices you have when it comes to making a decision on what to do; Plant Me A Rainbow’s designed garden kits simplify the process so that you can trust the mix of plants will provide diversity in height, color, and texture for an overall balanced palette.

Perhaps you’re looking to bring natural beauty back to your suburban home with flowers that are sustainably grown, so that your children can enjoy healthy and chemical-free gardening with you; our kits make it easy to get our little ones outside to help make something beautiful that will attract important wildlife such as butterflies.

Perhaps you are a homeowner and tired of trial and error planting; our perennial kits are designed to be planted once so that you can simply water and watch a beautiful array of flowers grow year-after-year, while the initial cost for the kit is amortized over time and your landscape becomes an asset, as it should be.

When in doubt, please ask us! Your questions by phone and email are welcome at any time, and we want to make sure you have no doubts prior to purchasing.

Your site and how much sun it receives during the day will be the determining factors for choosing which kit to purchase. The species of plants in each kit were chosen for their ability to grow in either a Full Sun (at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight) or Part Sun (at least 3-6 hours of direct sunlight) condition. The term ‘part sun’ can be used interchangeably with ‘part shade’.

Typically north-facing garden plots will not receive much sun at all; we do not recommend planting in a north-facing site. For example, areas that are north of a house are likely shaded all day by the building.

Keep in mind that the south and east sides of the house, as well as open areas, receive the most sun and are ideal places for our Full Sun and Part Sun Kits. If large trees are present in these latter areas, they will shade your garden, upon which our part sun kit might be most appropriate.

If you have areas that receive mostly shade, we hope to start offering shade kits in 2020, depending on popularity of requests and pre-orders.

First off, no one should feel FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Both kits are designed with our Garden Pyramid framework to provide a balanced, harmonious garden full of a broad range of flowers. You may notice a few species in both kits, which will work in either Full Sun or Part Sun conditions, which means not only do we love these plants, but they are robust and can survive in either situation. Our kits provide the benefit of fragrance, multi-color, texture, and pleasing aesthetic that will feel natural and soft.

From our experience working in many types of gardens with various clients, including our friends and family, we realized that more times than not, people want a naturalistic and effortless garden that is easy to do on one’s own. Somewhere over time, landscape design got complicated, so we decided to return to the basics while making it rewarding and fun again.

Our Full Sun and Part Sun Kits include a separate a welcome package that provide all the tools you need to start garden preparation; they ship out as soon as you place your order. Please allow at least 3 weeks for the garden preparation process before you budget time for planting. Garden prep can begin as soon as the soil can be worked in the Spring, such as mid-April.

Our plants/kits ship once a month within our recommended planting windows: end of May - early July and early September - end of October.

We recommend getting plants into the ground within a few days of their arrival.

Perennials are flowers that you plant once, and they bloom year-after-year. Our Full Sun and Part Sun kits consist of perennials only. They can be planted once, either in the spring or the fall, and will bloom every year after to provide long-lasting value.

Annuals are short-lived and must be replanted every year. Our annuals packs require planting in the spring and will bloom continuously all summer long, but then die in the winter. They can be left to compost in your garden, or cut back for maintenance.

See What to Expect.

Perennials are best planted in either the spring, early summer, or fall. It is typical to feel spring fever when the weather warms up, so we have grown accustomed to think of gardening as only a spring activity. In fact, perennials benefit from fall planting because their roots continue to develop through the winter and the plants are well-established by spring. Perennial plants planted in the fall can withstand the subsequent hot/dry summer more easily than they would have if they were newly planted in the spring.

Our Full Sun and Part Sun Kits can be planted in areas between 50 - 100 square feet. Other ways to think about this are as follows:
~50 square feet
Plots that are 5 ft x 10ft, or 4 ft x 12 ft, or 3 ft x 18 ft

~100 square feet
Plots that are 10 ft x 10 ft, or 5 ft x 20 ft, or 3 ft x 34 ft

Spacing (the space between each plant) is an important factor here that makes up for the difference between 50-100 square feet. Plants can be spaced as tight as 8 inches apart, 12 inches apart, or up to 18 inches apart.

One perennials kit covers roughly 100 square feet if you plant the plugs 12 inches apart. This can be more or less depending on your preference. Plants spaced 12 inches apart typically grow in by the following season. So, for May planting, the plants should fill in by September. For fall planting, plants should fill in by the following spring. Depending on time and money, if you have longer to wait, you could space plants 18 inches on center, in which case one kit would cover over 100 square feet, but then you’ll have to do more weeding in the meantime. If you have less time, or want almost instant impact, you could use 8” spacing and one kit will cover 40-50 square feet, and there will be less weeding to do.

Rules to keep in mind when determining how many kits to buy with the amount of space you want to garden:
1. The less space between plants (5-8”), the density of plants increases and increases overall garden diversity more quickly.
2. The more space between plants (12-18”), the density of plants decreases and slows down the timeline for garden diversity, and increases the chance for weeds to pop up and manage.

Landscape plugs are the minimum plant size needed to successfully transition plants from a nursery into a garden. Our plugs come in trays of 10-inch x 20-inch of 50 cells. Each cell is a 5-inch deep by 2-inch square filled with growing medium (soil). The plugs we use focus on root development and were originally used by the forest industry to grow trees. The deep cell system is well-suited for perennials because of their long root structure. Many of the plants one typically buys in a local nursery have been grown focusing on their flowers and foliage. Our plants are mostly root; we prefer landscape plugs because they grow a heartier plant, are easy to plant in the garden with an auger drill, and are primed for quick-growth once they get into the soil. In addition, landscape plugs can better handle the shipping process, and you receive more plants at a better cost all at once.

Plants are shipped (4) times/year: early and late June, mid September, and mid October with limited quantities. We ship early in the week to allow plants to arrive without having to sit in a warehouse over the weekend.

Ordering starts in January of each year; we highly recommend pre-ordering your kits as early as possible. We hope to provide new limited edition kits on a yearly basis.

Currently our products are only available for the northeast (Virginia, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, Southern Vermont, Southern Maine) or USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 7a (light green) - 5a (blue). See the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for more info.

Upon ordering either the Full Sun Kit or Part Sun Kit, we will immediately ship you a welcome package to get you started. The following items will come in your kit:

• Easy Guide to Prepare a Flower Bed using the Tools in your Welcome Kit
• 2 Standard Layout & Spacing Options
• Tools:
• Auger Drill Bit
• Sod Staples
• Gloves
• Clear Plastic
• Measuring Tape
• Landscape Flags
• Organic Soil Amendment
• Organic Plant Food
• Watering Wand

We recommend you also read the next FAQ, "What else do I need?"

We provide you with healthy plants (in their growing medium), a welcome package with essential tools, and step-by-step guidance on how to lay out your plants and care for them.

In addition to our garden kits, here are a list of items we suggest:
Rent at your local garden equipment rental location:

• SOD CUTTER - to cut the grass layer off your future garden bed. (*Alternatively you can do it the very hard way by digging up the grass with a spade.)

Buy at your local garden supply store:

• LEAF COMPOST/SOIL AMENDMENT - see below
• SPADE - to edge your flower bed, which helps to create the outline or the outer border of your garden plot.
• ­WATERING CAN - for mixing fertilizer provided by Plant Me A Rainbow (comes with your welcome kit)
• HAND DRILL 18v (We recommend Rigid or Dewalt. The Welcome Kit for the perennials includes the auger drill bit that you will need)
• HAT FOR SUN PROTECTION
• SUNSCREEN

It is cost prohibitive for us to ship and supply you with the amount of soil amendment you will need for your garden. We recommend you have leaf compost delivered in bulk from your local nursery or, if available, haul free leaf compost from your municipality with a pickup truck (remember to bring shovels, a tarp, and buckets or bags to fill).

We recommend getting 1-2 cubic yards of leaf compost per 100 square feet of planting area. In other words, for a garden bed that is roughly 100 square feet, you will need enough soil to cover that area 3-5 inches deep.

Your local garden supply store will typically sell a bag of Leafgro Organic Soil Mix (1.5 cubic feet) for about $6. For a garden of this size, you will need about 18 bags of Leafgro for about $100 or less. Check to see if your garden supply store offers free delivery for minimum orders, or if they have larger bulk bags available!

If you can get free leaf compost from your municipality, be prepared to fill your pickup truck! Typically your municipality will collect compost and place it in a large pile in a discreet lot with a bulldozer. Back up your vehicle to this location and collect what you need; make sure you line the back of your truck with a tarp. If you don’t have a truck or tarp, bring your own bags or buckets and be prepared for several trips and a messy trunk. To give you an idea, you will need to fill up about 40 (5-gallon) buckets worth of leaf compost to amend 100 square feet of garden area.

If this is any incentive to start creating your own compost, we recommend layering leaves, leaf clippings, grassing clips, and shredded leaves from your lawn mower with a bag attachment. You can put in food scraps such as vegetables, fruit, coffee grinds, egg shells, and other compostable items - but NO MEAT products. It will take about a year to compost these materials. The soil amendment you ultimately want will be found at the bottom of this pile.

Essentially good compost is a mix of green and brown materials and you will notice the difference when you have great soil.

If something occurred during shipment, please send us photographs of your damaged plants and package upon receipt. We will refund your money if plants are damaged upon arrival. Refunds and/or exchanges will not be accepted otherwise.

You will find that our refund/exchange policies will be the same as if you were to go your local garden center. At Plant Me A Rainbow, we provide the highest quality plants available in the market. You accept responsibility for the care of plants once you purchase them.

Yes. Upon purchase, you will receive step-by-step guidance in your initial welcome package.

Our homepage displays most, if not all, of the flowers we offer in our Annuals Packs.

We planted prototype gardens of the Full Sun and Part Sun Kits last fall, and we will post images soon! We can’t wait to share them with you.

1. In this largely unregulated market, you can be assured that our plants are sustainably grown for your health and well-being.

2. We provide accessible, integrated, and reliable tools and advice so that you don’t sweat the details.

3. We want to share our professionally designed gardens without a design commission and timeline.

We offer a whole new experience where you can simply get outside and do what feels most rewarding. Whether it be with your children, with friends, or a way to be on your own in nature, we offer the foundation for growing flowers in a simple and safe manner where you’ll have us as companions.

Think of us as your garden suppliers, mentors, and co-creators of beauty. You may not have a background in horticulture and ecology but with our help, you can still enjoy the process of gardening. A Plant Me A Rainbow garden is composed of a welcome prep & planning toolkit, a one-on-one garden consultation, admission into our network, and--of course--our plants. We source the most ecologically sustainable plants early in the ordering process to ensure that our kits contain hard to find and important species that fit our mission.

Plant Me A Rainbow’s mission is to provide you the resources you need to create beautiful, sustainable gardens at home. The experience is meant to be a holistic and an effective investment that lasts for years.

The garden kits we offer are complete gardens consisting of 100 plants. The layers work together according to specific ratios composed of green, weed suppressing ground cover, long seasons of bloom, and varied height and texture. To be effective, each layer must have a certain number of plants and we find that smaller kits would not allow the species diversity or quantity necessary for the most desirable impact.

Similarly, our cutting garden packs are designed to provide bouquet-quality color and blooms throughout the summer and fall. Smaller kits would not provide the bounty of flowers or fulfill your expectations for creating multiple bouquets throughout the growing season.

At Plant Me A Rainbow we use the power of collective buying to reach order minimums for distributors who only sell to the trade. Most of the species we use are fairly typical for private commissions, but have not yet reached mass market appeal and are therefore, rarely available from local garden centers. We reserve plants as soon as they become available to ensure that we are able to provide our clients with the best plants to produce beautiful and sustainable gardens. Besides the limited availability of the species we offer, the ratio of base, heart, and top notes would be difficult to achieve without significant prior planning.

Yes! Please join our Garden Conversations and participate in #OurDailyBeautyProject to be a part of our network. Our hope is to connect with other like-minded people, be inspiring to each other, and to talk freely about how we feel or see ‘beauty’ around us each day; we want to create an authentic community that feels open, welcome, and accessible, as any garden should be.

Absolutely! Please read what to expect.

In addition, you can start talking to your kids about what to expect, read garden stories together, and more.

When in doubt, please ask us! Your questions by phone and email are welcome at any time.

Typically north-facing garden plots will not receive much sun at all; we do not recommend planting in a north facing site. Keep in mind that the south and east sides of the house, as well as open areas, receive the most sun and are ideal places for our full sun and part sun kits. If large trees are present in these latter areas, they will shade your garden, upon which our part sun kit might be most appropriate.

If you have areas that receive mostly shade, we hope to start offering shade kits in 2020, depending on popularity of requests and pre-orders.

Your plants need 1” of “rain” per week for the first year of their lives. The amount of watering required depends on the weather and the heat index. If there is no rain, roughly 30 min of watering will be necessary every week during the growing seasons to keep plants healthy. Long, slow watering is best because it allows water to travel deep into the soil, where roots can best utilize it.

The signs of overwatering are the same as underwatering in a garden, plants droop or wilt. If you see this happening in the garden during a rainy spell, or if you suspect that your plants are getting too much water, dig a plant out of the ground and look at its root system. If it is completely waterlogged or if the hole it was planted in is holding water, it’s time to ease up on the watering. Don’t worry though, we very much understand this is a learning process.

Absolutely. Unfortunately, in the greenhouse industry, there is not a lot of transparency when it comes to growing practices. Part of the reason is that ‘ornamental plants’ are not edible and are therefore not scrutinized in the same way that food crops are. There are no organic standards for nursery crops at this time. We believe that gardening with kids and pets and in the presence of pollinators and critical waterways should be safe for every creature involved. Many production practices common in the greenhouse industry, especially in the US, use chemical pesticides, fungicides, and weed controls which compromise human, pollinator, and aquatic health. At Plant Me A Rainbow we source and grow plants that conform to the highest sustainability standards in the industry and are transparent about growing practices, propagation methods, and seed source. We do not source material that has been treated with Neonicotinoids, we practice Integrated Pest Management, and we source organic (OMRI listed) soil, seed, and fertilizer to the extent possible.

We believe in transparent growing practices, and we are practicing with organic methods at Plant Me A Rainbow. We source our plants and seeds from the most sustainable producers in the market. Our ultimate hope is to influence growing practices so that suppliers, growers, and retailers all aim for higher standards of sustainability for the health of all people, wildlife, and the environment.

Neonicotinoids, commonly called ‘Neonics’ are a group of systemic insecticides that includes acetamaprid, imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. They gained popularity in ornamental production because they are considered less hazardous to humans than many previously used insecticides. Their systemic design, however, is extremely and indiscriminately effective over a long period of time against chewing and sucking insects, including bees and butterflies. Neonicotinoids have been implicated in colony collapse disorder among honeybees, and are banned in Europe. Systemic insecticides travel throughout a plants vascular system and stay active in all parts of the plant, including its pollen and nectar, for up to 3 years. We see it as a cruel irony that it is possible for a well-intentioned public to unwittingly use plants that are treated with pollinator killing chemicals.

Plant Me A Rainbow’s plants are Neonic free.

IPM is pest management that acts proactively to control pests before they become a problem. The focus is on using an insect’s natural predators rather than chemicals to control its population and the goal is to control, not eliminate, insect pests. IPM strives to provide economical solutions that cause the least possible hazard to humans and the environment and requires practitioners to gain specialized entomological knowledge.
Credit: M. Herndon

Neonic-free
IPM
Non-GMO

Grown from seed with organic fertilizer, organic soils
Neonic-free
IPM
Non-GMO

Hybrid seed was pollinated by plant breeders using two or more species or cultivars as parents to select for certain desirable traits. The seed from the resulting plant will not produce offspring that is similar to itself. Open pollinated seed was pollinated by wind or insects in an open field and will produce offspring similar to itself.

At PMAR the majority of the plants we source are grown from open pollinated seed. Plants grown this way have two distinct parents which makes their offspring genetically diverse. Populations that exhibit genetic diversity are more robust or resilient in the face of change. Propagation from open pollinated seed is the only method that maintains genetic diversity.

Hybrid plants in the perennials garden kits include Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ the Dahlias in our Dahlia trays are hybrids as well. The balance of the species we use are open pollinated.

A variety is a naturally occurring variation of individual plants within a species. The distinguishing characteristics are reproducible by seed in offspring. For example, Heuchera americana ‘Dale’s Strain’ is a plant that was found and named by a propagator. It was growing naturally in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina and displayed beautiful foliage and drought tolerance. It’s traits are reproducible from seed and it is slightly distinct from other members of the species.
Credit: M. Herndon

A cultivar is a variety or sub-variety of a plant species that was developed under cultivation and is propagated for a specific trait(s). Cultivars labeled ‘Seed Cultivar’ or ‘Open Pollinated’ produce offspring that is like the parent. The annuals in our cutting garden and sunflower kits are cultivars. It is possible to save seed from these plants in the fall and use them the following spring to grow the same plants. Many cultivars must be propagated vegetatively (by cutting or division) to maintain their specific desirable traits.
Credit: M. Herndon

Plants grown from (open pollinated) seed have two parents. They are genetically variable and contribute to a biodiverse population. This is the only propagation method in which offspring are not identical to each other. Populations of the straight species of New York Aster, for example, may display varying shades of purple, slightly different heights, slightly different bloom times and durations, etc. When viewed in a field, these variations are imperceptible. Diversity in plant populations can lead to overall longer flowering periods which is aesthetically beneficial as well as beneficial for pollinators seeking food sources. A diverse population is also more resilient in the face of challenged growing conditions. Some individuals will be more drought tolerant, some more cold tolerant, etc.

Vegetative propagation is a method that produces plants that are genetically identical to their parents. This method is used for maintaining the distinctive traits of cultivars and hybrids that do not come true from seed. Stem or root cuttings, or divisions, from healthy stock plants are taken, treated with a rooting hormone, and maintained at temperature and humidity levels that allow the cuttings to root and form their own plants.

Plant breeders develop and market cultivars and charge a royalty fee on the sale of many hybrids and cultivars, the royalty is often almost equal to the original cost of the plant.
Credit: M. Herndon

Yes! We highly encourage giving our kits as gifts. Please make sure to fill out the appropriate shipping address where you would like your kit sent. At checkout, you can write your personal message along with who the kit is from.

For our Full Sun Kit and Part Sun Kit, we have shipments in late May, early and late June, mid September, and early October. These are the best times to start gardening. It might seem counterintuitive to plant in the early fall (September/October), but in fact, it is one of the best times to plant and prepare your beds for the next growing season.

Our annual packs are available in May. Since annuals grow for one season only, they are best planted shortly after the last frost has occurred. The earlier you can plant these flowers, the more time you will have to enjoy them in your garden and as cut flowers for bouquets.

Yes, please call or email us first to see if we have kits available in stock for pickup, upon which we can offer one of two delivery methods: (1) If you live near Westchester, New York, Sandra will be happy to assist and coordinate a pickup date and time. (2) If you are traveling to an event we are attending, we would be thrilled to hand-deliver our kit and meet you in-person.

Please read our shipping and returns.

Please read our shipping and returns.

All product related questions:
hello@plantmearainbow.com

For questions regarding an order:
customerservice@plantmearainbow.com