Dear Customers,
Welcome to our online wholesale plant catalog in an easy-to-use web format. We are also highlighting a list of 'preferred' plants for the green roof market. Preferred, because these plants have been carefully selected from a set of plants which have proven to be hardy, resilient, and aesthetically pleasing in a green roof environment. These plants will thrive in a wide range of hardiness zones, soil depths, and climatic conditions.
We have spent a great deal of the past two years trialing, and testing several hundred varieties of plants. Of those, dozens of varieties have been employed on green roofs and we continue to monitor and assess their performance. As we learn about these plants first-hand, and understand their performance in roof applications, in rock gardens, and in varying conditions, we will add may of them to our offering. We feel that many of these plants are underused in landscape design and it is our belief that an increase in the use of these plants can both add beauty and save water.
As always, we appreciate our customers' interest in our nursery and our plants. It is our hope that you will find what you need in our catalog and that you will find the catalog informative and useful.
We look forward to serving you,
Ed & John
View the Preferred Green Roof Plant List
View the Entire Emory Knoll Farms Catalog
A Note about Hardiness Zones.
We are often asked about hardiness zones and what plants will work well in a particular zone. We have included hardiness zone ratings for our plants, but we do so with some trepidation. Arguments have been made that plants can be less cold tolerant on a roof than in the ground. Our own experience shows that there can be wildly varying conditions within a particular zone, and even from building to building. In some cases, the heat radiating from a building provides warmth to the root zone of the plants. Other factors that effect plant performance on a particular roof can include: Soil depth, roof orientation, drainage, wind, reflected light/heat, and even how well established the roof is. Finally, there is no definitive methodology to determine what is the 'published' hardiness zone for a particular species. We have seen plants that are rated at zone 6 working on roofs in zone 4. And we have seen zone 4 plants suffer on roofs in zone 5.
What this all means is that the hardiness zone rating is far from perfect - especially when considering a rooftop environment. We include hardiness zone information (when we know it) as a reference. But please understand that the zone number is a guideline, and complying with the zone may not ensure the success of a particular plant on a roof. Feel free to call us for more information.