Greetings ...
Helderledge farm is a nursery in a garden. we grow plants, brand new cultivars and the time-tested standbys. Subsequently, we try our damnedest to entice you to make the great leap of faith and purchase them for your own garden. There are two words we have never used as we celebrate our twenty-fifth year: Small and expensive.

While growing and selling plants is often entertaining and sustains us, it is not our most rewarding endeavor. That would be proselytizing and inducing conversions to the wonderful world of the landscape. The sublime reward is not in collecting the finest plants in the fittest form. It is the creation of a garden for people, most particularly for you. It is what drives us as we encourage you to mold a space that truly represents you - for your pleasure first of all. For the garden ultimately is a place to be in, a place not unlike your favorite spot for a picnic, where we find a collection of people finally at rest, enjoying themselves.

In this time in our history, the garden is significantly a sanctuary, a place to stop and rest and consider life on this earth. A place of light and shadow, a place defined by plants and architecture in season and at various times of day. A place that heightens our self-awareness, in a particular moment and in this special place. It frames us … as well as our plants.

We build our garden frame with walls, with a ceiling and a floor - if for no other reason than to limit the scope and conserve our energy and resources. And it is this frame that provides foreground and background, screens the unwanted, gathers the sound of water and the rustle of leaves, and reflects the play of natural and artificial light. it holds nature closely, so that we the gardeners (although not us exclusively) may enjoy it.

As you experiment within your particular garden frame, you will find its limits. The point at which each individual plant is elevated within the whole, and the effect each new addition presents.

With this quest for balance in mind, we invite you to visit our garden. We hope it will inspire as you create your own sanctuary.

Paul and Mardell Steinkamp,
the daughters and the staff