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Plant Availability
List  2016/2017
Egyptian Onions – (Allium cepa) Proliferum Group
Aka:  Tree onion, walking onion, topset onion, this is a perennial heirloom forming clusters of small bulblets on tips of leafstalks.  Top set
bulbs may be eaten or planted – needs periodic dividing.  Good for edible landscaping.  Ornamental and Productive.  Sun.
Feverfew – (Chrysanthemum parthenium)
Small daisy-like blooms on light green foliage.  Prune flowers if you want it to be perennial.  Otherwise, it self seeds readily.  Medicinal
qualities:  In our experience eating 2-3 leaves daily can help with the severity and frequency of migraine as well as regular type headaches.
Garlic Chives  -- (Allium tuberosum)
Flowering, edible (mildly garlic flavored) perennial chives.  Likes full sun, is drought tolerant and the clumps get bigger each year.  
Charming white flowers in late summer.  Hardy in Tennessee.
Horseradish – (Armoracia rusticana)
1-4 foot large, broad-leafed, perennial herb.  The root has both medicinal and culinary qualities.  Tiny white 4-petaled flowers from May-
July.  Likes moist areas and does best in full Sun.
Horsetail – (Equisetum hyemale)
Moisture loving, evergreen, hardy perennial.  Was here when the dinosaurs roamed.  Scouring rush was its folk name – used to polish
pewter and as a dye.  Also used medicinally by native North American people and early settlers.  A good nourishing herb for women.
Jerusalem Artichokes – (Helianthus tuberosus)
Native perennial, edible root crop – likes full sun.  Can reach 8’ tall with a small sunflower type flower.  Harvest tubers in fall and winter and
plant back small ones.   Eat raw or cooked.  Good food for diabetics.
Lemon Grass – (Cymbogogon citratus)
Tropical, citrus-flavored grass used in Asian cooking.  Not hardy in this climate.  Can keep in the greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill in the
winter.  We plant a clump in the garden in spring after last frost and dig and pot it up for the winter to keep in the greenhouse.  Clump gets
larger throughout the season.
Maypops, Passion Fruit – (Passiflora incarnata)
Hardy, herbaceous, native perennial climbing (tendrils) vine – hardiest of the edible passion fruit.  Tennessee State wildflower.  Known
variously as vine apricot, maypops & hardy passion fruit.  Beautiful summer blooming fragrant pale purple (3”) flowers with purple and white
coronas.  Oval pale green to yellow fruit in fall.  Wait for them to drop to assure ripeness.  Prefers full sun.  Sweet taste, makes good wine,
herbage also used medicinally as a bedtime tonic.  Hardy to Zone 5 with mulch.
Milkweed – (Asclepius syriaca)
Perennial, stoloniferous to 10’ with fragrant flowers.  Host for Monarch butterfly larvae.  Shoots and leaves are edible in the spring.  Super
multi-purpose plant.  Likes one-half to all day sun.  Was investigated as a rubber substitute by Firestone and the fluff in the seed heads was
used for insulation in military clothing in WWI.
Purslane -- (Portulaca oleracea)
Self-seeding annual – edible and medicinal.  Contains antioxidants and contributes significant amounts of important vitamins to the diet:  
Vitamins A,B,C, and E.  Carbohydrates and omega-3 fatty acids contribute to its 15 calories per 100 gram serving.  It is an alternative to fish
oils for those with fish allergies.  Easy to grow, harvest fresh for salads or as a cooked green with meats or pickled for winter eating.  Good
living ground cover in vegetable or flower gardens.
Roselle aka Jamaican Sorrel – (Hibiscus sabdifera)
Tropical perennial hibiscus grown as an annual (or can be greenhoused).  Sour leaves used like sorrel, flower calyx makes a refreshing
drink either hot or cold (Red Zinger Tea) and also makes a jelly.  Likes sun to part shade.  Beautiful subtle cream and maroon okra like
flowers.
Rosemary – (Rosmarinus officinalis) -- hardy forms
We offer the hardy forms of rosemary – with beautiful blue flowers, upright to about 4’ tall and spreading.  Landscape plant for sun to part
shade.  Both culinary and medicinal uses.
Rue – (Ruta graveolens)
Hardy perennial from Southern Europe, known as the Herb of Grace.  3 foot+ tall, finely divided blue-green evergreen foliage with small
bright yellow, four-petaled flowers in summer.  The aroma, while pleasant to us, is said to repel pests and put around the edge of the
garden, it is said to deter deer and rabbits.  Also used medicinally to aid digestion & ceremonially.  Likes sun to part shade.
EARTH ADVOCATES RESEARCH FARM
30 Myers Road
Summertown, Tn. 38483-7323   U.S.A

Phone:        (931) 964-4151
Fax:           (931) 964-4228

Hours: 7:00 am-5:00 pm CST  M-F
Visits By Appointment Only
Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa)
Flowers similar to our native dogwood but one month later.  Produces an edible strawberry-like fruit in late summer.
Pomegranates – (Punica granatum)
Generally hardy to about 10ºF.  Requires a microclimate here in middle Tennessee.  Likes full to half day sun and good drainage.  New to
us (5 years) – we have about 30 cultivars under trial here.
Thornless Honey Locust – (Gleditsia triacanthos f. inermis)
Fast growing, thornless, nitrogen-fixing tree that makes an open shade.  Pods are edible, similar to Carob to which it is related.  Gives a
high-quality wood, good livestock feed.  Full Sun is best.
HERBS/VEGETABLES
Air Potato – (Dioscorea bulbifera)
An Asia yam related to our native Dioscorea.  Hardy perennial herbaceous twining vine producing edible underground tubers as well as
bearing 2 or 3 small edible aerial tubers in leaf axils in late summer/early fall which can be used like potatoes.  Beautiful fall color -- best on
a trellis.
Arugula – the wild form – (Diplotaxis muralis)      
Smaller leaves and slower to bolt than garden arugula with delicate yellow flowers.  Piquant, peppery flavor.  Perennial and self-seeding in
middle Tennessee.  Likes full sun to part shade.
Prickly Pear Cactus – (Opuntia englemannii)
Noted for the size and quality of its fruit (tunas), it is hardy outdoors here in middle Tennessee.  Young pads are the Mexican vegetable
nopales.  Both pads and fruit are used in preventing and treating diabetes
Edible Ginger – (Zingiber officinale)
Tropical -- 15ºF minimum temperature.  To 6’ tall, 10” long narrow leaves on a pseudostem.  Prefers sunny, well drained, nutritious soil.  
Minimum soil temperature to plant out -- 55 ºF.  To overwinter ginger it must remain planted in soil/media and soil temps should not fall
below 55 ºF.  A heated greenhouse or bringing inside the home after the plant goes dormant for the season would work.  Once air
temperatures go below 50 ºF – the plant should be brought inside (home or greenhouse).  The variety we carry is high yielding and has
superior flavor to store bought ginger varieties.
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Food for the Body, Mind, Spirit and the landscape
Available Saturdays at the Franklin Farmers Mkt. or at the farm by appointment