5 Star Nursery and Orchard

06/14/2026

06/14/2026

First season with Penstemon pallidus blooming at the orchard…early enough in the season to still get pollinated by an orchard mason bee! Our Native Plant list has been updated on our website and plants are available at the Bar Harbor Farmers Market tomorrow. We’re out of P. pallidus for now but more coming later in the season!

06/10/2026

Hello to all our new followers that found us through the launch of the new in May! We are thrilled to be collaborating with so many amazing Maine native plant nurseries to increase access to native plants all over the state. In addition to running a certified organic orchard, we also have an organic native plant nursery. We started up the nursery in 2018 to have access to as many native species as possible to assist in pollinating, providing erosion control and living mulches, creating habitat for beneficial insects and birds, and for many other vital functions in supporting how we practice agriculture. We start our plants from seed and acquire seed as close to Downeast Maine as we can. We achieve this through abundant seed stock here in our orchard and surrounding woods and through partnerships with , , and our largest partner, . Check out our website for when and where you can get native plants!

06/04/2026

Baldwin has been busy prepping an area for a new crop for us… hardy kiwi fruit! We’ve been busy getting ready for opening day of the market tomorrow. 11am-1pm in the Friend Memorial Public Library’s overflow parking lot. We’ll have rhubarb, native plants and apple cider vinegar. New vendors this year so be sure to welcome them!

05/30/2026

We appreciate all of you showing up in your winter hats and gloves today to get soooo many native plants for your yards, gardens, schools and more! Thank you to for being the best hosts ever! Back at the tomorrow with more new varieties of plants. And check out evolution at its finest… can you find the crab spider (Misumenoides spp) on these Zizia aurea — common golden Alexanders blossoms? This family of spiders are ambush hunters, blending in with flowers to pounce on unsuspecting insects with their fangs.

05/28/2026

Taking preorders for the annual plant sale until Friday at 12pm. See you at the sale on Saturday from 9-12 at the Bagaduce Music campus! Sadly, we won’t have rhodora or blue-eyed grass for sale this Saturday, but that’s what’s blooming around the orchard right now! Love looking for the twin blooms in the blue-eyed grass populations; like finding a four leaf clover.

05/22/2026

The beginning of the apples and striped maple flowers (Acer pensylvanicum). Tree flowers are beautiful.

05/19/2026

The beginning of the European and Asian Pears. The beginning petal fall in the Asian plums; wish you could smell it. Pollinator helper? The jury is out if Evodinus monticola, commonly known as the flower longhorn beetle, has a great impact on pollination. Hope so because this is our first year without the insurance of honey beehives in the orchard due to so many beekeepers having bad winters with their bees. Let’s hope all that work of installing native plants all over the orchard the last 9 years makes up for it! Speaking of natives, enjoy the spreading Jacob’s ladder, Jack-in-the-pulpit, red baneberry and plantain-leaved pussytoes.

05/16/2026

The beginning of the peaches and the shadbush are blooming. Love driving around this time of year seeing all those white flowers and coppery leaves all over the roadsides. Now taking preorders for annual spring plant sale on May 30th!

05/12/2026

The beginning of the plums. And wild strawberries and bluets galore in the orchard understory. Still have a few apple trees for sale… great planting weather this week!