Cates Family Farm

Cates Family Farm Cates Family Farm is a small, family-operated farm located at 17 S Stanley Hill Rd, Vassalboro, ME.

We offer eco-grown seedlings and produce, as well as cut-flowers, gladiolus bulbs, and dahlia tubers. Founded in 1970 by Paul and Elisabeth Cates, in the past decades Cates Family Farm has grown from an enterprise which raised exclusively gladiolus to one which produces high-quality garden annuals and perennials as well, between the months of May and October, and a catalog of mostly heirloom gladiolus bulbs available early each spring.

06/09/2025

Put King of the North sweet peppers, California Wonder sweet peppers, Keystone Resistant Giant sweet peppers, toothache plant and Chinese Motherwort on the stand yesterday!
More to come!
There are also window boxes for your decorating needs!
All six packs $5, window boxes priced as marked.

06/03/2025

Just put on the stand this evening:

California Wonder Sweet Pepper
True Black Brandywine Tomato
Beefsteak Tomato
Martino’s Roma Tomato

All in 6 packs, $5 each.

More coming soon! Hope to have the stand 1/2 full by this weekend!

Tons of growth lately! Putting out the first veggie seedlings tomorrow! Still more to be transplanted! Grown with certif...
06/03/2025

Tons of growth lately! Putting out the first veggie seedlings tomorrow! Still more to be transplanted! Grown with certified organic amendments and soil blend, either certified organic or non-GMO seed. And the most important? Grown with LOVE.

New this year: Toothache plant. What does it do? Well, you’ll have to feel it for yourself. 🤓

Also new this year: Chinese Motherwort.

All six packs are $5 each.
Small pots are $2 each.
Larger pots priced as marked.

04/26/2025

The master plan…

04/26/2025

Who would like Kale seedlings this year? Sometimes they’re hit or miss. We could do green or red.

04/22/2025

Now that the news is out, we are asking for your help to save the glads.
We’re asking anyone who has any of the heirloom gladiolus bulbs that we sold them to check and see if they have any bulblets which grew from their bulbs!
The bulblets are the tiny bulbs that grow from their root of the larger bulbs.
If anyone has any of the older varieties in bulblets form, we will GLADly take them off your hands to procreate them and save some of the old varieties.
We can re-establish some limited stock and rebuild with your help!
Please let us know this fall, if you dig up your bulbs for storage over the winter and know the names of the varieties you’re digging up, we could definitely use the help and the tiny bulblets!

04/22/2025

It’s difficult to report this.
Last year was a rough year. We apologize for not posting sooner.

The farm has now lost all of the glad bulbs due to rust, a fungus which spreads rapidly. It’s believed the rust first appeared from an order of bulbs shipped from Michigan. It spread rampantly and over 50 years of a beautiful business asset was destroyed.

We do not have any bulbs for sale this year and will not have fresh glads available THIS year. We will not continue to spread the fungus to other gardens and the bulbs were all left to die in the field. We took a loss so your soil stays healthy!

As much as we love nature, sometimes it destroys.

We are working diligently to rebuild the soil as the fungus can stay in the soil for up to 15 years if proper measures are not taken. It may take a couple of years… but we won’t give up.
Our family has worked far too hard over the years to let a few rust spores bring us down.

On a positive note, we still have perennials and plenty of annuals coming, as well as vegetable and herb seedlings!

There are also fresh p***y willows on the stand!

We are hoping that the community is understanding of the situation at this time and wish everyone a happy gardening season during the 2025 season!

We will be posting when we have seedlings available on the stand and will likely be doing annual and perennial bouquets instead of glads this year.

It’s not too late for annuals and herbs at our roadside stand! We just put out some beautiful verbena and basil 6-packs,...
07/15/2023

It’s not too late for annuals and herbs at our roadside stand! We just put out some beautiful verbena and basil 6-packs, and common sage 4-packs. We also have potted herbs including hardy “Arp” rosemary, which may overwinter in USDA zone 5, Berggarten broad leaf sage, and a few peppermint. Potted tomatoes are out there, too!

6-packs and 4-packs are 3 for $15 or $6 each; potted herbs and tomatoes are 2 for $5 or $3 each. We accept cash in the box, or you can scan our Venmo QR code to pay digitally.

06/09/2023

We can’t express how much we hate making posts like this… We’d like to request that whoever grabbed three annual planters from the honor system farm stand and left without paying, either return them to the stand or pay for them.

It’s honor system farm stand season once again, folks! We’re excited to be back for another year. Our first tomatoes, br...
05/27/2023

It’s honor system farm stand season once again, folks! We’re excited to be back for another year. Our first tomatoes, brassicas, and herbs are out, as well as a selection of annual planters and bunches of rhubarb from our 100+ year heirloom patch.

We accept cash at the stand, or you can pay via Venmo using . For your convenience, we’ve put our Venmo QR code right on the cash box.

Come visit us at 17 S Stanley Hill Road in Vassalboro today! More varieties of veggies are coming soon. Full inventory below!

Rhubarb: $5 per bunch.

(The count may vary from bunch to bunch, as our unit of measurement for rhubarb is as many stalks as we can fit in a generous handful!)

All flower planters: as marked

Flower and veggie seedling 6-packs and 4-packs: $6 each or 3 for $15

Flower seedlings: Blue Lobelia, Mixed Petunias

Brassicas: Georgia Southern Collards, Brunswick Cabbage, Giant White Kohlrabi, Blauer Speck (“purple bacon”) Kohlrabi, Calabrese Broccoli, Waltham 29 Broccoli

Greens: Landis Winter Lettuce, Red Russian Kale, Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Herbs: Zefa Fino White Fennel

Tomatoes: Amish Paste, Roma, Sun Gold

Address

17 S Stanley Hill Rd
Vassalboro, ME
04989

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 7pm
Saturday 8am - 7pm
Sunday 8am - 7pm

Telephone

+12079233412

Website

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