Today Mark and I ran some errands, and as we did I noted that the perennial grower near us was having an open house, concurrent to a larger pond tour. I don't have time or energy to do the pond tour today, so it goes on the list of 'things to do next year.'
But we stopped on the way back home, talked with the growers, and spent an enjoyable hour or so wandering through the hoop houses and talking plants and gardening.
Mark, when I met him, hated getting his hands dirty and equated gardening with dirt only. I never actively set out to convert him, but it's hard to get a gardener to not talk about the garden. Over time, he became interested in the plants, their habits, and their flowers.
When we moved to the giant corner lot, he became even more interested. More garden. Less grass. Happy Mark. We have plans and are slowly converting a large swath of land into a meandering shrub and perennial bed. He even worked a year at the local nursery, giving us fantastic bargains on the year-end sale shrubs.
The grower is only about a mile from our house, but they had critters I've never seen in my garden. Hummingbird moths are fascinating things... they hover and sip just like a hummingbird, but they let you observe them much more closely. And I, alas, without my camera.
We also saw many of the lovely red velvety dragonflies I enjoy so much. Their garden is immediately adjacent to a wetland and the dragon and damselflies were in abundance.
And he let me buy a treat. I am somewhat partial to ferns and woodland plants, and am collecting plants to put under the pergola - which, when the vines are mature, should act as a shade tree. You can see two of the japanese painted ferns in my photo up there on the right. Today I picked up an Athyrium X 'Ghost' to plant behind the two painted ferns, thereby creating the garden design mantra of 'threes.' I'll have to be careful to give it plenty of room, the catalog says it gets 24-36 inches.
It will make me very happy. I love that color of soft celedon. It is one of my favorites, both in the garden and out.
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