My first day....

This is just a short post to let you know that I started my new job today. I'm pretty excited because...




...I now work at the Gazebo location of New Garden Nursery! I've been a fairly frequent customer at New Garden, but now I'll get paid to hang out there. Can you beat that? Actually, I'll have to work to get paid. That's o.k, though; I think it'll be pretty cool! And I get to wear these groovy T-shirts that say New Garden Nursery on them.




If you're ever in town, come by and say hi! It's a great nursery. I took these pictures of a display near the front entrance of the Nursery as I was leaving today. With my cell phone camera! Aren't they gorgeous Spring flowers?


Have a beautiful day!

I made a mistake...

O.K., so today I made a mistake. I went to New Garden Nursery. "Just to look," I told myself. "Not to buy anything." Ha. Who did I think I was fooling???



Yep. I bought a flat of Violas. But I guess maybe that's so not so bad, is it? It was inevitable, I suppose, since it is now Fall. I would have to buy them eventually, right? Because I do need them to survive Winter. So why not today?


Have a beautiful day!

A visit to New Garden...

Since my own garden is so grey and desolate right now, I went to my favorite local nursery, New Garden, to see what might be going on.




It wasn’t quite in hibernation, but almost. There weren’t as many plants as usual because preparations were being made for spring. In the greenhouse, boxes were being unloaded and new displays of accessories were being designed.




I love these little benches.




New Garden sells the most beautiful potted arrangements. Every time I go in there, I admire them.



As I went outside, many of the perennials were still under wraps to protect them from the cold. But there was this collection of pots that caught my eye.

(Imagine celestial music playing as I discover the pots.)

Could it be because there were blue ones? Or was it the 75% off sign?




Yes, one came home with me. I’ll probably put it in my seating area under the oak. You know, the one I don’t have yet; the one I am obsessed with.




Later in my visit, they were uncovering the plants as the days and nights will be getting a little warmer now. That is when I discovered my next treasure.

{Vinca minor and Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'}

I have wanted to grow black mondo grass for some time now and was thrilled to find that it, too, was 75% off. Maybe I will grow it, along with Creeping Jenny, in my new pot.


Have a beautiful day!

Promises...

Earlier this week, I went to New Garden Nursery to buy some little yellow violas (I call them Johnnies) because I know that in January I will desperately need the color they provide. There will be nothing else happening in my garden until February so these cheerful little guys will have to get me through a month of bleakness. On my way to the violas - o.k., so it wasn't the direct route - I went past the bulb display, now with a sign declaring the bulbs 25% off. To make a long story short, I came home with my Johnnies AND a bag of bulbs.




Bulbs are amazing. They are small packages holding so much potential. They don't appear to offer much, but we plant them, knowing they promise to bring beauty and joy. I did indeed plant my bulbs even though it was a couple days into December and the planting time clearly indicated that they should be planted September - November. Does the little bulb know that it is being planted Dec. 2 instead of Nov. 30? I don't think so. It still will probably get enough time in the ground and in the cold to do its thing before it is required to burst forth in the spring.




I have tried growing Muscari botryoides before, both the white form (Album) and the pale blue form. Both times the plants were already blooming when I bought them. Neither survived to grow and bloom again the next year. Somewhere a gardener wrote that he gives any particular plant at least 3 chances. That sounds like a good idea to me and so Muscari botryoides 'Album' gets another opportunity. Maybe this time it will live from year to year for me, slowly naturalizing in my garden.

Now I wait for spring and a promise to be fulfilled.



Have a beautiful day!

Purple rain...

For the fall, winter, and spring, I planted this urn with Purple Rain pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) that I purchased from my favorite local nursery, New Garden Nursery. They are supposed to grow so that they will cascade over the edges of the pot, which I think will be quite charming. I have planted grape hyacinth (Muscari, probably armeniacum) with them because I like the contrast of its leaves. And then, of course, in the spring, there will be the beautiful, fragrant blue flowers to enjoy with the purple and yellow pansies.





I bought the urn at a big box store a couple of years ago. It is made of that strange, sorta foamy stuff and was scraped and scratched in places. So, I mixed some paint to be close to the color of the pot and painted the areas that were wearing out and then coated that with polyurethane once the paint had dried.




It all looks so beautiful on top of my "stone" wall, next to the house. It makes part of an ending point for the intersection of the path and the steps that come from the deck and back door.



Have a beautiful day!