Mixed Feelings

It was a great day for bargains at a local nursery.  The same place where I found the beautiful Knapp Hill azaleas...

I took home quite a few perennials, shrubs and grasses.  There is this big project that keeps grabbing my attention...we refer to it as the GOBN.  It's an  incredibly  exciting project... planting ideas come at me faster then a squirrel heading for newly planted tulips.

So, when I saw the deciduous hollies (including Southern Gentlemen for pollinating the girls) for a mere fraction of their usual cost, they went into the back of the Subaru.   They kept company on the ride home with  the feather reed grasses, Stachys officinalis 'Hummelo'', May Night Sage, the climbing aster (Aster carolinianus) and a Ryan's Yellow chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum x morifolium ‘Ryan’s Yellow’).  The day before  six  Little Henry Iteas and five giant Oakleaf Hydranges went home with me.  They are perfect for the back yard gardens and way under my plant budget.  

It was a good day at the nursery.

It was also a sad day at the nursery.

The owner may be shutting down and the manager is scrambling to get financing to keep it open. I suspect that it will be gone in March.  Unless some wonderful angel shows up to rescue this business.  It's hard to imagine banks will be eager to support an unknown business owner. Not in these economic times.

It's rough out there for nursery owners.  The landscape contractor who is helping me grade the soil away from the  patio told me that projects are being cancelled daily.  My project is a tiny project, not the bread and butter of her business.  

When projects have to be cancelled  there is a domino effect that touches not only  the contractor but,  her employees,  the designer,  the  equipment rental companies and the nurseries who would have supplied the plants. 

I had a great day at the nursery, but it wasn't without the knowledge that others might not be having such a good day.

Gail 

I thank you God for this most amazing day,

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, 

and for the blue dream of sky 

and 

for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

eecummings