![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plant delights, oh my
May. 9th, 2003 10:39 pmi went to plant delights today. it's enormous and unbelievable. i am pinching myself that i did not bring a camera. it took a half hr to get there which doesn't sound too bad, but it's definitely out of the way. as always, there are compromises when traveling with sylvia. the idea of leaving her at home with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
h_postmortemus, aka papa was considered but i was going to be gone a bit long for comfort. not only that, but i was offered a bribe. by absconding with sylvia for the early afternoon and giving papa some quiet time with his computer, he would take care of sylvia when i returned and let me have some time to commune with my new plants.
*brief note: my main goal was to find some elusive shade dwellers, which partially explains the below drooling over hostas*
there was a hope that sylvia would fall asleep in the car on the way over there. instead she got more and more indignant. so i pulled off a random exit and changed her diaper. the hope being that she would then be happy and fall asleep. she was not immediately pleased. i think because she had been so upset by the delay. however, she was not as upset and was starting to make 'i'm too tired to cry' cries as i made the last turn. that was a mile from plant delights and at this point she had been fed, changed and driven over 20 miles - she was sound asleep.
i found a place to park and began the expedition. afraid that sylvia would awaken, i only looked at maybe a third of the gardens. well, that and the fact that it was excessively hot. the first greenhouse i entered was full of hostas. it is really hard to describe how impressive rows upon rows of hostas can be. there were over a hundred varieties and this was one of at least two all-hosta greenhouses. there is something poetic about the way their leaves cascade over each other. my selection process was assisted by a promise i had made to myself not to consider any plant over $20. which frankly, eliminated the majority. however, i have now planted everything i got today, and these plants are so big, they look like they've always been here.
in between hosta greenhouse 1 and hosta greenhouse 2 i stopped in a random shade perennial greenhouse where i got the heucheras, toad lily and pulmonaria. it was a bit crowded in there and i started getting worried about the heat so i only looked at 2/3rds of this greenhouse before moseying over to greenhouse 2.
in hosta greenhouse 2, i finally located hosta 'guacamole' and was a bit disappointed in it. this is one of the main reasons i'm glad i went in person. it can be hard to tell what the true effect of a plant in the garden will be, especially when you're talking about hostas which are all about green on green (or yellow, cream, white). i also fell in love with hosta 'stingray' which is simply mammoth. however, it was $30 and a bit huge to carry around while pushing the stroller. i decided to see if my passions had cooled by the time i went to check out.
it was in hosta greenhouse 2 that sylvia awoke. i had been reluctant to open her canopy for fear of waking her, so this was the first time i'd been able to get a good look at her since we arrived. she was covered in sweat and i started to get very nervous. of course, i was covered in sweat too and felt fine, but i'm an adult and made the choice to heat myself. i soaked one of her wipes in water and ran it over her skin. she was a bit disturbed when i started rubbing her head, but then started smiling and acting generally chipper. obviously, she was not completely overcome by the heat, but i decided it was time to start thinking about leaving.
i have no idea how many greenhouses i missed. i almost turned back for round 2 when i saw the greenhouse with all of the predatory plants, but i decided this was the kind of obsessiveness that did not help sylvia or my checkbook. i've got to get back to this place later with more money and more time. as much as i wish i could have seen the whole place, i probably would have been more frustrated over the plants i could not get.
i got back to the car, cranked up the a/c and headed back to the big city. sylvia was a bit fussy for much of the trip, but again settled to sleep when we returned.
she woke up shortly after i got home, which was ok as it was about time she ate again. i would have fed her in the car at plant delights if she'd shown signs of hunger, but she seemed ok and i thought it better to get her cooled and then feed her at home. while i was feeding sylvia,h_postmortemus happened to ask when was the last time i'd eaten. whoops. but eventually, everyone was fed and happy and i went out to plant my goodies :).
the first year after we moved, i had been under some bizarre impression that there was sunlight in the front garden (garden bed A) and had planted gladiolas there. i ripped out the ones which remained and added the new plants. the list is below. these plants were added to a: columbine, japanese painted fern, ostrich fern (small and possibly deceased), heuchera velvet night, hosta sum and substance, and hosta blue mountain. the result actually looks pretty darned good. there's a bit of a woodland wonderland thing starting to happen. i should be able to divide all of the hostas this fall and add to the effect.
nicest of all, after the planting - a very cold shower. man, it was hot out there. we are tentatively pushing back the trip to the beach to next week in the hopes that it will not be quite so hot and we might all have more fun. sylvia's only exposure to the actual ocean will be a ceremonial toe-dipping, but i am still looking forward to it.
the plants:
h_postmortemus, aka papa was considered but i was going to be gone a bit long for comfort. not only that, but i was offered a bribe. by absconding with sylvia for the early afternoon and giving papa some quiet time with his computer, he would take care of sylvia when i returned and let me have some time to commune with my new plants. *brief note: my main goal was to find some elusive shade dwellers, which partially explains the below drooling over hostas*
there was a hope that sylvia would fall asleep in the car on the way over there. instead she got more and more indignant. so i pulled off a random exit and changed her diaper. the hope being that she would then be happy and fall asleep. she was not immediately pleased. i think because she had been so upset by the delay. however, she was not as upset and was starting to make 'i'm too tired to cry' cries as i made the last turn. that was a mile from plant delights and at this point she had been fed, changed and driven over 20 miles - she was sound asleep.
i found a place to park and began the expedition. afraid that sylvia would awaken, i only looked at maybe a third of the gardens. well, that and the fact that it was excessively hot. the first greenhouse i entered was full of hostas. it is really hard to describe how impressive rows upon rows of hostas can be. there were over a hundred varieties and this was one of at least two all-hosta greenhouses. there is something poetic about the way their leaves cascade over each other. my selection process was assisted by a promise i had made to myself not to consider any plant over $20. which frankly, eliminated the majority. however, i have now planted everything i got today, and these plants are so big, they look like they've always been here.
in between hosta greenhouse 1 and hosta greenhouse 2 i stopped in a random shade perennial greenhouse where i got the heucheras, toad lily and pulmonaria. it was a bit crowded in there and i started getting worried about the heat so i only looked at 2/3rds of this greenhouse before moseying over to greenhouse 2.
in hosta greenhouse 2, i finally located hosta 'guacamole' and was a bit disappointed in it. this is one of the main reasons i'm glad i went in person. it can be hard to tell what the true effect of a plant in the garden will be, especially when you're talking about hostas which are all about green on green (or yellow, cream, white). i also fell in love with hosta 'stingray' which is simply mammoth. however, it was $30 and a bit huge to carry around while pushing the stroller. i decided to see if my passions had cooled by the time i went to check out.
it was in hosta greenhouse 2 that sylvia awoke. i had been reluctant to open her canopy for fear of waking her, so this was the first time i'd been able to get a good look at her since we arrived. she was covered in sweat and i started to get very nervous. of course, i was covered in sweat too and felt fine, but i'm an adult and made the choice to heat myself. i soaked one of her wipes in water and ran it over her skin. she was a bit disturbed when i started rubbing her head, but then started smiling and acting generally chipper. obviously, she was not completely overcome by the heat, but i decided it was time to start thinking about leaving.
i have no idea how many greenhouses i missed. i almost turned back for round 2 when i saw the greenhouse with all of the predatory plants, but i decided this was the kind of obsessiveness that did not help sylvia or my checkbook. i've got to get back to this place later with more money and more time. as much as i wish i could have seen the whole place, i probably would have been more frustrated over the plants i could not get.
i got back to the car, cranked up the a/c and headed back to the big city. sylvia was a bit fussy for much of the trip, but again settled to sleep when we returned.
she woke up shortly after i got home, which was ok as it was about time she ate again. i would have fed her in the car at plant delights if she'd shown signs of hunger, but she seemed ok and i thought it better to get her cooled and then feed her at home. while i was feeding sylvia,
h_postmortemus happened to ask when was the last time i'd eaten. whoops. but eventually, everyone was fed and happy and i went out to plant my goodies :).the first year after we moved, i had been under some bizarre impression that there was sunlight in the front garden (garden bed A) and had planted gladiolas there. i ripped out the ones which remained and added the new plants. the list is below. these plants were added to a: columbine, japanese painted fern, ostrich fern (small and possibly deceased), heuchera velvet night, hosta sum and substance, and hosta blue mountain. the result actually looks pretty darned good. there's a bit of a woodland wonderland thing starting to happen. i should be able to divide all of the hostas this fall and add to the effect.
nicest of all, after the planting - a very cold shower. man, it was hot out there. we are tentatively pushing back the trip to the beach to next week in the hopes that it will not be quite so hot and we might all have more fun. sylvia's only exposure to the actual ocean will be a ceremonial toe-dipping, but i am still looking forward to it.
the plants:
- hosta baby bunting (yes, the name had some slight influence, but so did the relatively low price for a small leaved hosta)
- hosta fried bananas (yellow-green, huge and magnificent)
- heuchera strawberry candy (white speckled foliage, unbelievably sweet pink flowers)
- heuchera silver scrolls (i couldn't decide between a white or another burgundy and the leaves for this one are frosted white on front and burgundy on the back)
- tricyrtis formosana 'gates of heaven' (i have recently fallen for toad lilies and had never seen a yellow leaved variety. their flowers are small but unbelievably complex.)
- pulmonaria 'dark vader' (this plant has it all: shade tolerant, thick green leaves with white speckles and upright frondy growth with blue flowers, plus a really cool name)
