Re: Visit to Plant Delights

Except for your back - sounds like an awesome trip.  Would that I were closer.

Pam Evans
Kemp, TX
zone 8A
----- Original Message -----
From: Andrea H
Sent: 8/2/2004 7:46:40 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: [CHAT] Visit to Plant Delights

> OK, it's taken me 2 days to let y'all know what went on a Plant Delights. My
> back went out from the ride up there and had to go to the chiropractor today
> to get it smashed back into place. Boy am I sore! No mowing or weeding for me
> for a few days.
> 
> Anyway, we arrived easily, VERY easy to find off I-40 south of Raleigh.
> 
> The place is gorgeous, it's on farm land. The office is in front, and they
> live in another house farther back on the property. The entire grounds are
> planted, mulched, labeled, with mixed borders of sun with conifers (that I
> can't grow of course) and then of course shade borders as well. The plants are
> spaced so everything is visible, rather than crammed 6 inches from one another
> (like my yard) so you can see every individual plant. VERY COOL. Water
> features all over, testing gardens that weren't open. Red brick paths,
> 
> the classes were really good. Two hours long each. The first was the art in
> the garden talk. I really like a lot of the stuff. Some of it was a bit too
> ornate for me. But the sculpture Joel Haas also does a lot of very Japanese
> work that is clean and simple. Liked those. His point was that art should
> interact with the garden rather than blend. Don't place purple sculpture next
> to purple flowers. He showed us slides of some of that and sure enough,
> couldn't really see either the plant or the art. He didn't trash concrete
> sculptures, just was trying to open our minds to other possibilities. I posted
> his talk the other night so you all can see some of his work if you like.
> 
> Tony Avent's class, Tropicalissimo, was mainly geared towards people in their
> zone, but I did learn quite a bit about bananas. According to Tony, he has not
> heard of any banana hardy north of zone 7. However, you can yank them out of
> their pot and throw them potless in the basement for the winter and they will
> do fine as long as they had enough time to store plenty of sugars in the
> spring. So for those of you north of zone 7 who want banana trees badly, you
> can have them but they take some work.
> 
> Tony was as humorous as his catalogs and the new one came out today. So those
> on the mailing list should be getting one soon.
> 
> The greenhouses were immaculate and all the plants in great shape. Still
> pricey, but WOW. I did manage to get myself an Echinacea 'Art's pride" or the
> orange one, and yes it is orange. A Musella which is type of banana grown for
> its flowers. A Cordyline 'Red Sensation'  and a Phlox that I can't recall
> right now but it is almost black the flowers are so red. The flowers are also
> tiny and fuzzy looking. Their rest of the plant looks like a regular Phlox. I
> hope it does OK here.
> 
> There were a lot of people there, everyone was very nice. I have to admit that
> I was less than attentive as I would have been squirming around in my chair
> because my back hurt so bad. I finally popped 800 mg of ibuprofen and stood
> for the rest of the class. LOL! And that was in the morning. Made it through
> the rest of the day.
> 
> So, Anyway-for those of you interested in tropical gardening, and want to know
> more let me know. Many of the things he talked about were zone 6 also.
> Unfortunately, the rest of you would have to grow things in pots, but they
> sure do have some nice things. And gorgeous hostas. We had a great talk on the
> Amorphophallus plants, with much giggling and silliness. He is too funny. And
> now they have their catalog covers on to-shirts. I wanted the plants more so
> I'll get a to-shirt later!
> 
> Had  GREAT time! Go if you get the chance. But call first as they aren't open
> to the public on a regular basis.
> Andrea H
> Beaufort, SC
> 
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