Re: Hesperis Matronalis & other finds

> Thank you Jamie:
> I did find them in T & M.
> 
> Merlene

My pleasure, Merlene.  I hope they do well for you.  

So ... like I just happened to have to slip into Home Depot for 
some stuff to compose a rock-sticking slurry needed to complete 
a commercial shade garden installation.  

I'm not normally a Home Depot plant shopper.  Some degree of 
snobbery, I suppose but I prefer real nurseries.  However, I had 
to stroll past the perennials section of flats in order to get 
out of the masonry section.  

I was fairly irritated to see some pretty darned nice Alchemilla 
mollis (sp?) and other plants in 4" pots including (a few 
gorgeous) Variegated Solomon's Seal, blue & white Jacobs Ladder, 
etc.  I wasn't irritated to see them, I was irritated because 
every one had most of their stems broken, many were bone dry, 
they were a real mess.  I mentioned to one of the employees that 
they needed to be attended to after the frenzy of weekend 
buying.  Heh, heh, heh.  

Once in a while it actually pays off to be nice.  The woman I 
had commiserated with about how crazy it can get there, told me 
to set aside every plant I thought was a real mess & she'd give 
them to me at a heavily discounted price. I pointed out (in all 
fairness) that if the root system was alright, odds were good 
the plant would recover just beautifully if they were well 
watered, neatly trimmed and kept shaded.  She just smiled, 
nodded and repeated the directions adding that they would 
otherwise end up in the trash.  

Not one to miss an opportunity, I loaded up a cart with the most 
pitiful looking, battered plants. (Did I mention that I ran? :)  
She gave me 30 plants for $5.00.  <VBG>

So then I had to be standing right next to that same rack of 
perennial seeds in the checkout line I bumped into last year. 
They had another 2 cultivars of Thalictrum (gorgeous), mixed 
Verbascum, Dianthus gratianopolitanus (Cheddar pinks), Veronica 
teucrium (a lovely color & size missing in my collection).  
Hmmm.  If that guy ahead of me hadn't taken so long I wouldn't 
have been forced to get all of them.  :)   But then he & I got 
to talking. We're neighbors.  We negotiated a few really good 
plant swaps.

All in all a very successful day even if I did have to spend 10 
hours doing hard labor in someone else's garden.  

Jaime, who is smiling even with the screaming muscles, pinched 
nerves and general aches and pains from too much too quickly.
jknoble@warwick.net
NW NJ, zone 6/5
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