Re: perfect timing
- Subject: Re: [SG] perfect timing
- From: N* S*
- Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 11:45:49 -0400
Wow. It all sounds great!
Here, in New York, the dogwoods are also better than I've ever seen them. I
wonder what circumstances lead to that. I wonder if three days of 90+ heat
followed a few weeks later by lots of rain is what they (bizarrely) need to
especially shine.
Nancy S. (NYC, zone 6B)
At 10:00 AM 5/8/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> Finally, a case of perfect timing. We drove up to Wisconsin
>(near Stoughton) after work on Thursday night (5 hour drive), stayed
>overnight and went to our favorite perennials nursery and had perfect
>sunny cool weather for darting in and out of greenhouses selecting
>wonderful perennials of all kinds, drove back that night, planted our
>hearts out all day Saturday and Sunday and got everything in, and now it
>had been raining every since ....
> I have to say that Flower Factory is a fantastic nursery.
>They don't do mail order, but if you live within driving distance, it's
>well worth the trip. They have about a dozen enormous greenhouses with
>flats of perennials in each one, organized alphabetically by plant name.
>There are also beautiful display gardens, including a pond and waterfall
>with a bridge, a woodland shade garden loaded with spring flowers in
>bloom, a huge rock garden, troughs, perennial borders, daylilies and
>hostas galore, and a miniature train that goes through a stone tunnel
>with rock garden plants around it. We spent the whole day and got three
>flats filled to bursting with 4-inch pots, all kinds of wonderful stuff
>I had picked out in their catalogue. Since we went early, most of the
>things we wanted were still available, unlike last year when we didn't
>go until the end of May and the special items were already sold out. I
>got two tree peonies, many tiny alpine plants for the raised beds, a
>couple of vines, a few sun lovers to replace spots along the east fence,
>and a bunch of partial shade perennials for the north and northwest
>breezeway areas. I did get the new red coreopsis, limerock ruby, and the
>pink and white sweet dreams coreopsis!
> Here in east central Illinois, it is an incredible year for
>the tree peonies, which are just starting to bloom. One of them has 30
>buds, a couple of others have at least 20, the blooms are as big as
>dinner plates-it is just awesome. I will have to take pictures. The
>forget me nots are gorgeous now too, and there are species tulips,
>lilacs, aubrieta, arabis, alyssum, erysimum, a tiny yellow erigeron in
>the trough, columbine, phlox, trillium, shooting stars, English
>bluebells, daphnes (very fragrant), pulmonarias, tiarellas, azaleas
>(very bright this year), anemone sylvestris, white scilla hispanica,
>yellow lamiastrum, sweet woodruff, and yellow wood poppies and purple
>woods delphinium. All over town, the dogwoods are better than I've ever
>seen them. Of course, zillions of dandelions as well ...
>
>Susan and David in Urbana, Illinois
>zone 5b
>
