First Nursery Trip 2011

Winter evenings by the fire are made for dreaming about the next year's garden. Rainy spring afternoons are for gathering winter's notes and making a "shopping list" of plants that need to be tried, tucked in, or replaced. Early Spring days are for top-dressing with organic material, fertilizing perennials, shrubs and small trees. Finally comes the reward of all of these efforts - that glorious first trip to a nursery; the garden is ready to receive some special choices. Today was the day! I shouldn't have announced last Fall that I did so many divisions that I really wouldn't have many things to buy this Spring. Because the inevitable happens - gardening magazines, lectures, tips from friends, and the fever starts. But I will say that in this third year of my upstate NY garden, the list is smaller, more selective. Nurseries are less likely to have what I'm looking for and the "hunt" becomes more challenging, yet more fun. I set out with a list of four or five special plants to look for. Geranium "Splish-Splash," Astilbe "Milk n' Honey, Euphorbia First Blush, and Campanula "Blue Waterfalls." The nursery I chose had none of the above. I know, I'm jumping on the season a bit early. But I did find two replacements that did not winter over for me. I also found a Ruby Star Echinacea that was on my mental list. And I caved in to the geum which was on no list at all.