Easter has come and gone. We had a blast on Easter Sunday with our whole family from near and far at my sisters house on some beautiful property. I love it there, the same place we grew up. Karen and Maur have put in some serious changes to the landscape. In the place where my parents house was is now a menagerie of paths with themed areas. Some of the spaces are for their growing army of grandchildren. Some of the winding paths led to stunning views or towards the most beautiful Snowball Viburnums that I’ve ever seen, got me jealous. Our daughter, Mia and her boyfriend came down from South Carolina and Max and his fiancé spent the day out there with us. There were so many children running around that I lost count. The kids were frolicking in the manicured lawn and some were wandering around the garden looking for eggs, it was quite a sight. Sometime that afternoon we excused ourselves to go have an Easter nap. Mimi and I realized that the after-Easter-rush was upon us.
The time had come for folks to come and get it all. We filled up the bedding plant area , the shrubs and trees are in, springtime garden goodies are everywhere. We are ready with our new pottery location since we have reopened the front of the nursery with 5 containers of pottery from Asia. I’ve never seen so many pots in one place with fountains backing them and running, It’s so nice. This year has been one of the most challenging years to get the trees and bushes that we wanted. The foul weather made trouble not only for us but for the entire south east. Places like Houston, Dallas and Atlanta are swallowing up every thing they can get their hands on.
We are so fortunate to have a Ben Profilet as our buyer. I have never seen such persistence, he has a way to wriggle things until they work. He is doing the shuffle between finding the appropriate plants, getting them on an order that is big enough to justify the space on a truck and last but not least the trucking. because he has had to open new doors this year he has found some cool treasures, I really love our selection this year. It’s interesting but the general group of plants that Ben has brought to us are the plants that faired well through this weird weather pattern we just experienced. I feel good selling plants that are doing well through the extremes. If you don’t know Ben, do yourself a favor when you come visit our place and meet him, but you better get ready, you’re going to have a blast and your going to walk out of there with something you never dreamed of wanting. Magic.
It’s been great watching people coming to the new pottery area then on to the bedding area to figure out what to put in there new yard piece. We keep some planted up around the place to help with some inspiration. It’s a tough choice to fill those pots correctly with the right amount and the right type of soil then the right plants for the pots new home . The garden centers around town will try to help you as much as possible but sometimes you just gotta jump, just find what you think looks great and go for it. It might be a masterpiece or , worst case, you try again. If that sounds daunting we and probably most garden centers offer a bed planting service. In our case Justin Branton runs that part of the business.
Justin and his team plants pots for commercial and residential clients. I see his work all over town, I know it’s his when I see it. The colors and textures that Justin uses are very rich and full to go along with the look and feel of the area around it, again we feel so lucky to have someone who cares so much and has the talent to do something about it.
So far Mother Nature has been kind to Mississippi, we are rolling right into spring. I’m hoping your spring gardening plans are exciting and fun with some forks in the road.