I did meet Tony Avent! What a wonderful man. Perhaps I am silly but I felt like i was meeting a movie star! To plant nuts he is a celebrity though. If i had had my catalog with me I would have asked him to sign it. Alas, the rain forced me to leave my notebooks and catalog safely back in the car. We did have a chance to chat and he kindly shared an umbrella with my friend. My friend and I were both trying to fit under mine which wasn't working very well. I wish we could have talked longer with Toni but it was a busy day regardless of the weather.
The gardens at Plant Delights Nursery are amazing. Agave taller than me, winding paths, a waterfall, streams, bogs and so many amazing and unusual plants. I was most in love with the arisaems, epimediums, hellebores, trilliums agaves and sarracenias. Of course, they are some of the few plants doing anything this time of year. In spring it will be a whole lot longer of a list.
I made one purchase at PDN. A beautiful double, white hellebore called Mrs. Betty Ranicar. It was breed in Tasmania and has been a star performer in the garden according to Tony. I spent $28 on it. I tend to be a cheapo but i couldn't resist it. Plus, it was a good sizes plant. PDN plants were all very healthy and of good size. The selection is amazing as well. It's not your typical nursery collection. Lots of new and exciting goodies were in every greenhouse and garden.
Mrs. Betty Ranicar. The blooms are past their prime but you get the idea.
I intend to go back to PDN the first weekend in May for their spring open house. Toni said that it will be a whole new garden that time of year.
We also stopped at a large garden center called Logans. I ended up picking up some African violets, trilliums, seeds, helleobores and heucheras. The hellebores and heucheras were on clearance since they were from last season and don't show well in the pot after winter.
13 comments:
You are so lucky to have nurseries up in your area like this. I am in Ohio and NO ONE is carrying these perennials yet. I have to try one of those hellebore.
LOVE your BLOG!!!
It's a very lovely hellebore. Well worth it. Too bad on the rain.
Sounds like a beautiful nursery. I've never seen such a full hellebore flower before. Looks like you'll have lots to plant. Have fun!
Love the African Violets, so pretty. I get the sense, from looking at your photos, Spring is definitely on the way!
Sounds like a fun trip. I have visited there at least twice many years ago. Each time I spent over $100 on a flat of plants. Today after all these years I have three plants to show for it, the rest never made it or I forgot about them. The surviving plants are Chinese Butterfly Bush(his plant was amazing) and 2 bush lespdeasia (spelling) one pink the other white, both are now 6ft tall and 6 foot wide and completely fill with blooms for a long time.
These days we have a much better budgeted place to go and get plants, you might not know about this place they have EVERYTHING amazing and everything is reasonable and most in several sizes. Big Bloomers west of Sanford NC.
How fun and the rain just made it an adventure. Great that you got meet a garden star too! Hope the next trip will be sunny and fabulous. Can't wait to see them in your garden.
-Heather
Gorgeous!
Did you know trilliums are the Provincial Flower of British Columbia, and we aren't allowed to pick them. They're one of my favorite flowers.
You have a lovely blog!
awesome! sutil and sensible, living creatures!
I could imagine you struggling with a camera and an umbrella. Sound like you had fun. Plant Delights also sounds like a fun place to visit.
You can't go wrong with a heuchera. Especially when its discounted!
I'm only a half an hour away from Plant Delights and have been to a few of their open houses. Never met Tony Avent though. :) PD sells a lot of beautiful and unusual plants. Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill is a wonderful nursery too.
I'm glad you had a good time, even though it rained. That hellebore is very pretty. I splurge once in awhile, too. I like your other purchases, too. I just learned from Darla what trilliums look like, and now I saw your packets. I don't know if they grow here. The heucheras do.
I love that african violet with the dark pink-red/white! That is stunning!!!! Does it have a name? We don't have a Logans here.
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