THis case is different. WE sit next to each other every day, and it was a bit of a joke that she ordered something from Spring Hill, when I could have handed her a list of small, local nurseries that are breeding stronger, better cultivars for less cost. But there are plenty of people like here, I'm afraid, and who is going to help them? I mean, I saw for a moment this weekend, some guy pitching plants on the Home shopping Network. He was saying 'And they'll bloom all summer and will reaseed" The plant was a German Bearded Iris, and I am sure that hundreds of customers will buy them, all misslead. If you are OK with that behavior? Than why do I bother.
We who read this blog are plant lovers, It's not about the cost, but sometimes, good quality comes at a cost. Sometimes bad quality comes at a cost. In the end, my customer peeked into my office and laughed showing me the dried twigs she recieved. ANd for half the cost, she could have have two nice vintage well grown, stocky varieties from the 18th C. What's so snobbish about that?
As for 'snob….yeah, I might be, But a more accurate definition might be coinnoisseur, I respect mastery, and at the same time, I like random beauty, Nature is Mastery, Spring Hill Catalog, is not about mastery. It's about missleading customers.

I hope you enjoyed your 2 days off. I hope the weird weather vortex over Worchester isn’t making more rain there than here and your garden tours go well.

Meanwhile, my psycho-neighbor’s bamboo is shooting up all over my yard and wreaking havoc on the Yankee cobblestones, upending them like mini earthquake victims and even causing the vintage tub filled with soil to shift! HELP!

Also, my vintage lilac is beginning to bloom. Michelle-2-L is still blushing over her faux-pas as evidenced in a door-way conversation with Val on Friday.

Isn’t there a place in the world for the simple joy of planting and making mistakes? Suppose it’s the journey of doing yourself and aquiring knowledge first-hand that allows us to get to a place of being more knowledgeable instead of relying on experts and the internet? I think there may be some charm in naivete, some authenticity of pride in figuring it out on your own. 🙂 But seriously, I need some heirloom tomatoes and any other cast-offs like the hosta. Wait…isn’t there something up there about “disposable nature”???? Did you see the documentary about the naive gardner who created an amazing garden somewhere in South Carolina using cast-offs from local nurseries? It was on Ovation. He regularly goes through the junkheaps and grabs mis-shapen and half-dead “unsellable” plants and turns them into living art. No training. Just love and trial by doing. I’ll research and send.

xox
See you Monday.