Sunday, November 20, 2016

Field Trip

We needed some plants to fill in where we have been removing old, overgrown and misshapen shrubs in the garden.  After going to Irene's soccer game Saturday morning, and then making the first of numerous taxi service runs to or from the airport that we will provide for family members in the coming week, we decided to run away. Plant shopping gave us an excuse. 

We had heard about Branches Garden Center just the previous morning. Hard to believe there was a nursery with a gift shop somewhat nearby that we didn't know about! 

The gift shop is quite extensive, and of course it was decked out for Christmas. I decided I wasn't quite ready for Christmas yet, but enjoyed it anyway.  I didn't take a camera, but when I got to some of the cute garden ornaments, I got out my old iPhone to capture a few fun pics. We all need some fun.

These faux birch planters are fun. 
 So are these bottle bugs, or whatever they are. 
 These owls rock!
 Is this a tooled out wolf, or a cat, or....? The lamb seems unconcerned. 
 Their quack seems a bit metallic. 
 Well, hello!
 Is there an attraction? They seem to have stars in their eyes. 
Branches was fun, but they didn't have the plants we needed so we drove on to Watson's Greenhouse and Nursery. Frist we looked at the plants outside, and didn't find what we wanted, but we did find these guys. 
 Reindeer are petite animals, but they sure do have impressive racks of antlers. 


We found pretty flowers and fun plant friends in the outdoor covered area. 




 Wood doesn't melt, and is more likely to be in abundance for snowmen than snow will be around here. 

Then we went inside, where one side of the very large indoor plant and gift shop area was bursting with Christmas cheer. We went the other way. 
 The bromeliads were beauteous. 
 So much lovely foliage. 
 I like orchids, but they don't like my house. They were happier here. 
 Oh, Christmas must be coming.
We looked at all of the Christmas displays too, but I didn't take any photos. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet. There will be plenty of time for that later. 

Since we didn't find what we were looking for in these places, we returned to Furney's, our local nursery, where I had stopped on the way home from breakfast Friday morning and found the shrubs I thought might do. We bought them. 

There was an old Cedar Rheingold in this hole. 

 We are now filling it with a golden euonymus
 and a laurestina.
 Tom got them planted Sunday afternoon while I watched football. The old shrub is reduced to firewood and compost. 

And since I can't end on an ugly photo, here is one of several the winter jasmine that are doing their thing on our rock walls. 


There's usually something in bloom year round around here. 

20 comments:

  1. I love the owl rocks and the sunflower scarecrow-there's some projects I could probably pull off.

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  2. The bottle things may be fish...very cute! Most of our garden centers close in the winter. We have one in town and one 30 miles away that stay open. Wally World had potted up Norfolk Pines with bows that they will keep barely watered:(

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  3. Oh, your winter jasmine is flowering already? I'm so jealous. Mine has dropped all of its leaves. I'm a bit worried that it might be dying. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I don't remember it doing that last winter.

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  4. I loved the bottle bugs what a delight and always a joy to see the reindeer.

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  5. What beautiful flowers you found to photograph. Loved them and all the owls.

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  6. Great pictures, Linda. I love those reindeer shots, and of course the whimsical stuff in that first shop. And the flowers make me feel like I can smell them, but of course I can't. :-)

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  7. Plant shopping is always a good excuse to get away! "...bursting with Christmas cheer. We went the other way." made me laugh out loud! I felt the same way this weekend at another nursery.

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  8. Your last sentence says what I was thinking through the whole post. They have thing blooming all year. I like the christmas things you show rather than what I see in stores.

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  9. Aww, reindeer are so sweet looking. Those owls were cool. I love it when people make something interesting out of a throw away item.

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  10. wow, what an amazing nursery! Did those live reindeer stink? Anytime I've been around live reindeer, they really had a bad odor...

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  11. I can't imagine living in an area of year-round blossoms. Today's high is 34 degrees, and we got our first snow during the night. The garden whimsies you photographed are clever and diverse. Oh, by the way, I have two orchid plants about to bloom!

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  12. Nice photos. I haven't ever seen a real reindeer but I always thought they were much bigger.

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  13. I would love to see those Reindeer. Funny how you came back to the local nursery to get what you needed. It's always fun to look in the new places though. I like the two you picked out.

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  14. Oh, whaat a happy post. Thank you.

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  15. WOW! No words to express. Looks beautiful:)

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  16. May you have a wet and wild Happy Thanksgiving.
    MB

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  17. You've made want to go out and plant something! If only it weren't so wet and muddy. There's nothing like a little nursery therapy to lift the spirits. Thank you for sharing the joy.

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  18. Awesome photos of such a beautiful, fun place. Those owl rocks really caught my eye. Too cute!

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  19. I love to visit nurseries but I have to stay out of the gift shops. The main areas can break the budget unless I'm having one of those days when I can't make a decision.

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