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.