Columbine Choas

Today was a beautiful perfect day - it was warm, sunny, breezy and somehow I lucked out and was put on shadehouse duty organizing and facing flats. (which meant I spent the afternoon outside with plants and people rather than inside with cash registers and debit machines. Not that I mind being a cashier, but it would have been a shame to be inside today.

This one is mine - not planted yet. Its a hybrid columbine. Columbine have exquisite flowers, but they have a short blooming period. I probably have too many of them, 9 all told. But six are the wild variety that I grew from seed last summer. I'm excited to see them bloom in the next week or so. This is giant hybrid. I have two others I bought after they flowered last year and I was surprised to discover that one of them was a clematis flowered columbing. The other, is a pale purple columbine with flowers much like the one above.

I also managed to plant 3 hostas, 2 mallows and get all my watering done. I've got a plan for the remaining 3 hostas, but I'm going to have to think about what to do with the Peonys. Saturday I hope to plant the bulk of my annuals in the front. I'm doing snap dragon's and Bogonias. Next year - the garden won't get dealt with until mid June - but hopefully all it'll need is a few annuals, some topping up of soil and a few new additions.

One of the things I noticed today, working at the greenhouse, is that its very rare (in spite of numerous carts containing small children and infants in carriers) to hear babies cry or people being upset in general. Its a very soothing workplace. I think when I retire, I might just work a bit at a greenhouse. Maybe specializing in woodland perrenials or something. :D Sometimes parents let their kids buy plants with their own money - african violets and gerber daisies are popular, although today I had a child who was looking for something yellow - whom I advised to try the Brown-Eyed Susan's. Oh yeah... and another lady with a young boy was looking for something tall, purple and sun-loving. I asked her if she was familiar with snapdragon's (one of my favourites) - when she said she wasn't I quickly took her over to a bench of them in shades from red-velvet to bubblegum pink - including several shades of purple. She was duly inpressed (because really snapdragons can sell themselves on their looks alone. But I when I showed her son the dragon's mouths (you can pry open the mouths of snap dragon's to show a very dragon-like mouth) - they were done deal. :D and the "WOW!" from the little boy made my day. Another couple, when I noted that they'd enjoy their plants all summer told me how they were actually buying them for their neighbour who could no longer garden the way she used to and that this was a gift for her - sometimes people in the world are truely wonderful and then she agreed that they were over visiting often and would indeed enjoy them all summer. :D Oddly, this has been one of the most fulfilling jobs I've ever had. Gardening is just good for everyone's soul or perhaps the folk who frequent real greenhouses - not ones attached to their grocery store - are the kind of people who find pleasure in nuturing and caring for others as well as plants and we are just lucky to have cooler than average customers.

Anywho - That's a tonne of writing for me. I'm going to throw up a few more pictures and then I'm going to be a busy bee and get a tonne of stuff done.