Three Friends In Search Of New Plants

It's an annual event for Jane , Carolyn and I to spend a day together, and take a trip to buy new plants. All three of us have a passion for herbs, flowers and vegetables. It was decided that we would visit The Green Thumb in Hamden NY first. It has been several years since we visited there. They have a wide range of plants, tropicals, annuals, perennials, water plants, vegetables, and herbs. We all stuck our noses in the gardenias and jasmines. Tropicals are fun to visit, but it's herbs and perennials we we hoping to purchase. I found sweet marjoram, and a cute little tricolor sage, but then I gave in to the fascination of something new and different.





This fuzzy new friend named Ptilotus Joey is from Australia. It should be a annual here. I hope it is a well behaved one. I can't help thinking of Kudzu when I buy a plant I know nothing about. After wandering through every greenhouse, we checked out and each loaded a box of plants into the car.





I set the GPS and we were off on back roads to Stony Mountain Farms, ,our next stop. We had never been to this place . The people there were helpful and friendly. They had two greenhouses with nice looking plants. It was there that I found the Laurentia, Beth's Blue. This is another plant that is new to me. I have no idea where it comes from, but the blue flowers with the pure white under side were just too much for me.I had to have it! Since their vegetables looked nice, I also bought a six pack of broccoli, and one of kohlrabi. It has been years since I grew kohlrabi. I remember it fondly, Ed has a different memory. We shall see. If nothing else it's a great weird looking plant to intrigue visitors to the garden. The three of us added to the plants in the back of the car and headed off to our last stop.
Country Grown Perennials is really quite close to Jane's. We have all driven by the sign many times and never stopped. This time we made the turn. This is an outstanding place to buy perennials. They have a large selection of plants and over 20 years of experience. We enjoyed the beautiful view there while we ate our lunch. Best of all, as busy as they were, they took the time to answer all of our questions. Why would anyone shop for perennial plants at "Big Box" when they can go to a place like this one?

It took a bit of rearranging to fit the rest of our plants into the back of the car, but Carolyn is talented. We didn't even have to put the back seat down. Tired, hot and happy we headed for home with our treasures. As always gardening friends, interesting places, and new plants make for a great day!