Over the Blue Moon

I awoke on Sunday and felt a chill in the breeze through my window. I think, oh good, I can plant things & they will not be shocked by hot weather! But there is breakfast to make...and Jon is suggesting we go out which is tempting me seriously. I know I am sacrificing my cool weather window, but, I cave. He also has a list of errands we could run after breakfast...I narrow them down to the 2 fun ones in my opinion: a trip to Tita's for plant delights, and a trip to McLendon's to find two Arborvitae globes. We drove an hour and stopped by Tita's late in the morning to find her not at home. We visited McLendon's, Lowe's, got lost looking for Alpine Nursery, drove 30 minutes to Squawk Mountain to find it closed, and somewhere else I'm quite sure...in search of 2 dwarf globe 'Danica' arborvitaes to match the one my mom bought me for my birthday. Mom & I bought one of three at Mclendons, and decided after planting it, that it needed it's 2 sisters to create a nice repetition down the path, giving your eye something to bounce on...Repetition gives a calm visual rest from an otherwise tangly landscape. Upon returning to the nursery with Jon, it's sisters were missing and after all the running around this weekend, I have given up on finding them. Jon doesn't seem to tire of running errands, but I have a low tolerance for such escapades. Must come from too many road trips and desert concerts in my twenties. Took me a decade to realize these travels are extremely unfulfilling for me, tiring, and usually downright irritating.

Regardless of my reluctence, on Sunday afternoon Jon talked me into going back to Tita's. If I was in my right mind, I would jump at the chance, but with all the errands we ran all day and nothing to show for it...I wasn't feeling optimistic. So, he lovingly pushed, and I relented after he threw in a trip to dairy queen for a treat. By the time we got to Tita's, I was in tears...(surely my visitor is on it's way?) I was just sure I wouldn't find anything I liked. And, I would have this sweet woman wondering what is wrong with me? But I sucked it up.

I discovered Blue Moon hostas nestled deep under some shrubs in Tita's garden. Luckily they were for sale & I took two nice size plants. Jon liked some greener varieties, and tried to persuade me to take some variegated ones. They didn't look quite as round, plump and healthy as the blue moon. I did concede to take a nice green one though. He insisted they were all green, that the one I called blue was just a dark green. Okay...! When I planted the green one the next day in my shade garden, I realized it was quite a bit taller than the blue moons, and it had a tag that read "guacamole". I looked it up & it
promises to be a big plant. Now I am very excited I got that one. My heart still belongs to the blue moons though...they are a nice chalky blue with big rounded leaves.

I also bought another Brazilian Verbena, four small lavenders, a Russian Sage (another I've been craving!), two Ajugas (I grew up with these & love them), the hostas, a variegated white sedum and the real star...a lace cap Hydrangea. A real beauty! This will be a first in my garden...I'm excited to experiment with color/soil variations. So, it ended up being a very good day with a lot of nice new plants. I have many of them already in the ground...hope they will do okay in todays hot sun.