Briefly Back in Retail

     My work colleagues and I have lately been consumed with preparing for and running this past weekend's annual plant sale at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. We began meeting shortly after last year's sale to decide which plants to carry. Some of our offerings came from cuttings or divisions taken from the garden's collections, while others we bring in as plugs or as bare-root plants to grow on. This year edible plants were chosen as our signature plant, so we grew all kinds of fruit bearing trees and shrubs, brought in strawberries, herbs, tomatoes, and a whole lot blueberry bushes. In addition to this year's edibles, we offered, as is usual, a variety of shrubs, trees, vines, tropicals, and annuals, but what we always have the most of are perennials, and almost half of them this year were native species and cultivars.

     I took the pictures in this post (hovering over the photos will give you plant names) before we opened on Friday morning, when everything was still peaceful, and the tables were fully stocked and ready for the garden's members, who were allowed entry an hour earlier than everyone else. Looking at the line of several hundred people waiting at the gate, I knew we were going to be much busier than last year, and I was right. The first few hours were so beyond busy, with plants being snapped up in a piranha-like frenzy. Fortunately no one required stitches, but at one point an all-hands-on-deck-call was made for all garden personnel to help move guests throw the checkout line, which snaked its way through the sales floor and out the back gate. Fortunately the rest of the day, and the rest of the weekend was less frenetic.

     Today I left work early, and will be off tomorrow trying to recover from a 60 hour work week. I also need at least one day to get all of my purchases planted, and I have no idea where they will all go.

Here is a partial list of what followed me home:
Agave 'Cornelius'
Allium 'Millenium'
Aralia cordata 'Sun King'
Asarum maximum 'Ling Ling'
Chondrosum gracile 'Blonde Ambition'
Coreopsis 'Cosmic Eye'
Crossandra infundibuliformis 'Orange Marmalade'
Dahlia 'Mystic Enchantment'
Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame' - planted as an annual, we'll see if it does anything else
Digitalis ferruginea 'Gigantea' - Rusty Foxglove
Helleborus foetidus
Impatiens 'Fusion Glow Yellow'
Impatiens omeiana - hardy impatiens
Leonotis leonurus - Lion's Ear
Odontonema cuspidatum - Firespike
Plectranthus scutellarioides - a ruffled nearly black coleus
Salvia × 'Wendy's Wish'
Veronicastrum virginicum - Culver's Root
Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger' - Elephant's Ear