Accessible Gardening: Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #10, 0 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
My large collection of tools is my one collection of things Kay never complains about. She is almost as bad as I am where tools are concerned. I still have to listen to grumbles about “packrat tendencies” in regards to my old comic books and 70’s albums.
Yes, Carrie, I would like having a start of Stella D’oro. BTW, did the cannas arrive okay or was the timing bad. Did they get there while you were on vacation? Kay laughed at the way I packaged them. She said it looked like I was mailing out pipe bombs.
I like the recent DG articles on where to buy plants. Kay chewed me out once for buying plants through Publishers Clearing House. (Books and magazines, yes. Plants, NO!) Her philosophy is if they don’t have a specific passion for plants, don’t buy from them. The more passionate a nursery is about plants, the more likely she is to buy from them. Cistus Nursery is her current favorite. There is definitely no shortage of plant passion there and she has this idea that if you can’t get it in a local nursery, at least look for a nursery with a similar climate. Although Cistus is in the NW part of the country, their climate isn’t that different from ours. They have a good selection of Mediterranean plants and tough tropicals that work well here. The question she put forward, when I mentioned buying plants from eBay was, “Do you know the physical location the plants are coming from?”
Would you like an established plant of the burgundy lily in fall, Debra? I’m not sure whether it is ‘Sungod’ or ‘Landini’. I originally received it as part of a “black and white” lily package deal. I think the color would work well with some of your daylilies, but give the added interest of some change in foliage and plant form. Brown Witch’ is striking. I like the darker green throat of the newest bloom on ‘James Clark’, but think both versions look great. Did you change the location of the container?
I’m trying to convince the ladies they should take Saturday’s off with limited success. They did move a few loads of dirt for the ramp. Still only about half finished, but the job expanded as they went to include leveling out the entire Fragrance Garden. That tends to be the way things go around here. Kay worked yesterday on the retaining wall for the Soldier’s Garden. We are doing it from recycled material, as usual. She still has a lot of work to do on both retaining walls to “pretty things up”, but I think it will be fine when she is finished.
Vickie sent some Black-eyed Susan seeds. Those are stealing the show in the garden at the moment. (Jim)