The plant swap/garden party I had from May 20-22 was absolutely fun! OMG, we ran everywhere and saw everything! By dark, all my guests were just exhausted--happily of course!
My first guests arrived on Thurs night--2 wonderful ladies from TX--Tana (from the Ft Worth area) and her friend Janette (from Houston). Tana and I have known each other a while, but I had never met Janette and she was the perfect Ya Ya sister. About 3 a.m. Fri Morn, another guest, Ellen from NJ arrived with her husband and two kids. And they went immediately to bed, tired from such a long journey, and knowing that the real festivities would begin about 8 a.m.
By 8 a.m. Fri morning, 11 of us, in 3 different vehicles were lined up in my driveway, eager for a 2.5 hr trip to TN to tour gardens and nurseries. The day was a blast! We picked up a Memphian (Pat) and her mom Thelma in Union City TN and we abducted my sister who lives there so she was our tour guide, bringing our little party to 14.
Melissa (Pixydish) had introduced me to her MIL, Carolyn, who lives in the area we were visiting. So Carolyn's gardens was our first stop. The lady has a beautiful home and well-planned gardens that we all envied. She and her friend Cindy were wonderful hostesses, even preparing us a light lunch and encouraging us to continue looking around. They then led us to the hosta farm near there. I've been to this particular nursery several times before and I absolutely love it, as did all my guests. The owner, who specializes in hostas but sells many kinds of perennials as well, gave a tour and was very informative and funny. Anytime I visit my sister, we always take a trip out to this nursery and chat with the old horticulturalist.
We toured other nurseries and saw plants we had never seen before and by the end of the day, we were all pretty tired. It was dark by the time we got back to my house.
On Sat., the Master Gardeners in my town hosted a Tour of Gardens, which included 5 gardens. It took most of the day to see them all, but what fun. Great ideas come from these tours. We also visited the new Nature Center here. And then we took a little trip down the road and visited a nursery over there with great prices. Of course we all found something we just had to have. Then, my wonderful guests came back home and helped me make final preparations for the plant swap to happen the next day.
On Sun, everything was ready. We were all so excited! We ended up with about 25 people here, including my sis from TN (who claims to not be into gardening) and my brother from Phoenix. But the special guest to arrive was Evonne, the nurse at Breast Care who made the surgery for my tumor possible. She lives 2.5 hrs away in Little Rock and we had never met before. She drove all this way to meet me and share in my "celebration of life" as I termed this year's garden party. She is an absolutely beautiful woman with the biggest smile I've ever seen. We had a little ceremony in which both her supervisor and I showered her with gifts and had most of the guests crying. LOL
We did a lot of plant trading, eating, and laughing. Everyone had a great time and has suggested that I do this again THIS FALL! YIKES! I acquired about 50 new plants, and I heard others saying they were carrying home more than they came with.
On Mon, I left for TX with Tana and Janette, and I spent a week at Tana's house, while Janette left Tana's to go back to Houston. The party continued for Tana and me--more nurseries, more gardens, more fun. Tana's home was so comfortable and beautiful with lots of beautiful beds and a nice big pond. Part of the vacation was a working one. I helped Tana sand and stain hardwood floors. But she gave me a 5 ft long glass top patio table and tons of plants and 6 HUGE goldfish for my own pond. So I ended up coming home the following Mon with a patio table, a dog bed for my 100 lb samoyed, 6 goldfish in red-gold, yellow, and black, and about 200 plants from Tana and the nurseries near her. My van was full!
Also on the way home, I got food poisoning and was so sick the last half of my 10 hr drive. I've been sick all week until yesterday, so I haven't done more than unload the van and water stuff. Today I MUST get my butt busy. But I wanted to post and tell you guys all about it. Several have emailed me asking for details. For those of you who didn't get to come this year, maybe you can next year. I may do the 3-day party again then since it was such a huge hit this year. And for those of you who can't drive this far, consider hosting your own garden party in your area. It really is a lot of fun! You can contact local gardening groups and the Master Gardeners to get more attendance to your party. We had four Master Gardeners who came.
Hope I didn't bore you. Here's a picture of part of Carolyn's gardens. The delicate wispy stuff is bronze fennel, which was absolutely lovely mixed in with perennials. I love its wispy, airy quality.
NancyAnn
