The Pansy Trials

Working at a nursery, Wing Nut gets to have all manner of adventures. Sometimes it's scooping up red wigglers out of the worm bin. Once in a while, thankfully not more often, it's getting flattened to the ground by a runaway cart full of gallon pots of lavender. On occasion it's catching small frogs hopping among the plants. Once it was helping relocate a killdeer that had decided the nursery driveway was a good place for its nest. Now and again it's getting the opportunity to express her creativity by designing flower displays, planting up a very expensive antique pot that a customer brought in, or helping with the junior gardeners' newsletter. And then sometimes it's getting a weird skin rash on her arm THAT THE DOCTOR THINKS MIGHT BE LYME DISEASE!!!

Why oh why couldn't she just be happy at her old job, sitting at a desk in a posh purple ergonomic chair and enjoying the medical insurance that would have covered her if for some twilight-zone-like reason she had contracted LYME DISEASE??? Actually the worst thing that ever happened to her on THAT job was when she gave herself quite a shiner after picking up the phone receiver and clocking herself in the eye with it. Sometimes I worry about that girl!

But I digress. Last week she and two of the other flower shed girls embarked on yet another adventure. They took a road trip to Henry's Plant Farm in Mill Creek, WA. Once a year, Henry's has an open house and invites their nursery & garden center clients to come visit and check out their pansy trials.

--Hey! It was my road trip and my pictures, so why are YOU telling this story?

--Because you hadn't gotten around to telling it and I wanted to post the pics of the flowers you brought home.

--Okay, okay, but let me add some thoughts too! And did you have to tell everyone about the phone-to-the-eye incident??

After a lovely picnic lunch under blue skies and warm sun, we toured some of the greenhouses at Henry's. One huge greenhouse was dedicated to the pansy trials -- a show of new selections and upcoming varieties. We saw rows upon rows of beautiful and colorful pansies, violas, and panolas.  We learned that a panola is a cross between a pansy and a viola, with the best features of each plant. The panolas have a face that is smaller than a traditional pansy, but larger than a viola.  The sales rep told us that panolas sell really well in our area because their faces hold up better during our wet, rainy winters, whereas the large faced pansies droop under heavy rain.

Then we chose 3 flats of special beauties and took them back to the nursery. It was really hard to limit ourselves to only 3 favorites since there were so many amazing and beautiful colors.  Perhaps we should have taken K's van instead of A's new car -- we could have gotten more! ;-)

Of course I had to buy two of the varieties we brought back!

Pansy 'Fizzy Lemonberry'

Viola 'Mickey'

Not only are Fizzy Lemonberry and Mickey beautiful, but they are gloriously fragrant too!  Sigh...

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

¡Salsa!

The Princess of Salsa.

After all that salsa one can only indulge in more...

Our 4/4 salsa--4 types of tomatoes and 4 types of peppers--was definitely fiery hot. 

The Queen of Salsa.

Celia Cruz (1925-2003) is still the undisputed Queen of Salsa. I grew up knowing only the older more eccentric Celia, the Celia of the multi-colored wigs and Cuban rumba dresses. It was rather a shock to find the first video clip of a very young Celia, still in Cuba, singing with La Sonora Matancera.

--Curmudgeon

Shade Garden Before & After

We FINALLY tackled the one clean-up project that for some reason or other we've been putting off all summer long. Oh, there's a whole list of clean-up projects we haven't gotten to, but this one really got out of hand.

Earlier this season we decided we wanted to expand the shade garden. Nothing major, just reclaim a few more feet of lawn over to the shady side.  We scavenged some very large cardboard boxes and laid them down over the grass we wanted to remove. We bought some mulch but never got around to spreading it out. So we just piled the bags of mulch on top of the cardboard. As the summer went on we scavenged some cinder blocks and bricks--and they piled up around the bags of mulch. Then at some point this area became the impromptu potting shed--pots, dirt, plants waiting to be transplanted all ended up piled on top of the bags of mulch. This is what greeted anyone who came down the hill.

Here's another view of our incomplete project. Not very inviting, is it?

Because of the mess, and the acrobatics required to get to the chairs, we didn't spend much time sitting in the shade garden this summer.

When we finally started moving things around, we found some interesting things. Hello there!

There are lots of HUGE worms burrowing in the cardboard. And a mushroom growing inside one of the cinder blocks.

After a few hours of work...  Ta Da!

 

The chairs are together now, which feels much better. Also, we no longer have to beware of stepping on plants while sitting in the chairs. Curmudgeon noted that we now have space for a few more plants. I think a few more hellebores and perhaps a daphne may join the garden soon.

Here's a view of the planters all nicely tidied and lined up under the lilac.

So now that the shade garden is beautiful, of course we've having cooler temps and heavy rains.  Sigh...  So much for sitting out there now.

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut