A FIELD TRIP

FER REAL! A TRIP TO A FIELD! OK, not just ANY field… how about a field of day lilies????? My neighbors, Pat and Dorothy, took me with them on a field trip this morning to Sterrett Gardens, down in Craddockville (VA). I have known about these gardens for years, but have just never gotten there. Sad how that seems to work…Anyway, it is an amazing place, and I thought I would like to share a bit of it with you.

Actually, the first thing I noticed (and appreciated) was the lack of formality.   I mean formal gardens are nice and all that, but, well, as you can see by the pictures of my place, I kind of like islands of vegetation with mixed plantings in them, often with a small tree or at least a tall camellia in the center, or rows of “stuff” all mixed so something is blooming at any time of the year, or is green in the winter and probably has bright red berries.

The next thing I noticed was the hydrangea that is like my new one, I had it on one of my last postings, only, of course, this is much bigger.

I am excited about this.

In my garden, with one exception, you will not find much yellow after the daffodils finish, and never any orange. I will try not to bore you to death with pictures of lilies, but I was shocked when I came home to see that almost every lily picture was of a red lily. Or on the pink side…  

and a token cream color… 

But my absolute favorite was this one.

Is that beautiful or what? This was the first shot I took at the Gardens… and this was before I read the price list.   Lilies are not my favorite flowers, I do have some, but I seldom pay any attention to them. Anyway, here are some shots around the house and into the field. And the “office” where one sits and pays for or places orders for their lilies.

Now you might ask, so how many did you buy? Zero. I may go back in Sept and get a bunch of red ones… but I don’t want to get any now and lose them to the heat of the summer or worry about them while I am away. Now this is the one I really would like to have… its name is Happy Happy. Its list price is currently at $250.00 per plant. I think I will wait on it.  Now that I look at it carefully, it sure looks like the very first lily I photographed, doesn’t it?