I came, I saw, I bought

The Saturday before last, I visited two nurseries and bought nothing (a rare occurance). This past Saturday I planned to visit two more nurseries, bought so much at one that I skipped the other. (I had stopped at the skipped one Friday, to scope things out, but found only one plant that captivated me, which I can return for later if I so wish.)

After a drive into the country that took me past the Spencerville covered bridge, down a road that turned to gravel, to another gravel road, to ANOTHER gravel road, I was the first to arrive at the Riverview Native Plant Nursery open house. According to their website, the plants are "native to northeastern Indiana with local genotypes and known provenance". And they have shrubs and trees as well as perennials (to my demise).

I came with the intention of replacing a butterfly weed and a purple prairie clover that went MIA from the fall planted prairie sampler. I also wanted more prairie smoke, because three is not enough. I didn't see any big blue stem, but I asked and they appeared, a bit skimpy on top but with robust root systems. And then there were the impulse selections.

I passed up the rain garden/wet ground plantings. I could plant a rain garden next to the driveway, but I'm not ready yet. I ignored the coneflower - got plenty of that. I was going to snub the coreopsis as well, but after eyeballing an entire patch of it in full bloom behind the house, the result of self-seeding, decided I could make use of that somewhere. I also fell for the rattlesnake master.

The big purchases, however, were the pagoda dogwood and witch hazel. I snagged them with no idea of where they could go in my yard, especially the dogwood, as it needs some protection from the sun. I'm still debating where to put it, while it sits patiently on the deck.

Meanwhile, the prairie smoke, purple prairie clover, and butterfly weed are in place. I installed the big blue stem in front of the recently relocated holly plants, behind the vegetable garden. The witch hazel went in the hole left by one of the holly plants, between a 'Blue Muffin' arrowwood viburnum and a forsythia. A shipment of creeping wintergreen, which arrived from Jung Seeds via USPS on Saturday, is now under the arborvitae and the rhododendron.

Helpful gardening cat

The empty pots are piling up. I *think* I am done buying plants for this spring, but I am aware that there seems to be a paucity of blooms right now. 'Betty Corning' is bursting, the shasta daisy finally popped (disappointingly after the nearby red roses faded), and the 'Chicago Lustre' arrowwood viburnum are in bloom, as is the purple smoke tree (which is *gorgeous* this year - photos never do it justice). Oh, and the few remaining 'Stella d' Oro' daylilies. Otherwise, not much is happening. Rectifying this is on my list for next year.

From Riverview:

• Pagoda dogwood
• Witch hazel
• Prairie smoke (6)
• Purple prairie clover
• Lance-leaved coreopsis (3)
• Rattlesnake master
• Big blue stem (4)
• Butterfly weed

From Jung Seeds:

• Creeping wintergreen (6)