Family Man Librarian

Last weekend Michele and I went with the kids to some nearby garden centers to look for hanging baskets for the front porch. We found a place called Ritchie’s Greenhouse near Muncie that had fantastic plant stock, some of the nicest I have ever seen. And, just about everything was on sale. Needless to say, I got pretty excited. To my surprise, Michele also got excited and told me to just go ahead and purchase whatever I liked. I’m like a kid in the candy shop when it comes to garden plants! We settled on four beautiful hanging baskets filled with apple blossom begonias, each mixed with spike plant and cascading ivy for contrast. We also bought several large-sized perennials such as daylilies, delphiniums, russian sage (I’ve always wanted one of those!), and lupines. I love lupines because they remind me of the South Island of New Zealand where they grow in wild profusion in the foothills of the Southern Alps, near Mt. Cook. (Anyone who has seen the recent Lord of the Rings movies will remember the gorgeous mountain scenery in the movies. Those scenes and backdrops are mostly the Southern Alps of New Zealand.) We also bought some annuals like spider flower (cleome) and some lovely wave petunias.

On the way home, with a van full of plants, I was on a “high.” That’s when Michele told me, “Guess what, that’s your Father’s Day present!” What a great idea!