August 13, 2011

    It’s been a rough Spring and Summer.  I lost my father in June.  In July we moved my mother from a retirement home in Florida to a ‘memory unit’ in Ravenna.  I’m visiting her twice a week and she’s finally settling in. My brother and his family live in Akron and they visit on the days I’m not there.  

     In June we closed our floral shop after thirty years.  

     Everyone has to deal with events like this sometime.  I’m lucky I’ve got my work, my family, my gardens, my cats and my friends to help me through.  

    One of the plants that I really enjoy is hydrangea, and this has been a great year for them.   The ‘bluebirds’ in our back yard were amazing for Fourth of July.  The ‘masja’ and and ‘All Summer Beauty’ are still in color, along with ‘Endless Summer’.  The ‘Annabelle’ by our back deck is still blooming. And the ‘Tardiva’ tree-hydrangea by our driveway is just beginning to color up, with big white blossoms that will turn a little pink as they mature. We planted some of the pink ‘Invincabelle spirit’ in our front yard.  They got off to a rough start with the dry hot weather, but hydrangeas are tough!  

March 29, 2011

     Spring means BACK TO WORK for me!  It’s great reopening the store, getting in lots of new things and seeing old friends again, coworkers and customers.  

     During March I did a presentation for the Wildwood Garden Club in Mentor showing them how to make lots of ‘living wreaths’ and other small ‘living gardens’ for inside the house and out.  They sent me the nicest thank-you letter!  

     My husband and I have a few presentations prepared that we are glad to present to local groups:

Long-blooming Perennials                                                              Kris

Fall Wreaths                                                                                   Kris

Shade-loving Plants                                                                        Kris

Living Wreaths                                                                                Kris

The Immigration Dilemma: a nurseryman’s perspective                Mark

Nurseries, Natives and Invasives                                                     Mark or Mark & Kris

Who’s Afraid of Invasive Plants?                                                     Mark  

Nurseries of Lake County:  growing for 150 years                           Mark

     We’re working at creating a ‘farm preservation easement’ on our 19-acre farm on Antioch Road.  Basically, we’re trying to sell off the ‘development rights’....we get reimbursed for that by a federal preservation program as well as North Perry Village...and set aside the property for agriculture...forever!  No strip malls or housing developments!  We feel strongly about farm preservation, especially in eastern Lake County, and it would also provide a great economic shot-in-the-arm.  Rainbow Farms and others did this in North Perry about five years ago.  We should know in a month or two whether our application goes through.  Keep your fingers crossed!

February 2011

     I’m really fortunate to have a ‘book club’, mostly with former teachers in our local communities, and a ‘card club’, mostly with ladies in the nursery industry...both of which meet once a month!  Sometimes we talk about books and cards.  Mostly we talk about food!

     Some of the books I’ve been reading this winter...

City of Thieves, David Benioff, a book-club selection about the siege of Leningrad in WWII.  

Homer’s Odyssey, Gwen Cooper, about a blind cat named Homer (we’re cat-lovers!)

Under the Marble Sky, an upcoming selection.

Little Bee, Chris Cleave, an upcoming selection for our book-club and an Oprah Book.  

     Also, my husband and I read everything by ‘Martin Cruz Smith’, and he has read everything in the ‘Master and Commander’ series, all twenty-two books!  

     Books are a portal to our souls!

We lost our official greeter...Johnny...this Fall.  What a great guy with so much spirit.  He was small but feisty and he would sometimes attack the dogs that customers brought through our garden center.  Once, he jumped on the back of a giant heron that was wading in our pond.  Johnny liked to THINK BIG and he knew no fear.  We still have our five cats at home, but it’s just not the same here at the store.  

One of our special treats each holiday season is when the Perry Band ensemble stops by in our garden center to play some Christmas music!

We’re already planning our Passport-to-Plants activities for June, 2011, when we partner with other local garden centers for a weekend of plants, music, pets and other fun stuff!  Here’s Nick Ferranti selling his own wines in our garden center at last year’s event along with our own Sue Koprowski.  We enjoyed mixing wine samples with work and we encourage everyone to visit the Ferranti Winery!