On being a plant snob.

Daylilly – ‘Siloam June Bug’
I never really think of myself as someone who grows flowers. I mean, I hate it when friends at work and others say something like, ” Oh, You’d like it there, there are lots of nice flowers!”, or, Have fun in the Alps, photographing your flowers!”. I suppose, to anyone with a passion, who deeply emerses themself into either a pastime, or an interest, it them becomes so much more than a mere hobby. Maybe it just feels trivial when people refer to ones obsession as a mere interest, that’s makes one so mad. I mean, how dare they not understand that a daylilly is NOT a true lily?!! Come one! MAybe that’s why I could never run a garden center……I couldn’t deal with posie pushers! (oops, that’s not very nice!).

Tru Lily hybrid- ‘Ariadne’ (downfacing asiatic)
I mean, I couldn’t deal with uninformed customers asking for red geraniums and pink and blue perennials for thier garden that will bloom all summer. Call me a garden snob, sure, but I prefer it that way. WhenI open a garden center, oops, I mean if I ever opened a garden center (first of all, it would’nt be called a garden center), then I would target two consumers . First, the experienced gardener, the hortiphile….and second, only those who are curious about learning, for I would inform them on what to buy, and why. For instance, I would break the rules……not sell Stella D’Oro daylillies just because everyone would want then since they see them at Home Depot or planted infront of the gas station….I would have a section dedicated to the best performing miniature everblooming daylillies that come from the worlds best breeders……..and then have didactic panels with photos, or examples of what they look like, or perhaps a sample garden.

Most any plant, or tree, or annual that you see at a major garden center, has a counterpart that is most likely better, newer, or older, more classic and forgotton, or simply unknown to the masses. Most gardencenter owners are businessmen, who are more interested in selling then inspiring. Sure, it’s a business, but the few, the very few who are both passionate horticulturists AND businessmen, and perhaps,even designers, are the best of the bunch. And those of you who know them, know what I mean.

My idea of a gardencenter, or nursery, will not becoome reality, for my vision of a garden shop would most likely not succeed, unless perhaps it was in a major metro area, NYC, Boston, Nantucket, etc…….for now, I shall continue to focus on what I do at my day job (GO transformers!) And leave the blue tecophilea and pots of South African pink Agapanthus (yeah, I have one now from Australia) to the hollows of my mind.