Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Our Gabby Garden Gals' Garden Tour!

Five of us toured SE Iowa today!

First, we visited Tender top Nursery. They maintain lovely gardens both in the shade and in the sun, and three ponds that are very intriguing. They sell plants for any environment. This is where we began our purchases. My little Toyota Camry has a trunk that dares to compete with the storage of most SUVs. ha! :-)

In went our first purchases.
(To be quite honest, I didn't purchase these (not available) ...
but the are definitely on my wish list!)
Next we visited Lowe's - home/garden/lumber store. Of course we were interested in their plants, especially the bargains. We found a few!


Again, in went quite a number of purchases, but they fitted in perfectly with much room to spare.
(I DID purchase this!)

You can see that it's already "in place!" :-)


After lunch at Culver's (yum!), our next stop was Hilltop Gardens, owned by Gerald Hobbs. Mr. Hobbs is a member of Cedar Valley Iris and Day lily Society. He not only grows but develops new varieties of day lilies. A copy of his plant list is here.

Hmmmm. Those look interesting . . .

We're all smiles as we look for the perfect flowers!

Into the trunk went several of his day lilies ... check out the trunk!


Our next stop was Hillcrest Hostas & More, just west of Donnellson.

Yes - we found a few plants to bring home. Most of our purchases were miniature hostas.

There are two spaces left . . . just the right size for Becky's and my hostas. :-) The others had to balance their purchases on their laps, all the way home! ha.

A fun time was had by all. We missed the rest of you! Next time! :-)

19 comments:

Pat said...

That was fun !
Reminds me I still like to get a few plants.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Patsi! We did have fun, and with the weather WE've been having - we can still plant. :-)

Noelle Johnson said...

I love how you were able to stuff your Camry full of so many plants. I have done the same with my Honda Civic. Isn't it amazing how many plants you can fit if you have a mind too?

Nutty Gnome said...

Now that looks like my sort of day Shady!!!
You did well to get that much stuff in a Camry - I'm impressed!
I really should learn to take our little Citroen C3 when I go plant shopping - I get WAAAY too carried away when I've got my long wheel based Land Rover and bucket loads of space.......! ;)

Rose said...

Now, if you'd had a little extra room in the back seat, I would have jumped right in and joined you! When my friend Beckie and I are planning a major shopping excursion, we usually take my small SUV to make sure we have plenty of room, though my old minivan was the best:)

Looks like my kind of day, Shady, and I see you have a daylily farm nearby as well. Isn't it hard to choose among all those beauties?

Northern Shade said...

It looks like a fun road trip, with good company, touring and new plants. I clicked the pictures to check out the details of plants in the trunk and in boxes. :)

Gail said...

What fun! I just returned from a garden tour and no way could I bring any plants home~Lucky you! xxgail

Rebecca @ In The Garden said...

What a fun post! I am so envious of the trunk full of daylilies! Looks like a great time was had by all. :)

ShySongbird said...

What a great day you girls had :)

With so many goodies to choose from, I bet you were all like kiddies in a sweet shop or as I think you say, a candy store :)

Kathleen said...

How fun Shady Gardener! Nothing better than good (gardener) friends and nursery shopping!

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

That looks like a lot of fun. The Daylily garden looks really neat. You know you did good when every spare inch of the car was full of plants! :)

Rosemary said...

Shady what a fun time it looks like you had. I am impressed at all the trunk did hold and the extras you managed to squeeze in to the car..

troutbirder said...

What fun. And with careful selection a great time to get those bargain plants they want to get rid of...

Alex aus dem Gwundergarten said...

Smile, you all seemed to have had grate fun! I like those trips with my garden ladies too. No car is to small when a garden girl has something in mind :o). I drive a Nissan Micra and it's unbelievable how many plants woman can put in it.
Those daylilis look really great. I've never seen this color on daylilis before.
Kind regards from Switzerland
Alex

Anonymous said...

Next time, can I come too? You all look like you had so much fun. I want that first daylily too. How exotic and alluring!! Yep it's quite surprising how much loot you can cram into the trunk of a car, isn't it? Especially when that loot is PLANTS.

Shirley said...

Hi again Shady, that looks like my sort of shopping trip… guessing the Gals did lunch too?

I’m most impressed that you managed to contain your purchases within the car… lol… as said above when a gal has a plant in mind ;-)

Northern Beauty Seeker said...

What fun! Now that's what trunks were made for! :)

Shady Gardener said...

Thank you for all your comments. Each of you knows exactly how much fun we have... I watch you all do it, too! :-) I've been visiting my parents these past few days. Just got home last night. First item of business? A trip around the outside of the house and 'round all the gardens! lol.

Anonymous said...

Just love the hummingbird feeder/hanger combination. What type of feeder is that? It looks very sturdy and would hold a generous amount of nectar.

Thanks