April 27, 2014 – I only remembered last night that the Van Dusen Plant sale was today. I haven’t gone in years since I really didn’t have room for anything at the condo garden. After almost 20 years it was crammed and hardly had an inch of space to spare. But now that we have a new place, and since so many collected treasures were left behind at the condo when we moved out, it is time to start collecting some of those lost treasures, and maybe find a few new ones.
The gardens have more than just wonderful plants though, they also have fabulous art installations, like this one. Towering abstract people carved out of wood.
We were both exhausted last night. Me because I have been going non-stop on my two weeks off and being home when the renovations are going on has been stressful and has meant I’ve had to be up early every day. Kirk because he’d just come home from Montreal and the next morning we had to be up early and down to the Yacht Club for our Work Party. If we don’t put eight hours of labour into the Club every six months, we are billed the equivalent time in dues. It’s a mechanism for getting things done/built/fixed/cleaned/stained/painted/whatever around the Club in an economical and cooperative manner. I’m one of the few women that actually gets out there and works, most women let their husbands do it all, but I figure that since I’m actually the member, and Kirk and I are a team, that I’d just feel wrong about not doing some of the labour too.
So when morning came and Kirk had had a terrible night’s sleep, I figured maybe we’d just not bother going to the plant sale. Eventually we both got mobile and decided to go, but we didn’t get there until it had already been underway for an hour. I figured that all the unusual and treasured things I was after would be snatched up and long gone.
We walked in and I’d no more than uttered the words “I probably won’t find much” before my eyes landed on something I’d been looking for over the past several years and the next words out of my mouth were “OH, look…pleiones! TREASURES!” The grower was thrilled that I knew what they were on sight, and that I couldn’t walk away without one.
Kirk’s next words were “I should go find a tray somewhere, shouldn’t I?”
He came back with two.
And I filled them with treasures.
As we wandered and poked through the wonderful array of plants I heard my name called out, then Kirk’s too! We looked up to see a fellow boater on the other side of the table sporting a Master Gardener Volunteer tag. “Libby!” What a wonderful surprise and we had a great visit, not having seen each other in quite some time. We talked boats, CPS courses, plants, and at the end of the visit she said we must come by because she has 40 years of gardening at their home and she’d love to divide and share some things. Fabulous!
And we finally moved on to keep exploring.
At one point I sighed and said “No trilliums… likely any here were snatched up in the first 20 minutes.” Then I turned around and saw five sitting on the table behind me! They were mostly finished flowering and the flowers looked beaten and sad. But the stems were thick and healthy, these were several years old and in very good shape. I snatched up the three best ones. Two volunteers exclaimed that they couldn’t believe they hadn’t been grabbed already, and concluded, as I had, that people either didn’t know what they were because of how they looked, or that they were unhealthy.
A native tiger lily, two wood anemones, a potentilla, a dwarf alpine lady’s mantle, two Hepatica, a Dodecathon, a nodding onion, two other Allium, a Fairy Bell, and a Syneilesis aconitifolia (Shredded Umbrella Plant) later, I was having a pretty good time.
We were making a last pass when I spied a plant under some bamboo and bolted for it. It had no price, and only a Latin name, but I knew exactly what it was and had wanted one for some time. It was an Aspidastra, a Cast Iron plant. So named because they are basically indestructible. They are also very expensive! It’s an indoor plant, but one that can take anything and keep on growing. The plant was a good sized one, and would fetch between $40-$70 at a plant store. It had no price so I went asking and the grower pulled the tag out and wrote $15 on it.
Sold!
As we walked away a woman asked Kirk where he had picked it up because she too knew what it was and wanted one. He pointed but also said he thought it was the only one. She looked disappointed.
We dropped our plants off at the “Plant check” and went for a wander in the gardens, it’s not often admission is free and we hadn’t visited in a long, long time. I found it ironic that of all the wonderful botanical marvels in the gardens, I took a photo of a weed, a common lawn daisy. Tiny and cute. And so much preferable to dandelions! I need some of these weeds in my lawn!
So, very glad we dragged ourselves out to the sale. A surprise encounter with a fellow Norvan member who I haven’t seen in too long. Some lost treasures have been replaced, and some new ones discovered. And the luck of a mixed bag weather day that produced sunshine and warmth while at the gardens.
Where before I had no space left to fill, I now have more space than I know what to do with…but I’m working on it. 😉
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