An Afternoon Amongst the Flowers

Today I went to Gertens, a local gardening center, with my mother-in-law, 2 sisters-in-law, and my niece, Miss H. None of us had every been there before, and let's just say we were overwhelmed by the amount of flowers, plants, shrubs, trees...this place is huge! Once we got acclimated to the sheer size of the place, it was pretty interesting to have so many plants in one place. Everything is very well organized into sections (annuals, perennials, etc) and labeled with photos of what the flower will look like once it has bloomed. It was helpful not only in picking out new plants, but also to see what some of the plants coming up in our yard will look like, and to come up with new ideas. Mostly, it was just nice to be outside and hang out with "the girls." Miss H held up pretty well, but eventually she was so over it...

I picked up 2 beautiful hanging baskets for the front of the house that were on sale. They are dark pink impatiens and look really nice up against the blue of the house. I also got a pink salvia plant to try along the side of the garage (I guess I liked pink today). I will plant the salvia tomorrow; I hung the baskets as soon as I got home, and unfortunately we had another suprise round of rain, high winds, and hail. They took a little beating, but not too bad. Tomorrow looks to be a gorgeous day, so I'll try to take a photo then!