Park Seed’s Flower Day

So, yesterday Mom & I went to Flower Day at Park Seed in Hodges, SC (near Greenwood). I was very excited when I found out that Mom & I were going to go together. My mom, who gardened with us when we were children, is a great gardener and great mother. Further, she is a SC Master Gardener and she teaches Jr Master Gardener classes as well as 4-H events. Mom & I went down and explored the experimental gardens and got to see new plants such as SunPatiens (think Impatiens that like sun, but with different numbers of petals); they were very pretty and available in a variety of colors. Mom & I spent 5hrs at Park Seed exploring and looking at plants. I got to visit some of their shade gardens to get ideas for our property since we do have 10 fully mature pecan trees on our property … hence Lots of shade! I loved the lamb's ear that they had growing in the shade gardens; it had lush large soft leaves. We also bought a Vibe-full of plants to bring home and add to our own gardens. I’ve been reading a lot about cottage gardens lately and planning some for our house since it is an older house (built in the 30’s) and I find the cottage gardens particularly attractive! For the cottage garden, I got coneflowers, coneflower seed, lavender seed, blanket flower seed, salvia, and astilbe. I also got some butterfly weeds to attract butterflies for pollination as well as a new rose (I Finally got a Peace rose … I’m super excited!) For the shade gardens, I got some blue mouse ears hostas (yes, those of you who know me know I LOVE hostas) and ‘brownies’ heuchera (coral bells) to add some more color to the shade gardens. I also got a few more plants, but I won’t bore you with all the details! But, needless to say, Mom & I had such fun that we’re planning on going again next year and hopefully we’ll be able to go to the Master Gardener preview day since I’ll hopefully have my Master Gardener’s license by then.