Great Weekend & Greenhouse Bloom 5 . . .

For a larger version, left click on the image.

 

This was one of those weekends that comes along very few times in a lifetime. We had friends, David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss spend the weekend and we had a whirlwind of activities. Friday evening started with a dinner with the four of us and the wine writer for the local newspaper who we have gotten to be friends with. He brought two Italian wines (since we were having Italian food) and we brought a bottle of Borola (another Italian varietal). The company was great, the food was great, the wine was great.

Saturday morning we spent some time in the greenhouse looking especially at the seedlings blooming there. The purples were really showing their stuff. After hybridizing, we drove up to Delano, TN to visit with Karen and Steve Newman at their Delano Gardens nursery. After visiting and looking at pictures for a while, we headed off to a local restaurant (I think it was called The Barn) for lunch. Karen and Steve are great hosts. We got home in time to take a short nap and get ready for the evening festivities.

Mort, Jean and David in the Greenhouse.

 

Saturday night we were invited to a wine dinner at the local Table 2 restaurant. The local wine writer had arranged and hosted this dinner for 25 people. There were five courses for dinner and each course was served with a pouring of a different wine. The wine was brought to the dinner by Mike Hendry of Hendry Vineyards in Napa, CA. All in all, I think we tasted seven wines. Our favorites were a Zinfandel and a Cabernet. What a great jovial evening and I drove home without getting picked up.

 

One of the nice seedlings blooming on Sunday morning was No. 8183 (Judy Farquar X Wonder Of It All). It has the form that I like, heavy ruffling and substance and light sculpting. What a pretty flower at about 5½".

 

Another seedling blooming was No.8169 (Awesome Bob X Larry Allen Miller). WOW, what a showoff.

 

I continue to be amazed at the wonderful bloom in the greenhouse after last year when I had a terrible infestation of thrips. This year I began spraying immediately upon bringing the plants into the greenhouse.

Life is very, very good.

Lee