Now, my feet are firmly rooted on our soggy terra firma, but my head is sometimes off in the clouds. It's not always the "novelty" plant, the hoop-jumping lion of the green world, that will seduce and literally bust my pocketbook (the zipper of which has long since been looted by trespass), but it's often a good old-fashioned charmer, an ornamental staple that I end up gently hauling home, for I have a rational side as well.
I have kept a nursery tag for 1 of every plant species I own or once owned that was more of a novelty for me, if only when I bought it. Every gardener starts at the beginning, right? I look through the stack each new year, and honestly remember many lost plants - some went back to the earth by way of the compost bin, some went home with friends, some are still thriving at a previous address or two. And by this process, I'm able to better resist the newbies of each successive year.
Well, last fall after a brief introduction, I brought home another circus lion, a younger version of an old favorite, a variegated Viola called "Heartthrob". It's just waking up from winter, and we're fighting the slugs together. So I have yet to see how it will perform in our little space, but it's already showing signs of longevity, having survived two transplants, our cold winter, and a spring onslaught of slug armies.
This is what it looked like when I brought it home!
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| Photo courtesy of Terra Nova Nursery |
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