From Bottlebrush Buckeye to Infinity

All things bright and beautiful, 

All creatures great and small;

All things wise and wonderful - 

The Lord God made them all. 

When I attended the local Home and Garden show earlier this spring, I connected with a representative from a plant nursery up in Ashland, Virginia.  Located about 30 miles north of where I live - give or take a few miles - Colesville Nursery is known in the Virginia gardening industry as a place where you can find almost anything - particularly if it is unusual or hard-to-get.

I receive the Virginia Gardening Magazine from one of my generous choir members, and I am always cutting out pictures of things I would like to plant.  Almost a year ago, the magazine featured a photograph of the plant shown above - a Bottlebrush Buckeye shrub.  Growing to a height of eight feet and a width of twelve feet or so, this buckeye.shrub is a showstopper in anyone's book, and absolutely magnificent when in full bloom.  I have a huge front yard that could certainly use a lot less grass to mow, so I instantly wanted one of these beauties.  Finding one, however, has been very frustrating.  None of the local nurseries had one, and at least one didn't even know what it was. I found a five-gallon bottlebrush online in Oregon; the plant was only $60 but the shipping estimatge was $245!  Finally, I remembered Colesville, and shot them an email this week asking if they had one.  Two days later, I got my reply:  Yes, we have one - a seven-gallon plant.  Oh, my!

Yesterday, a friend of mine joined me to trek out to Ashland.  After driving down a long driveway (at least a third of a mile!), the truck turned into what can only be described as a gardener's paradise - a veritable Garden of Eden.  I have never been to a nursery that size, and I could not believe my eyes.  The acreage is split into multiple sections (L2, N1, P1, etc.), and workers on lawn tractors roar around to locate what you want.  I cannot begin to imagine how long it would take to walk through and look at everything.  We spent an hour and a half and only saw a small portion of three sections. 

The bottlebrush buckeye was still available and quickly loaded into the back of my truck.  We visited the perennial (huge) and annual (much smaller) areas - both sun and shade - and could have spent a fortune there.  I found a gorgeous plant I have never seen before:  the perennial Tiarella "Pink Skyrocket" foam flower.  I couldn't resist buying one, then wished I had taken all five that were sitting there.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  As we stood in the midst of an entire section of heucheras of every color imaginable, I thought of Adam and Eve's idyllic garden.  What must it have been like to tend to a whole world of plants whose color, size and scope were limited only by God's endless imagination.  Every spring I give Him thanks for allowing us to care for and enjoy my tiny portion of His vast, glorious creation.