Saturday, May 8, 2010

Seneca Hill Perennials is calling it quits....this was a nursery so unique it's irreplaceable

There's nowhere else to go for many of their plants. I sure am glad I got that Morea reticulata last year, and the Brunsvigia. This is yet another of those times when I regret my regular exaggeration. When I say that I want "everything" in a catalog, I don't really mean "everything". I mean that I like their inventory but maybe only really want 10% ? of it. Or something like that. Except with Seneca Hill it's more like 60%. Honestly. I've got a weakness for South African geophytes and where else in the world will I find a nursery that's assembled a large list of these plants hardy to USDA Zone 6? And all those Cyclamen. And the ridiculously choice listing of native plants, most with provenance....? Nowhere. That's the answer. At least not in this country.

I opened my email Friday morning to find this message and was depressed the rest of the day. This morning, at a Beltsville Garden Club Sale, I spoke to a few fellow fanatics and all of us had mental lists of plants that we had one day intended to buy from SH but just hadn't. It would have been wonderful to have had, say, a one month warning. I know I would have ordered 20-30 plants. Oh well. Such are the rewards of procrastination. Let this be a lesson to us. I only hope Ellen realizes what a treasure their nursery has been and how strongly so many of us felt about it.

No comments: