This short piece was originally written for the BGI Buzz.
As time passes it is sometimes interesting to see what plans have changed


“ Dawna recently asked for a short piece on the history and the future plans for Country Garden. Since she also asked Brenda and Liz for articles on their nurseries, I assume she intended this to be a "Two Beauties and the Beast” presentation in the Buzz.
Ann and I started Country Garden in 2000 with a few sales on EBay. We knew at the time that we wanted to make it a regular nursery and worked in that direction. Our first intention, as with all businesses, was to make a profit but we also felt we could meet a need as a source for nice brugs at a reasonable price. At that time, there were only about four nurseries selling brugs online and
both selection and customer service were awful. We obtained our first brugs from Arlene Howard, Lynn Carman,Bonnie Vaughn and Gloria Lessner.We also imported several varieties from Hodnik's in France. This was still legal until early 2001 and we made it just under the wire. We also used the commercial sources available at the time. From the first, we have concentrated on customer service in the areas of quick delivery and good packing along with a guarantee of live, healthy delivery. I will admit that we had some worries about that last one but time has proven to us that the vast majority of people are honest. We do replace a few damaged brugs,and a few from our mistakes, from time to time but these have stayed at a reasonable and acceptable level.
Country Garden was set up from the beginning, not as a pretty nursery with nice plants in neat rows but rather a place where I could grow brugs quickly and efficiently. It stays a mess but an efficient mess. We sometimes get calls from people wanting to visit our "gardens".The only garden here is full of onions, garlic, turnips etc.All the brugs are kept in containers and are either in the greenhouse or under a shade structure in the summer. They are always
chopped up and ragged looking as anything large enough for cuttings is taken off and rooted.
So where do we go from here? Short term is easy to see. We just keep doing what we have been doing. We will be adding a few new and different plants to our sales list in 2008.Adeniums(thanks Ronna),plumerias,and hardy hibiscus to name just a few. We did try passifloras last year but gave that up when the passis tried to take over the world starting with the greenhouse. Those things need
more room than we can spare. The long term vision is a bit foggy.
I will be sixty eight this September but I am still blessed with good health and strength. I had hoped that one of the grandchildren might be interested in taking over one day but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Companies are not lining up to buy us out so that leaves just me. Maybe one day, a few years down the road, I’ll walk out to the greenhouse and decide I've had enough. It will be time to call in the bulldozers."

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It is now over a year later and some things have indeed changed.
Plumerias were a bust due to ever present rust making the leaves unsightly. Hardy Hibiscus never got off the ground, no pun intended.
The Adeniums have been a success and now sales rival the brugmansia in number. Amaryllis have been added and grow well for us. They will never be a major sales item but are beautiful and just plain fun to grow and hybridize.
The downturn in the economy has had an effect. Our major material supplier has gone out of business. We will have to travel to Mobile, almost 200 miles round trip, for supplies. I hope to arrange some kind of delivery next spring. As for us, we are safe. Sales are down but we have no overhead outlay except for supplies and propane. I have no doubt that if we had rent and labor to pay, we would have gone the way many of our friends have and be out of business.So,onward and hoping for an upturn in the economy next year.Hoping,but not expecting. In the meantime, I do love what I'm doing.

A pleasant surprise from the garden

In the late 90's I concentrated on growing heirloom vegetables and herbs.One of the heirloom tomatoes was "Snow White Cherry".This one did not impress me much and would probably have been tossed after that season.One good thing did come from "Snow White Cherry" and that was a sport growing from one of the plants.This branch had bright,lemon yellow fruit,in sharp contrast to the very pale yellow of SWC.The taste was very good so I decided to dry some of the seed and give them a try.The downline plants came true from seed so the plants were named
"Lemon Drop" and were shared with Seed Savers Exchange.Seed Savers trialed them and later offered them for sale in their store.Here is Seed Savers description from their seed packet;

Lemon Drop Tomato

Lycopersicon lycopersicum

"a pleasant surprise in the trials at Heritage Farm,where each season more than 750 varieties of tomatoes are grown.Heavy sets of 1/2 to 3/4 inch translucent yellow cherry tomatoes.

Nice,clean,tart-sweet flavor.Indeterminate.80-90 days from transplant."

I continue to grow "Lemon Drop"usually planting two crops a year.The early spring planting and a couple of late fall plants to carry through in the greenhouse.These,along with a few red cherries make good grazing through the winter.A couple of cautions are in order.Late rain can cause some cracking if it come while the fruit is ripening.If you are a seed saver,I suggest that you just dry the seed and save rather than fermenting.These seed tend to sprout during the fermentation process.Seed are not commercially available except through Seed Savers Exchange but we will be offering them through Country Garden next spring

http://countrygdn.com/