I'm at a gardening conference. Today we heard about "The Sensuous Garden" by Lee May, who's one of the best speakers I've heard in a long time.
The line for getting signed copies of his books was quite long.
We were also lucky enough to meet Penny McHenry, a real character, who founded the American Hydrangea Society, and had a hydrangea named after her. She brought several slides of her garden.
I learned a lot of new things about heirloom shrubs, hydrangeas, and roses, which wasn't difficult since I knew almost nothing at all to start with.
Tomorrow, it's the solar aquatic system for cleaning waste water, bamboo for gardens, and bulbs, corms, and tubers. Maybe they'll make a gardener out of me yet.
I adore hydrangeas. In the Azores, they line many of the roads. They don't grow well in the desert climate. To survive at all here they can't have any sun, and the few I've seen are pretty straggly.
ReplyDeleteWe have the wild Oak Leaf Hydrangeas in the woods here, but I've never grown any others. After seeing this presentation, I'd like to.
ReplyDeleteYou've made me homesick. We used to live in Atlanta and loved reading Lee May's columns in the Observer. And Penny McHenry lives in our old Atlanta neighborhood and went to our church. Now here I am, living in Virginia, and I come across these old "friends" in a blog from Alabama - which happens to be where I grew up (B'ham). But none of that is surprising - I'm always finding these connections in the blog world.
ReplyDeleteLin B, I know what you mean, sometimes it's a small blogosphere.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you should mention Penny and church... she said that some of her hydrangeas had become Presbyterians... they weren't getting enough sun, so she moved them to the church next door. She said that although she went to that church only occasionally, her hydrangeas had become loyal Presbyterians.
Lee May is a real gem. Some of his essays for Attache magazine (US Airways in-flight magazine) can be found online here.