ilex vomitoria

i just love the name of the holly i got the other day. the english name is lovely as well... weeping yaupon. isn't that poetic? i now invite you to write a poem on the name of your choice... ilex vomitoria or weeping yaupon. you choose.

my friend jen, our neighbor angie, and 2 of jen's kids piled up in her big red truck (i kinda felt like the wiggles... "toot toot chugga chugga big red car") and drove the distance to broadwell's. what is broadwells, you ask? why nothing less than landscape mecca. it is a huge landscape supply company, which means that it sells plants to garden centers and nurseries wholesale. and to 3 women and 2 kids in a big red truck. wholesale.

now, broadwell's is not for the wimpy woman, the squeamish or the faint of heart. what you do is drive your truck down the rutted and dusty trails between the acres of potted plants, carefully avoiding the sprinkler poles, and load up the truck with whatever you want. it's a little tricky as there are NO PRICES and NO LABELS. it's your guess as to what a plant is and how much it might cost when you get to the guy at the front.

huge, heavy, dripping buckets of cherry treees, messily heaved in to the bed of the truck. dwarf junipers by the dozen. big manly woman arms hoisting hollies upon hollies. we easily packed that truck chock-full of more plants than we could possibly have time to dig holes for. no matter. this was broadwell's! and it inspired all of us to bite off more than we could chew.

strutting through a barn were two peacocks and a peahen. we breathed the dusty, hot air. we bumped down the road. we carefully navigated the turns until at last, we were sated. tired, thirsty, hungry and dirty, we approached the man in the cowboy hat for our grand total. he contemplated with his calculator our bed full of greenery. "$221.50," he said. it's criminal how much we got for just a bit over $200. he helped us wrap the branches in a tarp for wind protection, and we were off to chick-fil-a and dunkin donuts for some much-needed reparations.

i got home and the golden glow abated. i was stuck with a bunch of plants, rock-hard clay soil, and no one to dig me a hole. my back ached just THINKING about planting all this stuff. when i awoke this morning, i found that jane (2 year old border collie) had taken care of at least 2 of my little problems by decimating some dwarf barberry shrubs. no bother! they were only $3 each! and 2 less holes to dig!

at about 5:45, tommy was leaving to go on a motorcycle ride with his pals, and hollered in to me, "lance and his friend are here to dig holes!"

WHAT?!

jen had sent her 13 year old son and his friend robbie to dig my holes for me. they spent 2 dutiful hours digging and planting ALL of my shrubs and plants. i'm so relieved i could cry! and of course i spent my last scraped-together dime to get my wolfman son a $12 (cash only) haircut earlier today. so i couldn't even slip the kids a twenty. no matter, i'll get to the atm asap in the morning and show my gratitude in monetary form. that IS what 13 year old boys want, right?

i called jen, and we have plans to return to broadwell's next wednesday for more. gluttons for punishment, aren't we?