Pandemic Wanderings II

Another lovely day of exploration in the countryside. We were treated to two garden tours today. The first tour was the country home of Peg Emmling. She has a collectors garden where she has amassed a large collection of trees. She enjoys trying out new plant finds and doesn’t mind moving plants if they are not happy where they are originally planted. Peg  also has perennial and shrub beds that were full of happy pollinators today! We all were impressed with her large binder of information about her plantings and left promising to get our own more organized. A gracious hostess. We are thankful for her hospitality!

A short drive led us to Wollam Gardens which is a commercial flower farm. They sell flowers to local floral businesses as well as at farmers markets. We were very lucky to meet the owner, Mr. Wollam who shared his story on how he bought the house. We had lunch in the event space that is on the property. Due to covid many of their wedding events have been cancelled this year so we felt extra lucky to be able to walk amongst the flower beds today. It was fun watching the employees and interns putting together bouquets to sell this weekend. And of course, being able to grab a sweet bouquet to take home made our day! I think many of us will be back for the fresh seasonal flowers.

June Library Clean-up

On Friday, June 19th we worked on the flowerbeds at the Centreville library. We did some weeding, pruning and planting. A female police officer stopped by and complimented us on our work!

PANDEMIC WANDERINGS

What could be better for soothing quarantine fatigue than a drive to the Shenandoah Mountains! A delightful visit to the home of gardener Elaine Faucher was the highlight of the day. She shared her bountiful perennial borders where she lovingly introduced us to her plants by name. Since 2011 she has been building a wonderful collection of not only perennials but also grasses, shrubs, trees and interesting annuals and tropical plants. Even on this warm day the cool breeze from the river provided the perfect temperature as we enjoyed scones and tea provided by our gracious hostess.

Virginia State Arboretum, Blandy, was our second stop of the day. We enjoyed our bag lunches before exploring a bit of this vast property. Many of the plants were name tagged which made the visit so educational. If you go take a picnic blanket as the tables were not available for seating due to caution during the pandemic.

We are lucky to have gardens as a wonderful respite from our homes where we have been quarantining since March. Until our next wandering.....