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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pots of Snow

A customer came by yesterday morning to buy roses to take as Christmas presents to a family Christmas party.  She was completely undaunted by the fact that we have had sub-freezing temperatures for a week, and 3 inches of snow, so the pots in the nursery are frozen solid and full of snow.



She and I stood in front of the snowy pots of miniatures (which is what she wanted), discussing each variety.  She left with four roses, and four tags that I made for her, with a big smile on her face.  This made my day!




I loved the fact that she thought to give so personal, and unusual, a gift to her relatives ... and that she came out in the snow to do it.  As you can see, I hadn't shoveled the nursery area at all.  I loaned her a pair of snow boots to walk out there to choose her roses.




After the snow melts, I will take the time to right all of the pots that have been blown over by our recent wind storms, and settle them in a more protected spot for the remainder of the cold winter ahead.  Roses are hardy shrubs, and most of these little guys will be just fine.  There may be a few losses ... but I think they will be better plants for their eventual new owners like this than they would be if I coddled them in the greenhouse.  My own potted roses stay outside, and they are just fine.

These are my own miniatures, destined for the Miniature Garden back by the barn. 

Even in winter, there are orders to go out.  These four are being shipped to their new home tomorrow.  (I'll tidy them up and dump out the snow first.)




Today's 'To Do' list consists of the last remnants of Christmas decorating, grocery list making, and other general preparations for the crowd that will be here next weekend ... accentuated by lots of football watching. 

(The photos in this post were processed in PhotoShop, using a transparent Gaussian blur layer and a bit of color correcting, to make them appear a bit more 'chilly'.)