Sarracenia etc.

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:04:22 PST
Wow, it's a small world, Dennis. 

Many years ago, when Meadowview was just beginning to expand its reach
outside of the immediate Caroline County, Va. area, they started to show up
at the twice a year plant sales at Green Spring Park (see below) in
Annandale Virginia, about an hour or two north of their home base. For
several seasons I bought wonderful pitcher plants from them. Their booth was
always surrounded by wide-eyed gardeners making a first acquaintance with
these astonishing plants. 

About their prices: yes, the prices shown are high, but read the fine print:
if I’m reading this correctly, if you become a sponsor/member of Meadowview,
you get a 50% discount. Since the membership costs only $25, do the math -
it's a good deal. 

I’m glad to see that Meadowview has flourished over the years – I had lost
track of them. 

The Green Spring phenomenon itself is pretty amazing. The site itself is a
small former residence with a garden designed by early twentieth century
designer Beatrix Farrand (it was she who designed the garden for Dumbarton
Oaks). The Green Spring site has been developed into a suburban show garden,
handsomely maintained and of interest all year. There is a plant sale there,
typically twice a year, with vendors who sell an amazing range of plants - a
range utterly unpredictable from year to year. This plant sale is like
nothing else of the type I've ever seen, a bazaar-like mix of amateur and
professional growers offering plants from the most mundane to things of
extreme rarity. My now fourteen-year-old Welwitschia came from one of the
Green Spring sales in 1997 as a one year old seedling.

The sales now don't pack quite the wow factor they did in the early years,
partly because some of the shakers and movers behind the sales back then
have moved on. But they are still something to look forward to. And during
the milder parts of the year, the staff runs a small sale of plants
propagated from the Green Spring collection. 

BTW Dennis, when you asked  "is it wrong for a vegetarian human to grow
carnivorous plants?" I'm  inclined to say that it's OK as long as you don't
eat them for their dead animal content. 


Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone
7, where the garden is still under a foot and a half of snow.  
My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/
BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/
 
Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS 
Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ 
 
Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/
 
 
 
 
 
 


More information about the pbs mailing list