Can you feel me doing the happy gardener happy garden dance? (and no it’s not because of the third straight day of crazy thunderstorms ,either)

When I went on my mad mission of cutting back forsythia (otherwise known as the great forsythia massacre 2019), I discovered yet another garden space that didn’t have forsythia growing in it but forsythia had grown over it. So I have this new planting area. It is completely weed free and the soil is in decent shape.

After I had cleared out the forsythia, I lived with the space for a couple of days. Then it dawned on me: mountain hydrangeas and mountain laurels. And I could also move ferns and hostas that needed splitting from other areas of the garden.

So the hostas and ferns went in, and I have a fern order of more specialized ferns coming from New Hampshire Hostas and Companion Plants, and mountain laurels coming from another source.

But when Lazy S Farm in Virginia closed it’s doors due to retirement, I had lost my source for Japanese and Korean mountain hydrangeas. I love hydrangeas in general, but I like the offbeat varieties like these mountain hydrangeas because they do very well in our Chester County winters. I also think they lend an undeniable elegance to woodland and shade gardens. I want my garden to reflect me and I don’t want to have the same plants that everyone else has.

Anyway, when I was doing my search for these hydrangeas a listing came up on Etsy of all places. From Gardens Oy Vey in Tennessee. Their prices were good and the plants looked good so I thought I’ll give it a try.

My three hydrangeas arrived today. And they arrived in perfect condition beautifully wrapped and when I undid the packaging they sprung to life almost immediately even before I gave them a drink of water.

The hydrangeas I ordered were:

Hydrangea Serrata “Blue Bird”

Hydrangea Serrata “Little Geisha”

Hydrangea Serrata “Beni”

I will also note that the plants arrived with among the best planting instructions I have ever seen and a nice note about the type of hydrangea I ordered from the owners of the nursery.

I am not planting the hydrangeas today because I always try to give mail order plants at least a day to recover from their travels. And today I am looking at the sky, and hearing the low rumbles of thunder in the background and I don’t want these plants to get smashed to bits after traveling from Tennessee to Pennsylvania.

Gardens Oy Vey has a terrific website and I’m going to check out their other plants as soon as I finish this post.

The sky looks quite ominous right now and I look forward to weather that’s a little more settled. But the reality is what we are saying is climate change. It does exist no matter how some quarters would try to make you think it doesn’t.

When I plant these hydrangeas I will also be planting Caladiums in that planting area. They are coming from BloomBox and will add fun color and vibrancy to a new shade bed. I don’t know if I will plant Caladiums going forward in this location, but until the plants I purchased like the hydrangeas get established, it’s a nice way to fill in.

Anyway that is it for me, I am inside waiting for it to rain. The last photo in this post was the sky a few minutes ago.