Garden Center

It was vegetation time with Therese on the premises, as she likes to garden and at home in Holland she only has boxes on balconies in her apartment. While the women checked likely garden centers Cheyenne and I walked the grassy areas looking for delicious things to eat. Well, she was, I was fiddling with my camera as usual. Therese reminds me a bit of Cousin Lyn in Chicago who is always doing the gardening thing. Gardening is a bit like fishing for me, terribly laudable as an activity but rather obscure on the details. I fret sometimes that I should be out killing fish because people come from far and wide to indulge in the scaly sport. And there I am ignoring all that fishiness. The same with gardening- Therese was chuntering on about how in this climate everything grows (as though by magic) and she was all worked up to go out and by us some decorative plants. I was nothing loathe as our friends take great pleasure in pointing out that our house lacks vegetative decoration. I should note this is the third year I've planted vegetables and finally I think we are starting to get it, through horrendous trial and error. But more about that another day. So we paid a visit to the nursery across the street from my house on Ramrod Key.This is Therese's element. She doesn't look like a lawyer for the United Nations Court of Justice based in The Hague. Her job is to organize briefs submitted by member states against other member states. She prefers the traveling part of the job, putting her most frequently in Africa though anywhere there is "conflict" she frequently goes. For now she was buying sub-tropical plants on her Florida vacation.I quite enjoyed wandering the nursery.

We eventually got one of these, called mamey- but these aren't the kind that produce the sweet delicious fruit by that name.

Driving Highway One at Mile marker 27 puts a rider at the point where colored pelicans bob up and down in front of the garden center.And inside as well.Ramrod Key's other claim to fame is the presence of Five Brothers Two Cuban grocery and deli, opened by the family that runs the Five Brothers store on Southard in Key West. This one is just across the street from the nursery.

Therese got some expert advice on the plants she proposed to give us.It took large amounts of discussion between the three women, including my wife.

A partial inventory of what we ended up with. Therese was adamant we get a bougainvillea.A good day's hunting on a sunny January afternoon. Spending nine days with us Therese the Frenchwoman went to Fort Jefferson, bought plants, cruised Key West with my wife and bought plants, and on her way to the Miami Airport planned a stop at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. No surprise.
http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/07/fairchild-gardens.html