Local Haunts-Broken Arrow Nursery

On Sunday I finally got around to haunting one of my favorite CT nurseries, Broken Arrow in Hamden.  Because I am woefully behind in my own garden, this was a quick "hit and run" trip that unfortunately did not involve food.  Recently I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more plants unless I had a specific spot for them in the garden so one would think that would cut down on the nursery trips.  Well one would be wrong.  What could I possibly have been I drinking, I mean thinking, when I made that promise?

You won't find any annuals here.  At Broken Arrow it's all about the woodies...so to speak.  Nursery owner Dick Jaynes, is known throughout the plant world as a premier hybridizer of mountain laurels, the state flower of CT.  In the past few years Broken Arrow has evolved into a specialty nursery for unusual woody plants.

The Japanese maple selection is tough to beat-both in small container sizes and larger landscape size trees.

As far as perennials go, the emphasis seems to be in favor of shade lovers but unusual stuff for sunnier sites can be found as well.

Somehow I managed to keep my specific plant for a specific spot promise and escaped with only two shrubs-Hypericum 'Albury Purple'-one of my favorite small accent shrubs, and Hydrangea serrata 'Kiyosumi'.  I'm a sucker for hydrangeas with interesting foliage and have had good luck with consistent flowering on the serratas.  The one perennial I succumbed to was tagged Kalimeris 'Geisha'.  I tried to research it on line and all the sources I found described it as a gold variegated foliage plant.  As you may be able to see, the plant I purchased has pink, green and white variegation so I doubt it's 'Geisha'.  I tried searching for just the foliage color and came up with nothing so for now it will remain a mystery.

Despite the measly haul, the trip was worth a few hours of lost gardening time.  Due to a recent reorganization, I have some holes in my backyard border and between these plants and a few annuals I found at a greenhouse on the way home I was able to plug some of them.  Now I'm one step closer to maintenance mode only-tasks that can be performed with one hand leaving the other free to hold a wine glass.