In Houston today! The last of the Southern Bulb orders are shipping out today. We had one customer come pick her order up here at the Olive Barn in Houston, and she mentioned that she was planting them on their retirement piece of land just north of Houston. Great idea! That will give them lots of time to grow and you won't have to worry about them at all over the years.

We worked on our video some more. They are really turning out great!

As I mentioned at the end of the last blog, I ended up in Monroe, Louisiana. Monroe has been wonderful to me this year, in the form of speeches, housing, and in this case...bulbs! She had planted red spider lilies in her lawn--a great way to make a normal yard just a little more fun!




Their place was right on a lake, and the guest accommodations were wonderful. Thank you!

After talking in Monroe, I left the next day for Oxford, MS, where the adventure continues.

The three weeks of travel are over and it feels good to have some rest! I will start posting about some of the fun places I traveled and experienced, and I will start with St. Francisville, Louisiana.

For those of you who don't know, St. Francisville is a charming little town in South Louisiana just north of Baton Rouge. They have many old plantation homes and a lively community that loves to celebrate their unique heritage and architecture. One of the celebrations includes the Southern Garden Symposium headed by Dr. Neil Odenwald with the help this year of a wonderful person named Tracey and her husband.

Dr. Odenwald gathers a host of speakers for talks and presentations given at the old plantations, ruins, and in historic churches in the town. The first talk I visited was that of Mr. Haskell Eargle at the Afton Villa Ruins off of Highway 61. Haskell designed the flowers for the Academy Awards for many years and delighted us all with wonderful arrangements and his great sense of humor. The ruins in which he spoke were filled with little treasures, like colors of this old stone bench that were created with different mosses and lichens and a dusting of spanish moss. There were elements of purposeful design mixed in to accentuate the natural landscape. It was decided by the current owners that most of the structures at Afton Villa would remain in their ruined state, but sections of the garden were restored to their formal splendor.

After Haskell's talk, I drove over to the Episcopal Church to hear Ferguss Garrett present on designing garden beds "The Dixter Way." It was an historic church, with all sorts of colorful greys, greens, and blues covering its architecture.Fergus is now in charge of The Great Dixter in England and has continued on works begun by Christopher Loyd. Christopher Loyd was the garden designer not only know for his non-traditional color combinations, but also his uses of texture and unique architecture in garden settings. Ferguss spoke at Jackson Hall of Grace Episcopal Church. The church is located in an old cemetery. Here a row of spider lily foliage begins to emerge lining one old plot of tombstones.The early American cemetery on the grounds of the church had suffered some large tree damage from the last hurricane. I collected some Spanish moss that had fallen on the ground.

I spoke the next day at Hemingbough. By the end of my talk (the last of the presentations) I was tired and so were the rest of the attendees. I cleaned up after my talk and drove to the tea in town at a restored 1890's home. By the time I arrived, everyone had left. There were a few sandwhiches left and the hosts prepared me a plate. That night I slept wonderfully on the plantation just north of town.

It was a splendid weekend, but by the time I made the drive home on Sunday afternoon I was worn out and ready for a rest. I had Monday to work on the farm, but that Tuesday was my talk in Monroe, Louisiana and the grand tour began again. More to come...

There has been an absence from writing due to my traveling schedule, I would like to blame most of this absence on the day that I began to fall behind. It started off like any other day before a larger speaking engagement—wake up, catch a plane, land, go to hotel, wake up, and speak. However, the Monday morning I was supposed to leave for Prescott, AZ, I received an e-mail from Orbitz letting me know my flight had changed. In fact, my departing flight was leaving almost an hour later that morning, so I was feeling relaxed.

When I checked in, I was told that I had an illegal connection (only 20 minutes to get from my landed flight in Phoenix to my departing flight for Prescott) and that I had to sign a waiver stating that I realized my bag would not make it on the plane and that I would have to drive to the airport to pick it up. This is never a good way to start your trip at an airport.

Somehow, my booked departure time was wrong, and now all of my flights had been pushed back, and if I missed my flight to Prescott, I was in trouble because there were no more flights leaving that day. As you can imagine, when we landed in Phoenix I rushed off my plane (from Seat 15C so it took a few minutes). I now had 18 minutes to get to my flight. I looked to the left, and there was the end of the terminal. I looked to my right, and there was the security line entering my terminal. I looked up at the screens, and there were no flights departing for Prescott. Now I had 15 minutes.

Hastily walking up to the counter, I asked about the flight to Prescott. “Prescott?” the gate agent responded, “We don’t fly to Prescott.” I just looked at him thinking to myself, “Please, don’t just say to ask someone else. Seriously, where is my flight to Prescott.”

“Ohhh….” He said. “That’s with Great Lakes Airline in Terminal D.”

Great Lakes! Who has ever heard of that airline? And where is terminal D?

He explained I had to leave security, go to the rotunda, take the first left, and that would put me at Terminal D. 14 minutes….

I leave security (realizing that I would have to go back through it somewhere taking up more precious time). I take a left at the rotunda only to see a long deserted hallway with a sign at the very end and an arrow pointing to the right saying “Terminal D.” One minute spent walking down hallway…13 minutes to go….

At the end of the hallway there is only a security exit and an elevator. What floor am I on? What floor do I need to go to? Press the button. Wait. Wait. Door opens. Press floor. Press “Door Close.” Press “Door Close.” Press “Door Close.” Press “Door Close.” Press “Door Close.” Door closes….2 minutes spent…11 minutes to go.

Door Opens and I am outside of the airport. “What is this?!” I think to myself. I walk along a caged ramp and then I exit on to the street with the taxis. I see another sign that leads me along a striped path to some forgotten building detached from the rest of the airport. Peaking through a fence onto the tarmac I see a little prop plane spooling up and taxing out. Being that I only have 9 minutes before my flight leaves, I assume this is my flight. I make it to Terminal D, only to get to security and have them question my old fashioned paper ticket that Great Lakes still issues. I throw my clothes back on as they come through the x-ray, grab my bags, and enter the now infamous Terminal D. But wait, there are three ways I can go: up, down, and around. I peak down the “down” path, and it looks correct. I see a gate agent and ask about Great Lakes. “All the way to the end,” is the answer.

At the end now of this long, long wing, I reach the gate, only to see cobwebs, no plane, and no gate agent. My flight leaves in 2 minutes, but in reality I see it on the runway gaining speed and then air. Gone. No more flights. I speak the next morning and have to find some way to get to Prescott.

Leaving security once again, I search out the ticket counter for Great Lakes. Again…all the way to the end. There is a shuttle van to Prescott. Should take under 2 hours. They will go get my bags.

I purchase my shuttle ticket. I wait. I load onto the shuttle. There is an accident in Phoenix. We take residential streets to get out of town. The whole van is laughing because someone makes a joke asking if we are going to see the driver’s mother. More residential streets and we almost hit a car. The driver explains “That was my sister.” We have to pick up another passenger at the IHOP. Someone asks if it is his brother. Four and a half hours later we arrive in Prescott, but not at the airport where my rent car is. We arrive at the shuttle terminal. The airport is 10 miles back the other way.

Dee Dee, my new traveling companion, nurse and now friend from Hawaii, says her brother Bubba can give me a ride. Bubba, Dee Dee, and I hop in the car and leave for the airport. They drop me off and I reach into my bag and give them bulbs as a thank you. They leave and I look up and see the one room airport and not a soul. I walk in and see THE gate with no one there. To my left is the single rent car booth carved out of the side of the wall below a stair well. It is empty. Everyone has gone home.I called the number on the card at the rent car booth, and the phone in the airport began to ring. It was me calling. Great. I called for a cab. It was nearly 30 degrees and someone left the gas fireplace going. I sat down next to it and made a phone call. The janitor appeared. LIFE! He also told me that another flight was coming in an hour and half and that Mr. Rent-a-car would probably be back. I cancelled my cab.

To conclude, I was able to rent my car, drive to the hotel, and give my talk in Prescott the next morning. I was also able to sell some bulbs!The problem is that I was so exhausted by the end of it, I have spent the last two weeks trying to recover! My hotel room in Prescott was great, and for some reason I loved the sun they had worked into the balcony balustrade. It complimented the setting sun...
And the rising moon.

Earlier this week I spoke at Calloways Nursery in Flower Mound, Texas and the next day in Plano, TX. They did a little video!