Whistling in the Garden

by Melissa Volk

Melissa Volk is a writer and horticulture specialist with Sunnyside Nursery, a local retail garden center celebrating its 61st anniversary. Visit www.sunnysidenursery.net.

Have you ever been given gift money with the instruction to buy something for yourself that you otherwise never would? Last year I was. And I did.

I had been admiring a Meyer Improved standard lemon tree for some time. I loved its pole-shaped trunk topped with merry sprays of evergreen and the idea of growing my own lemons, but couldn't commit to a price tag over seventy dollars. What if it died?

Definitely something I wouldn't normally buy for myself, but I went for it. My lemon tree soon set one fruit, which my two-year-old son got to before it was fully ripe. I brown bagged it and managed to salvage half. It was delicious.

I now have a dozen fruits nearly ripe, a number of young fruits and, from the warmth of being brought back inside, a handful of flower buds. The tree is magnificent to look at. The flowers smell wonderful. I enjoy the culinary source and giving lemons to eager friends. What a gift!

My lemon tree gave me the courage this spring to buy a 'Boulevard' Cypress topiary with five oblong pompoms for a large pot I couldn't get right. This time I put up my own money, over a hundred bucks, and am happy I did. The planting has transformed my backyard. A centerpiece and year round focal point with great color, stature and texture, the Boulevard topiary is exceptionally nice to have during winter.

Aside from shaking the fear of black thumb--a well-informed nursery staff is, after all, there to help--I also had to overcome an obstinate unwillingness to accept big price tags. Your nurseryman isn't trying to pull wool. They, in fact, often reduce the mark-up on spendier plants.

Why, then, the large numbers? Both Meyer lemons and Boulevard cypress can be bought as small shrubs for under twenty bucks. It's the ornate form I paid for. Topiaries require years of growth, consuming space, water, fertilizer and multiple repottings along with regular pruning to create their defining shapes.

Other plants are hard to propagate. Growers have to recoup costs for large percentages of die-off. You can ask your nurseryman to try their hand at these if they aren't copyrighted. There are only two answers.

New and rare plants may come down in price over the years, but never so much that it makes sense to wait that long to enjoy them. High-end plants come with high-end rewards and quickly pay for themselves in what they bring to your landscape.

I know every business is vying for your Christmas dollars, but consider spending some of them at your favorite gardening nursery. If you don't have the perfect plant in mind, you can always send instructions to buy something wonderful with a gift certificate. There are, of course, many creative ways to spend less on great gardening gifts. I'm just thinking big-ticket here.

Sometimes it's hard to consider buying really nice plants on the costly end of the spectrum. But those nice plants can really knock Santa's socks off.

Melissa Volk is a writer and horticulture specialist with Sunnyside Nursery, a retail garden center celebrating its 60th anniversary. Visit www.sunnysidenursery.net.