May 17, 2007 : Getting busy

I took this picture on the morning of the Saturday before Mother's Day, on what was to be our busiest weekend in the history of the nursery.

Jennifer Sobin set up her La La Ice Cream cart on the porch and served up her delectable homemade ice cream.

The bare root building was a loud, chaotic scene. It felt like walking into a raucous party. The area by the cash registers was congested with masses of people and boxes full of flowers. I hope nobody was too frustrated by having to wait in line.

All in all it went quite smoothly. Little wrinkles, like the woman and her daughter for whom we decided to tie their bare root trees (with roots carefully wrapped) to the top of their SUV so they could fit more flowers inside. They took off down the road and soon saw their trees in the rear view window. Somehow they got them back here and we tied them on reeeal good and sent them on their way.

She called on her cel from about 40 miles away. They were halfway home and the trees were still tied to the top but all the plastic protecting their roots was gone. We generally tell people not to let the roots be exposed for even a few minutes. What could I do? I told her to soak them in a bucket of water when they got home and hope for the best.