City Gardening

A wagon load of plants spotted leaving Plant Delights Nursery

As a garden writer, I’m lucky enough to be able to attend annual conferences where 600 or so plant-and-garden crazy writers gather in various parts of North America to discover the newest plants and the finest gardens. As if that’s not enough, we listen to seminars – both thought provoking and educational – given by experts in their fields.The 2009 Garden Writers Association Symposium was recently held in Raleigh, North Carolina. Over the next 12 days, I’ll show you what horticultural delights I discovered in Raleigh, starting with:

 1. Plant Delights Nursery

The agave courtyard -- eat your heart out Paul Zammit!

The minute I heard this nursery was on the Raleigh tour, I signed up. Run by the irreverent Tony Avent (his catalogues are noted for their humorously controversial covers – Gardening Jihad, Nationalized Plant Care and Desperate Gardeners, to name a few), Plant Delights is such a Mecca for plant aficionados, there’s a guide, complete with visitor classifications, to help you plan your time. Simply decide in which category you belong – from “gardener who likes pretty flowers” (allow 30 to 60 minutes) to “plant nerds with no social life” (3 to 10 hours, not including shopping) and start walking through the extensive five-plus acres of display gardens and plant-packed greenhouses. The nursery holds only four Open Houses each year (click here for schedule), so don’t even think about planning at trip to this part of the USA at any other time. Tony Avent also publishes the PDN newsletter that’s a great read for plant-a-holics.

Brunnera 'King's Ransom' looks just as ratty here as it does in my garden!

Fellow garden writer Sara Katz is bowled over by the lush greenery.