You picked the wrong jacket to hide in the forsythia section, my dear wife Karen.
Last Saturday my dear wife Karen and I walked the aisles of Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center in North Syracuse for more than an hour, and I was a lot closer to getting bushed than I was to getting bored.
Every year we take the drive from our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood to North Syracuse to delight in the massive collection of plants, bushes, trees and so much more in this nursery. It is one of our happy rites of spring, knowing that we can add to the gardens up front and out back.
Quick, Tweet out this photo of the Twitter bush.
I love to use my imagination, picturing this huge tree, that wide bush, every flower in that whole aisle adorning our plot.
Oh, what could be done with unlimited yard space and an endless budget. Not to mention a really big truck.
Yet, we always fill the back of Karen’s Mazda SUV with a new collection to put in the ground around our home.
Karen with Saturday’s bounty. I have a feeling there will be another trip before May is out.
If you’d like to read my story and see a lot of neat pictures from Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center on Syracuse Public Media site waer.org, click the link below.
http://waer.org/post/trip-chuck-hafners-garden-center-colors-countless-yard-possibilities
Do you like to take a trip to a nursery to help awaken the senses of spring? Do you add to your garden every year?
Mark Bialczak 
Mandevilla, Ross moss and a whole bunch of things I cannot pronounce. Blurry photos in due time.
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Very cool PLGCM. Gardens are meant to enjoy, not pronounce. Although I must sadly add, they are also meant to photograph much more spectacularly than I can with my iPhone and iPad by many, many others here in BlogVille. I’m looking forward to seeing your shots, blurry or surprisingly sharp.
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Went to your article–You take what others would see as a small and tedious topic and make it quite interesting. I definitely wanted to visit this nursery after reading your piece. However, after a semester at Oswego, you couldn’t drag me back to your nippy neck of the woods for love nor money! Well, okay, MAYbe in the summer : )
Thank you so much for the Follow on The Last Half!
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Your semester at Oswego apparently put up your three-seasons wall around pretty good, Outlier, but spring and fall can be pretty awesome, too. I can hardly endorse winter and keep a clear consciense.
And I am glad that “The Last Half” caught my eye. I hope more of my work catches yours.
Thanks for the comment back to this nippy neck of the woods!
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At my apartment, I would not need to buy plants, but do like it when I get a bouquet from my children and grands, for Mother’s Day! I am next door to OWU campus, where they have labeled trees and call it an “arboretum.” Downtown Delaware is considered one of the many “Tree City, U.S.A.’s” and we have all of our flowering trees in blossom! Karen looks great in her light mint green jacket amidst the bright and cheery forsythias!
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I like the news that you live next to a campus arboretum in a tree friendly city. Lucky you, Robin! Yes, Karen looks great in that non-camo spring jacket of hers!
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Most of the nurseries around here have closed Mark. I used to love going there, finding just the perfect new plant and taking it home, but now if you want new plants you have to go to K-Mart, Wal-Mart, or the grocery to get them. Even my cousin has closed his down, after several generations of keeping it going. I guess they just ran out of people to pass it down to, or the heirs are too lazy to do the work required to keep it going. I don’t have any garden space any more, but do have some pots of herbs in my window, hopefully growing this summer, and hopefully will come back next year.
BTW, you should call her your beautiful wife Karen.
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I am really glad that the Hafner family and the great crew they hire keeps this big and happy nursery going here, Angie. It is way better than the big box stores as far as I am concerned.
And you are right about my dear and beautiful wife Karen!
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As with most women Mark, I’m always right.
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No, I prefer to watch YOU take the trip to the nursery, blog about it, and then see what beautiful things you do with your yard. 🙂
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You will see the beauty bloom in our yard before your very eyes right here, Rachel. Yup. I hope.
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YAY! 😀
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i would love to go to this nursery, it looks great and i’m sure i would wander through and find all kinds of things i didn’t know i needed to take home with me )
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The outside of the cottage would suddenly have a new burst of color, wouldn’t it, Beth?
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yes, it would, and i’d love that )
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Hello Mark’s Dear Wife, I hope your Dear Husband will assist with the planting! I’m sure we will get a view of the transplants?
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I always dig the holes, Colleen, and Karen does the fine and fancy work. We make a great gardening squad, and yes, you will see so many photos throughout the summer that you may shout at me in capital letters to STOP ALREADY.
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🙂 Sounds like good team work. How could I tell you to stop that???
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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right, Colleen?
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Amen Mark!
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Please find the short, but positive comment on WAER, sir.
And people say you don’t support local… tsk, tsk to them, Mark.
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I am a transplanted Syracusan, sir. Ahem. Cough-cough.
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It’s okay. If there is a tenure, you’ve definitely earned it.
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Oh, no, did “transplanted” on a garden post go right by you? Tell it’s not so, Chris …
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Oh, it totally did. Hahaha.
I”m going to go make fun of/at myself in a mirror now.
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Speaking of green thumbs! You’re going to have quite the beautiful yard when complete. I’ll keep you updated on my plants on the porch mission.
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Yes, I want to hear a green thumb’s-up, CBXB!
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I love,love,love a trip to the nursery at any time of year but it is almost fatal to my bank account! Like your choices. Will be looking at your other post to see more photos.
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It is so much fun to imagine what all these great plants would like like in our yard, Rachel, and I guess you and Steve do the same!
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Oh yes – it’s sort of like me planning on buying just about everything that takes my fancy and Steve being the voice of reason.
Seeds are easy to sneak into a shopping trolley. That’s my horticultural tip!
Enjoyed reading the other post too.
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Thank you, Rachel. It’s easier to write about something that’s close to my heart, like this subject was.
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Dear Karen, pretty as a flower!
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Awwww, thanks, Sandra!
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Yes a large space, unlimited funds and energy will be great to create a botanical heaven.
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Wouldn’t be great to sit on a porch and look out over such a space, Kim?
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Yes. My grandmother was a wizard with her small patch of earth. She had flowers around the edges half the yard had he veggies. We had our spot for the picnic and the clothesline. The space was small.
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I love it when folks make the most of what they have of this Earth, Kim.
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I was in heaven reading your nursery adventure.
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Tiene linda laflores aqui tambien, Dora!
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I love to buy flowers for the summer. It takes me to my happy place 🙂
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It sure does for me, too, onehindu. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your view!
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Nurseries are very inspiring, aren’t they? Just don’t purchase any 70 ft pines to keep up with the Joneses.
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Yeah, nope, Kerbey. Any purchase has to fit in Karen’s Mazda, vertical or horizontal. (The plant/tree, not the vehicle.)
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I live the photo of Karen in all the yellow! I enjoy this time if year. Always hoping I don’t kill the plants I buy. Tis like burying money when I do.
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I know, Audrey, if they don’t take, it’s like throwing the green into the ground instead of growing the green out of the ground!
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Haha! Exactly!
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Love the bird
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It is pretty cool, K!
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C’est vrai, she is Mark 😉
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