Maybe next season …

My dear wife Karen and I happily visited our Liverpool neighbors at Ballantyne Gardens for this year’s crop of annuals.

We quickly spotted some Gerbera Daisies and more, but of course wandered here and there to admire Tim and Lisa Ballantyne’s wonderful 2023 collection.

Will look good in the ground.

Terrific daughter Elisabeth is in the market for a rhododendron since this year’s visit to the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich, Mass., and asked me to ask Tim if he had any in.

My longtime friend from my days in the communications department at the Liverpool Public Library explained to me that because the fantastic blooms we see in Cape Cod at the Rhododendron Festival pop out in a Zone 6 climate and we live in a Zone 5, he and Lisa don’t bring many of that species to their nursery, not wanting to disappoint customers with spotty results.

Yes, he and Lisa have experienced the Heritage Grounds in person.

Karen and I could tell as we looked over their fantastic collection of the other predominant presence in Sandwich, Mass., the hydrangea. We haven’t had much luck with these beauties in our yards, though …