Yesterday's hunt was just the kind I like--out in the wilds, hunting down a hard-to-find plant variety to bring home to my yard, searching over acres of leaves and blooms so varied and beautiful that deciding which to bag and which had to be left behind was a real workout.

I knew what I wanted to find.  Tilly's foster mother's front yard planter stopped me dead in my tracks the last time I went to pick my niece up.  What was that plant?  I'd never seen anything like it before.  FosterMom wasn't home but Tilly made good on her promise to find out the information and email it to me.  I did a little research on the web and was thrilled to see that my favorite plant place in all of the world--or at least the small world I know about--has the plant, or so the online catalogue promised.  It's a bit of a drive out there, but the price of gasoline be damned!  I counted the drive as a week's vacation, but spent in one long afternoon and concluded that it was an inexpensive thrill if I thought about it in those terms.

I'd forgotten how mesmerizing the farm was.  I'd forgotten the scents and the old shed, the gift shop that is easily overlooked by eyes dazzled by plant treasure as far as one can walk, pulling a wagon that first seems like a silly indulgence, but which quickly becomes filled and then over-filled with plants.

The first thing that fills your eyes is green in varied shades, then the flowers draw your eyes, and if you take the time to look in the treasures in the furthest corners, you will find things that up until now only existed in your garden dreams.

Here are some of the sights at the farm.  Alas!  I couldn't get the plant I went there to get, but did get it's smaller and less spectacular brother.  The plant lady and I commiserated about how hard it is to hunt down certain game in the fields.  I don't feel too bad about the failure, though.  It just gives me a reason to go back out there and hunt some more.

Sol here shows you the hard-to-find entrance.

This is a part of the day lily collection.  The day lily collection is a small part of the farm's offerings.  I never actually did get to the edges of the place.

I want to live in this sweet little house when I grow up.

This is the smaller variety of sea holly I found.  I continue to look for Big Brother Sea Holly.

 Where does the chlorophyll hide in these beautiful leaves?

 If you are a very good hunter and take hours looking around, you'll find this sweet spot.  I hope the owners don't come up here for a good long time--I don't want to have to leave this.