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Thursday, January 15, 2009

It was warm inside this hoop house the other day, a memory that popped up this morning as I drove to work. My feet and fingers were numb and the car, despite a robust heater, was frosty. This was the scene last week at Weavers Way food co-op's "farm" over at Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. One step inside that hoop house and my glasses fogged up, my coat felt like a suffocating blanket and the air like a sauna. "Farmer Dave" has been planting greens of all sorts in here. I'll bet he does that in his shirtsleeves.

I was also reminded of this moment last night when I picked up a copy of The American Gardener, the official magazine of the American Horticultural Society, from last summer. It was on top of what some might call a "pile" of stuff on my bedside table. I prefer to think of it as my bedside library. Granted, those old magazines get dusty and unsightly but you never know when you might need one of them. 

There were articles about good plants for shade (toad lily, Japanese painted fern, hostas) and tough perennials for sun (butterfly weed, Arkansas bluestar) and I found myself getting in the mood for spring. Same effect as the hoop house. This feels somewhat conspiratorial. Is there nothing that says WINTER besides the weather?

I'm about to start reporting on some stories for the 2009 Flower Show, whose theme is "Bella Italia." Talk about getting in the mood! With temperatures slipping downward as I write this, thoughts of a springtime flower show inside a hoop house-like convention center couldn't come at a better time. If I pay you enough, you might even say that about that pile of reading material by my bed.
  

Posted by Virginia Smith @ 10:16 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Virginia A. Smith
Ginny Smith, a Philadelphia native, worked as a reporter at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Ohio – with six short months at the end of the Bulletin tossed in – before returning to Philadelphia in 1985 to join the Inquirer. Her favorite beats here have included Center City, roving around Pennsylvania (and getting paid for it!) and alternative medicine. She’s also been City Editor and Pennsylvania Editor. Ginny has been happily writing – and learning - about gardening fulltime since 2006. She’s won two silver medals of achievement from the national Garden Writers Association and in 2011, Bartram’s Garden honored her with its Green Exemplar award for her stories about “the region’s deeply rooted horticultural history, cultural attractions and bountiful gardens.”