Are garden catalogs the “crack” of avid gardeners? I find them to be a highly addictive and powerful stimulant that deliver an intensity of pleasure beyond the bounds of normal human experience. And throw in good photography? Well, you might as well be speedballing.
But seriously, I’m pretty darn sure that it was a photograph in a White Flower Farm catalog that sent me over the edge. I used to get that catalog, or “the pusher” as I now refer to it, for many years. Then one spring, a featured Hosta collection caught my eye. That single image of the most spectacular grouping sent me into euphoria. A high like no other I had ever experienced.
I’ll never forget that summer. Racing around to every garden center like a desperate crack whore, pouring through hoop house after hoop house, trying to fulfill my plant list. Damn that catalog! They say crack cocaine is a substance that affects the brain chemistry of the user, but it’s no match for Hostas. Thus, my education into the life of an addict began. I was addicted to gardening.
From a first time user’s perspective, the garden turned out remarkably well (shown above). Three years have since passed and I still can’t escape the intense desire to recapture the initial high. Time to hit the pipe again. The Seed Savers Exchange catalog has just arrived.
P.S. I don’t really use and I have the waistline to prove it.