wow. im really glad to hear that im not alone with these thoughts. however, its a little more disheartening to learn that after all your years of experience, that you still share similar thoughts. i had hoped that what im noticing and have thought would kind of fade away with experience. my cousin who held the garden show is more of the collector and seller. my boyfriend and i are more of the hybridizer type. and our efforts combine together. we share with each other, and trade, and go in on purchases together. its a nice arrangement. and even with two totally different agendas in mind, we both came to the same conclusions after this garden show/sale failed. that we were both surprised that even the "yard decorators" (as wildbirds put it) have little interest in having variety. i thought that vanity and pride, to own something unique would bring in at least a few people. it was really surprising. my boyfriend and i are just in our 2nd year of hybridizing. last year we did more collecting of plants than anything, some crosses. but between the drought and the wildlife starving around us, nothing made it. so the first year we collected every daylily in our path. this year, we crossed every daylily in our path. and next year will be when we get really down and dirty with it and start setting some goals, organizing some thoughts, and ridding ourselves of the less desirable ones weve collected. these first two years have been all about practice, working out our system of record keeping, arranging beds for ease of use, and learning as much as we can. our main goal is to operate a nursery that specializes in daylilies, hostas, dafodills, iris, etc, with a little bit of hybrizing on the side as a hobby. sure it would be great to get as big and well known as some of the masters, but unitl we get the nursery going, it is just something we do on the side. once established as a successful business, i think we will dedicate our efforts a little harder. dont get me wrong though, we are taking it seriously now, just not to the extent of some who do this. wildbird, i dont know where you pulled your examples and statistics from, but i loved your post. you said exactly what im noticing! and it is quite the reality check to know that the common yard decorator doesnt strive for a little variety. but i think that tammy raised an interesting point with vacinity and exposure to more, leads to more demand. this very well could be true. however, as marric pointed out, he has witnessed the opposite with his sales. hmmmm... as for exposure and competition goes. we are facing some. there is a lady who sells flowers at our farmers market. some daylilies, but not really as a specialty, just plants in general. there is also the hybridizer Apsher in this town. who only does private sales by appointment only. he does repeat business by mail i think. but overall, he has no exposure and most people dont even know his "paradise gardens" even exists. you cant see it from any road. his driveway is long and rough and kept gated (because back in the day he was subject to theft), and his sign is faded and easily missed. and i think he likes it this way. they are friendly as ever, but very old school. everything handled in person, record keeping on paper, no internet sales. so he is competition, but not really. and his lilies certainly do not create any demand because no one ever sees them unless you call ahead and he will go unlock the gate for you. then there is homestead farms which is about 30-45 minutes from us, and they do have a wide outreach and influence the area with their plants. but even they have admitted that the majority of their daylily sales is online. so, i dont know. i guess the only way to get people interested in variety is to offer variety. to share a little bit of our world to them. of coarse its not likely that we would get anyone as excited about it as we on here are, but maybe we can turn a few heads at least. i also thought about contacting the city workers. i dont know where they get their plants from, but the city employees are always filling the public beds and pots with stuff. surely they could take a break from the stellas a year to try something new.

Tricia - What a lovely idea for a thread! It gives each of us a chance to reflect on our own feelings about and uses of our gardens as well as a chance to eavesdrop on others doing the same. Thanks to all who have contributed. My folks arenÂt gardeners, but my granddad, the parents of one of my childhood friends and a neighbor growing up all influenced my love of gardening and as I putter around the garden, I remember them. I have four garden areas. Around the house, which is surrounded by open farm fields, are flower gardens and along the road in our extended side yard is the vegetable garden. Down the road is my husbandÂs shop, which is approached by a 1/4 mile wooded driveway where I am subtracting bramble and poison ivy to allow the more decorative existing plants to flourish and adding native plants and those that will grow in acid woodlands without too much care. My goal there is to have varied texture and form punctuated by seasonal flowers. Around the shop are flower and shrub gardens as well as one wooded "island" surrounded by a small field and woods. Both the wooded island and the woodland edge are planted similarly to the driveway. My gardens provide me with spiritual sustenance, intellectual challenge, and physical activity. Like Marie of R, my garden is more about process than the result, though they do provide me with beauty and food. Like her I also love the mental challenge of land stewardship and finding the right place to make a plant happy, though sometimes it happens through trial and error. Because the two gardens by the house are close to the road, like Martie they provide me a chance to meet and greet neighbors, whether they stop by to visit or ask what a particular plant is, pick a few veggies, or just honk and wave hi as they tool on by. Often someone who stops by for another reason leaves with a division of a plant. Our gardens provide wildlife habitat and the enjoyment we get from watching our wild visitors. There are berries and nest sites for the songbirds, the old farm pond for the frogs to visit in spring, occasional food for deer ;>(, and right now we have a turkey nest with a dozen eggs under the low hanging hemlock on the meadow edge. Other visitors include various hawks, coyotes, foxes, several varieties of woodpeckers, ducks, and an occasional moose or bear. We often sit on the back patio in the evening to see who comes wandering through the garden or the field. ItÂs pretty much just mine - DH mows the lawn and enjoys the flowers and produce, but he doesnÂt get involved in planting or maintaining otherwise. I know my garden wonÂt ever be finished, but the it's a joy to work toward an end, even one I'll never reach.

I am not in the building trades, I am organized and detail oriented by nature and I am not afraid to ask questions. I consider myself to be pretty intelligent, too. I GC'd a project which involved completely reconfiguring 1/2 of the main floor of our home. We moved our kitchen to another spot in our house which involved knocking out an original exterior brick wall, changing headers, plumbing, electric, adding/changing windows etc etc. I did this while working a full-time job outside of the home, but it's a job that offerred me the flexibility to be at home as needed. In our planning for this project, we interviewed at least 5 GCs or subs for each part of the job. Each gave me different tips of things to look out for/plan for. I asked questions about how their piece would fit into the overall project. Once we decided that I would GC, and the project got underway, I pretty much knew what would come next and planned for it. As it turned out, during the 3 month project, we had only 1 week of downtime because the brick wall removal and header concerns involved an unexpected visit from a structural engineer which we didn't expect. I figure we saved 35-40% on our project. To us, that is very significant. Your comments are confusing. One minute you say you have great licensed subs and the next you say you don't trust them. Which is it? You also sound like you don't have faith in your own abilities. If you do your homework, you can also work with your local building department and inspectors to get what they can offer. If you've been involved in your last projects, give yourself more credit than you appear to be doing. GC'ing is very detail oriented but homeowner's can do it.

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