I noticed this morning that Orion is just up in the pre-dawn.  The school buses began running today in Tangipahoa Parish and on Tuesday we passed the Cross-Quarter day between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox. Fall will be here so very soon. Yay!

As the seasons pass, it makes me think of how we have been watching the movement of the pollinators through the nursery here at Louisiana Growers during the year.

We are all seeing the demand for constructed wetlands in commercial and residential landscape construction. Please don’t see it as a chore that you dread, a requirement by a governmental body that you know you'll have to do.  Please consider: Why else?

So in lieu of another Sudoku Puzzle, I write:  As many of you know, the last few years in the life of Louisiana Growers, a Webfarms Company, have been a lot of fun. The overall demand for nursery stock and especially for the native and wetland species we grow has been strong. But most importantly the enjoyment has been enhanced by having Susan Webb full time in our operation.

As we creep (or in this year’s example, leap) out of winter, the look is always to the early species that bud and flower.  One of those, mayhaw, was mentioned last.

Now a tree that has been a bit of a ghost in my world was Amelanchier arborea  Downy Serviceberry.

(Sidebar: See Dr. Charles Allen’s writings about the other common name, Sarvis Berry)

It is native from Ontario to Texas and right through our Pineywoods but I hadn’t seen one since college dendrology classes except for field trips elsewhere.

In starting out on any new journey, one must know where he is, where is he going, how he will travel and what to bring along.

This is the same with writing a WebbLog. Where am I in the thought process, what do I want this to be, how will I create fodder for discussion, and what tools in photos and experiences will be needed to tell the story.

So I think that we, Susan and I, in our nursery role are with some really unique plant species around us and we regularly engage in some cool projects and especially some cool people to create enough discussion.  And I can document those plants, places and people. So the only question is what it will be. 

I am realizing slowly that the row I hoe is of some interest to others in that our mash-up of native plants and the nursery industry is a story. 

So for my first story: