And the winner is…Spiraea! (gratitude #16)

My friend Andy is going to laugh at me. He’s the kind of guy who collects the names of things, so he was a great help when I was in grad school and wondered about the name of, say, any plant, insect, or rock near at hand. We used to work together, and so we’d sometimes walk to lunch together, and often I’d ask him the name of a plant that I admired, but whose name just never, ever stuck with me. Spiraea. It was laughable. I’d ask him again and again to remind me, and he’d mock me, and then tell me it was, yet again, Spiraea.

Hmmmm. I’m a slow learner sometimes. Anyway, I think he can finally rest assured that until dementia hits, I’m going to remember what spiraea looks like. You see, I just purchased three pink-flowered “magic carpet” Spiraea for the front yard (to replace the “holes” in the garden where I pulled out the euonymus), and I have my heart set on a snowmound white Spiraea for the sunny spot just behind the porch swing. It will fill in the place that DTE dug up and is now empty. Abbott’s had another white variety, but not the snowmound, so I’m waiting.

I’m grateful for the patient advice on plant selection I got Sunday from Abbott’s Landscape Nursery, I’m grateful for Andy’s patient re-explanation of what Spiraea is (and correcting my spelling), and I’m most grateful for a glorious sunny early spring day spent out in the garden.

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