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Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
We were on vacation in the Traverse City, Michigan area in 2006, and stumbled on an iris farm "Open Day"... you could take a clipboard and roam among the rows upon rows of blooming irises, taking notes, making decisions, building a custom order to be sent to your home at the proper late summer/fall planting time.
How cool is that?
And to top it off, the weather was lovely, and the farm had invited artists to come and work in the 'en plein air' style, so every so often we'd get a little culture with our appreciation of Mother Nature's work. Here is one of the artists at the entrance to one of the iris fields.
This was a small family farm that found a new niche. I'd have to dig around to find my notes, but I think you could Google Traverse City and Iris Farm and find the address.
Gardeners might be interested to look at the appearance of the soil - it seemed quite sandy and well-drained. Home gardeners who want to plant cherry trees should pay particular attention to sharp drainage.
That region is one of the fruit tree belts of the nation - Traverse City cherries are famous, and it a wonderful good time to visit roadside stands in the area and buy various kinds of cherries by the quart to snack on as we drive. I'll post some more. (If you click on the photo you can see more detail.)
I'm still not sure I'm doing this GTS right.
