Rainy Days and Mondays

By Steve Silk – Posted in: Miscellaneous

Rainy days and Mondays, according to an old Carpenters’ song, always get folks down. Guess it’s even worse when you get a twofer, and it rains on a Monday. But my friend Chrissie D’Esopo makes the most of it. Her amazing Avon, CT garden–a color-drenched collection of many thousands of annuals–is on tour this weekend, so she’s pampering petunias and anything else that may get hammered by today’s downpours. To protect those tender treasures, she deploys a slew of strategically placed umbrellas, more than 50 in all, to shed the rain. The result is yet another color sensation. At Chrissie’s, rainy day Mondays never get you down.

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9 comments… add one

Nancy Bond July 14, 2008, 2:03 pm

This sure makes for a gorgeous photo! I’d have to frame this one. 🙂

Hi Nancy–Thanks, I took about a zillion pix there this morning, they all look good.–Steve

chey July 14, 2008, 4:09 pm

That sounds like a lot of work, but makes for a very pretty display:)!

Hey Chey! It does make for a lot of work, but Chrissie is not one to shrug off a challenge. And the effort pays off-you’ve never seen such billowy pots.–Steve

Lisa at Greenbow July 14, 2008, 4:40 pm

What a hoot this is. It sure brightens a gloomy day seeing all of those umbrellas. I guess there is no wind to blow these beauties away.

It’s fun for sure, Lisa. Actually she may tie them down–I saw string dangling from some of the umbrellas. Anyway, it’s a kick to see. –Steve

mss @ Zanthan Gardens July 14, 2008, 5:15 pm

I use a Japanese parasol to keep the searing sun off a plant that used to be in the shade. (Trees fell in a storm and now it gets some sun during a few weeks of the year.)

I’d be pretty happy for a rainy day but I can understand the fretfulness with a garden tour around the corner. Nice solution.

Yes, I know people who use parasols on their tree peonies to provide shade so the flowers last longer, then they remove the parasol so the plant can grow in full sun. Chrissie uses her umbrellas most of the season, but especially before a garden tour-she gets an astounding 2,000 or more visitors.–Steve

Jim July 14, 2008, 6:13 pm

We have one gardener on Garden Walk Buffalo a couple years back that stood over her hosta with an umbrella during a hailstorm a week before the tour. We all had a good laugh at her expense, but we also had hostas that were ripped to shreds. Hers were beautiful

Well, standing over them during a downpour is indeed labor intensive gardening, but at least her efforts were rewarded.–Steve

Layanee July 15, 2008, 9:56 am

Okay, so when is the tour and is it open to the public?

Hi Layanee–Not sure of the exact hours, but it’s this Sunday, and if you went between 12 and 4 I’m sure you’d be safe. It’s in Avon, about 30-40 minutes from Hartford. I can send you the address if you want it. –Steve

Gail July 15, 2008, 1:34 pm

Wonderful photo… I sent a link to all my non-blogging gardening friends! I have put an umbrella over a Tree Peony that had the a beautiful and delicate bloom to protect it from rain!

Linda MacPhee-Cobb July 19, 2008, 9:36 am

What a clever idea!

Thanks for sharing the photo.

Its a clever AND colorful idea, one that befits a garden full of abandon.–Steve

Mr. McGregor's Daughter July 20, 2008, 12:37 pm

I’m so glad to know I’m not the only nut, I mean gardener, who’s put an umbrella over a plant to protect it from the rain. Like Gail, in my case it was a Tree Peony bloom.

Though I’ve given it up for the most part–I used to build whole temporary greenhouses in the garden to help a treasured tender plant make it through the winter. There’s all kinds of crazy out there!–Steve

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