This week, Chris Wiesinger, founder of The Southern Bulb Company, paid a visit to me and the garden. He had a talk at Tryon Palace in New Bern, North Carolina over the weekend and, fortunately for me, decided to stay for a few days and visit some Carolina Crinum growers before heading back to Texas.
Last July, The New York Times published an article, The Bulb Hunter (subscription required), about Chris and his business of finding, growing, and marketing heirloom bulbs that grow well in the Southern United States. After reading the article I contacted him via e-mail and he responded enthusiastically, having known about me through my efforts on the Pacific Bulb Society Wiki to describe and photograph other old favorite southern bulbs, Crinums and their hybrids. During that e-mail exchange I had extended an open invitation for a garden tour and when a speaking engagement brought him to central North Carolina he took me up on it.
Chris was enthusiastic about all kinds of garden plants, not just bulbs, and the time I spent with him was enjoyable. After the garden tour, during which he shot dozens of photographs, we decided to check out the creek behind the house. He was equally enthusiastic about the huge trees and boulders, as well as the diversity of native plants that grow alongside the creek and I think he took as many photographs of the scenery there as he did in the garden.
We ended our visit promising to share and I'll be putting together a box of bulbs to send to Chris soon. I would have liked to have visited longer, but I had an appointment early in the afternoon and couldn't manage it. Hopefully he will return for another visit someday and see how some of the newly planted Crinums and other bulbs have grown. While Chris shot lots of pictures during our visit and displayed some of them on a blog post he wrote about his visit, I didn't take many, but did get one picture of him posing next to Crinum 'Carnival'.
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