A day of Greenhouse hopping with my Mom!

Hey Everyone!!! I am FINALLY going to share with you the pictures from our greenhouse hopping adventure with my Mom. The weekend before Mother's Day we met my Mom and Step-Dad in Conneaut, OH. They live in Buffalo and we live an hour-ish south of Conneaut. This was a good place to meet. We transferred some stuff from our vehicle to theirs and our journey was about to begin.

The agenda you ask? Greenhouses and plants. How many greenhouses and how many plants? To be determined!!! We had never been to any of these greenhouses before. This area in Ohio is a HUGE greenhouse area. I had no idea we were living so close to so many gems! We knew how far west we were willing to go. We were originally going to go as far west as we had intended and then work our way back to Conneaut. While that made sense, we decided to just go and stop wherever we felt like and take notes. Perhaps one of the places closer to Conneaut would have better price.

Off we went! (Yes, coffee and cappuccino were picked up before we were 10 minutes from our house.)

We did have a couple "must have" places to stop, but everything else about the day we were just taking it as it came. My Mom was funny. She was like a little kid in the candy shop and sometimes I don't think Dennis got the car in the parking lot fast enough. Poor guy. ;)

***this is a photo heavy post***

"There's one!!!!!" was a good sign that he'd better be slowing down and turning!

The first "There's one!!" was Kelly's Gardens and Landscape in Saybrook, OH.

Wouldn't this crane make a great addition to the garden?

I thought so, but to bring him home meant I wasn't coming home with any flowers.

Can't blow the budget on the first stop!

HUH! Didn't know Ohio had gators!

He is pretty believable looking though.

Those are the highlights from Kelly's.

We did buy a packet of Marigold seeds from here.

The plants have grown, just waiting for flowers. They should look something like this:

source

The lady working the retail part of the business was not very friendly toward us.

There were a few things we were interested in, but their plants weren't priced

and the fact the lady was rude with us, well....many more greenhouses to see. ONWARD!

*It is important to note that this place DID have a potty!!!!! :)

Next stop...Girard Nurseries.

They had some pretty things to look at.

Nothing jumped off the table and into the car though.

This was on the list as a place to stop because they advertised a particular kind of blueberry plant.

We asked for help to find it and we sent on our way. We got to the greenhouse the plants were in and were pretty sure we weren't buying the plant, but on we trekked. We found the blueberry plants, but they were in pretty sad shape. The staff watering and attempting to maintain the plants were much more helpful than the lady in the retail area. Here's to hoping this isn't a trend.

I did take a couple photos!

This one made me laugh! It just goes to show you truly can turn ANYTHING into a planter!

The marigolds were pretty.

Mom was wishing she had used the restroom back at Kelly's. 

Silly girl, at least this one time, the daughter was right!

Onward!

Next Stop

 Sabo's Woodside Nursery

This place = A M A Z I N G!!!!!!

This is when the trip got fun.

The layout, set up, design, etc. was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

The people....well they were QUITE friendly, helpful and knowledgeable!!

We got the tri-fecta on this one!!!!

Everyone said no to a cart, but it wasn't long and we had a cart.

**important to note, potty available!!! woo hoo!!!! Mom is happy again!

  

After walking through the entrance this is one of the first things we saw.

First impressions are everything right??

They made a design out of the moss!

AWESOME!!!

We knew everyone's wallets were going to be a little lighter upon leaving here.

It didn't come home with us, but this rose is gorgeous!!!

I could have taken many a butterfly picture!

This was catching some mid-morning sun!

HELLOOOOO!!!!

A look inside the greenhouse!! Beautiful!

This picture was taken for our friend Lauren!

She is a huge Pittsburgh sports fan.

These made us think of her since they almost black and yellow.

They are really purple and yellow. Pretty though!

I guess I am a little out of order here.

This is a look back toward the patterned Moss and the entrance.

The picture two pics back was taken inside the greenhouse you can see here.

The roses! So little room at home and so many pretty things to be had!

  

 This is the inside of the "inventory" greenhouses.

I don't know what they call it, but they would pull from here to fill up the main greenhouse.

We couldn't get over how tall they are!

Well, the back of the vehicle was no longer empty!!!!

Mom bought some Martha Washington Geraniums and I don't remember what else.

We bought a Primadonna White Echinacea.

Here it is in our garden...

More pics of it to come when I do our garden tour post.

This was a suggestion by one of the employees.

I wish I could remember her name because she was most helpful!

We are definitely glad we bought this plant! It is one of the first plants to see when  you walk out our back door! We did some damage here. We asked the nice lady where we could find a good bite to eat.

She gave us some options. Turns out the majority wasn't quite ready for food. So onward we go.

We would now be turning off of North Ridge Road and heading to Middle Ridge Road.

Next stop...

 Bluestone Perennials

While Mom, Jim and I were picking out some annuals, Dennis was busy looking through the catalog.

By the time we had picked out our flowers, Dennis knew what he wanted from the perennial section.

He was now the man with the plan.

A look at the perennial area.

There was lots of damage done here.

You can see one of Mom's Martha Geraniums from the last stop.

The plants at Bluestone are smaller because they are a big mail order business.

It doesn't look like they are taking up much room, but there were quite a few plants. 

TRUST ME!!

Next stop...FOOOOOOD!!!

We asked the cashier where we should go to eat.

She suggested a place and gave us directions!

Cornerstone Brewing the Madison, OH location.

It was YUM-MEE!!!

They have their own homemade rootbeer.

Homemade rootbeer has a different flavor than what we are used to, but still good.

the ceiling

an outside wall

There are two storefronts.

You actually enter the restaurant in between the two.

Look close and you can see Jim and my Step-Dad.

The left store front points to the right and the right store front points to the left.

I wonder how many people miss the sign that says "Main Entrance"

We all had sandwiches. They were very very good.
If we are ever back in this area, we will definitely eat here again.

...and since...it isn't all that far from home, the odds are good!

Coming into Madison meant we got off Middle Ridge Road.

Back to Middle Ridge Road we go!!

Hi ho...hi ho...it is off to more greenhouses we go!

A view of the Perry Nuclear Generating Station in Perry, OH.

and now we wait

It was kinda cool. We saw the train from the left first.

While we were waiting for it pass, a train also came from the right.

The ends of both trains.

A better view of Perry!

Entire roads were nothing but nurseries.

Mom wanted in them.

Geesh! Some people can't take their Mom's anywhere!!!

(just messing with you Mom)

This area is also a very big wholesale area. There were many we drove past that weren't open to the public!

Last greenhouse of the day!

Middle Ridge Gardens

They have little red wagons! How awesome is that??

Nobody would pull me in one. :(

They truly were ginormous! They were the size of a small plate!

The main greenhouse! 

Again, amazed at how tall these greenhouses are.

Some of the "inventory" greenhouses.

You have to smile at that.
It is so pretty!!

This is inside the main greenhouse.

It looks like a miniature field.

This place also had GREAT prices on statuary!

This cat looking through binoculars cracked me up!

It now sits in our garden! :)

 Now we must make our way back to Conneaut, OH and our vehicle.

We weaved our way toward the lake.

Drove through Geneva On The Lake and Ashtabula.

Before going to our vehicle, we went to the beach.

Yep, the very beach I have posted about before.

Look at the heart shaped rock.

The last time we were there it was a shell in the shape of a heart.

{heart} the beach

A beautiful day at Lake Erie.

It was actually pretty chilly.

Beach glass and a "J" shaped rock we brought home!

We thought this was the end of our trip.

Spur of the moment plan for overnight house guests!

We all came back to our house. We built a fire out back and roasted some weenies.

A drive-in between the beach and home.

We got up Sunday morning and hit a couple greenhouses local to us!

Gilmore's Greenhouse

Jim and I discovered this place when we were looking for yucca's right after we bought the house!

An air plant.

Now that is cool!

After Gilmore's we stopped back by our house.

Loaded up all of Mom's and Dennis' goodies.

We had one more place to stop and then we would part ways.

We had to go to the place we go to all the time!!!

 Cottage Gardens

This place left such a lasting impression on me after we bought the house.

They remembered us AND what we bought.

For that matter, this spring they asked us how some of our plants were doing and they asked by plant name.

That is amazing and personal!!!

LOVE this place!!!

Have you hugged a sasquatch lately?

A little reminder to stop and smell the flowers.

We bought this dahlia at Cottage.

It is quite happy in the garden!!!

  

A look at some of what we bought.

Mom was definitely the big buyer, especially since she bought most of ours too!!!

She told us to consider it "happy birthday!"

That works for us!

Thanks Mom!!!

We had fun. Saw some neat places.

We were tired. We came home and took a nap before going out to plant some of our new treasures!

Thanks for stopping by!

If you read the whole way to the end you ROCK!!!!!