Catching Up on Prior Stories
Last Saturday the Longview Arboretum, long in the planning and a good while in the initial construction, finally cut the ribbon and invited guests to see what all the hoopla’s been about. What a beautiful setting deep in the woods at 706 W. Cotton St. in Longview.
It will be fun to watch this special place develop because they have one of Texas’ finest plant people at the helm. Steven Chamblee, whose stories you read here in e-gardens each month, is their executive director. They couldn’t have made a better choice.
So as you’re motoring around the Piney Woods the next months and years, stop by this brand new and glorious garden and watch how the magic unfolds. A great city is going to be mightily proud.
Several hours to the west a very different sight will unfold Friday, Saturday and Sunday November 8, 9 and 10 as North Haven Gardens reopens following the devastating tornado of Sunday three weeks ago. My wife and grandson stopped by last Sunday to wish the staff well and I took these several photos. But there’s a great deal in their backstory. I’ll recount the high points.
North Haven is a three-generation family business that founded in 1951. Great horticulturists have been involved, both in ownership and in sales. It’s been a destination garden center for thousands of Texans.
This “Survivor Sale” will be of plants that somehow made it through the EF-3 tornado. They’ve been plucked from the rubble and brought to the front. Rather than just blading them in with the twisted metal and broken lumber, North Haven, in its typical class, is giving them a chance to beautify their part of Texas.
Don’t come expecting to find everything you’re used to seeing at North Haven. Not just yet. That will come as they rebuild. Come expecting to see your familiar staff friends, tired but smiling. Come expecting to find plants that will be happy to be adopted and taken home by you. It will be an experience you’ll never forget.
Best wishes to our friends at North Haven Gardens, 7700 Northaven Road in North Dallas. I’ll bet you’re going to get a big bunch of love from the people who come!
