Mailorder Nurseries Online and Off, Part 2 - Munchkin Nursery
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UPDATE! Gene's put up a brand new web site since this article was published. I've updated the links. Some of the plants I wrote about aren't offered in the 2000 catalog, but I'm sure you'll find others that you'd like just as well. Some of the thumbnail images no longer link to larger ones - guess the big pix got lost in the shuffle. Click on them anyway. If there is a new link, you'll be taken there and if there isn't, nothing will happen. I left them in the text so that you'd get some idea of what the plant looks like. Marge...1/25/2000 |
Even if we're inveterate buyers of plants through the mail, the number of catalogs streaming in our doors don't hold a candle to the number we can access by just pointing our web browsers to those who have come online. We web gardeners not only have access to plants and goodies, we can get to know the people who operate the nurseries, too. That is, if they join some of the many email gardening lists that exist. Of course, we can go down the road and get to know the proprietors of our local nurseries and garden centers, but it's much harder to interact with those with whom only do business through mail order - the only way we're likely to find those really choice plants we're lusting for.
If any of you subscribe to the Gardens-L, Shadegardens, or Perennials email lists (to name a few) you probably feel like you already know Gene Bush, owner of Munchkin Nursery in Depauw, Indiana. His helpful posts have answered many a question and pointed a lot of people in the direction of new and untried plants, especially the woodland natives that are his specialty. If you haven't had the pleasure, his site has a section where you can meet Gene and find out why this tall man's nursery is named "Munchkin".
Gene's nursery and his garden intertwine, probably one wouldn't exist without the other. You can take a tour of the garden online or arrange to come and visit in person, have a Pepsi and talk plants (or anything else, for that matter). Because his garden is the source of inspiration (if not plants) for his nursery, what he lists, he grows, so he knows what its habits and foibles are where he gardens.
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