Oh Henry's!

Every time we go to Lancaster County, we seem to find a new favorite place. This time, our friend Evelyn told us about Henry's greenhouse (about 40 minutes away) that she thought we would like. It is only open a few weekends in the spring because their main job is growing plants, which they supply to big institutions like Longwood Gardens. They were only open 8-12 on Saturday, and Evelyn suggested getting their right when they opened, so Eileen and I were up and on the road by 7 am, stopping first at Weavers for a chai latte. As soon as we drove down a windy country road and parked in the field,  we knew we had found a treasure. It's a big farm,  with a house, several barns and a greenhouse and lots of land.  It was just our kind of place.  Outside the greenhouse was a huge windmill with a chicken coop beneath, surrounded by all kinds of garden art and plants. We walked around that in a kind of daze, there was so much to look at.

The greenhouse was filled with plants, both annuals and perennials, very nice quality and lots of unusual stuff, including the best selection of specialty begonias I have ever seen. But what we loved the most were all the crazy containers they had planted--in pots, baskets, picture frames, and in a whole array of vintage containers.  The containers were hanging everywhere, on the walls, from the rafters, and in the middle of the tables filled with plants. There was an old push lawnmower planted with grasses. There were even old gutters hanging in the greenhouse, planted with succulents. Loved those.

Everywhere you looked there were little vignettes of plants--even the tiniest container like a pepper shaker contained a succulent or fern. I particularly liked these planted meat grinders!

Seeing potted containers like this little ceramic donkey made us want to go home and look for all those tchotkes we have laying around our houses that we could plant up. You can even plant an old toaster!

They had lots of these planted frames that you can hang or lay flat.

And lots of cool garden art, including this colorful peacock made from recycled metals.

We loved the way they combined plants, including even veggies in their containers.

We bought a few things, some unusual plants and we each bought a planted container, but mostly we got some great ideas. While we were there, we talked to several people from out of state who told us they come here twice every year, in the spring and at Christmas, which all said is just amazing. Guess  we'll be taking a day trip at Christmas time...

The enamelware bowl planted with succulents that I brought home