Purslane and Grumpy

Every summer I go to one of my favorite nurseries and buy baskets of purslane (portulaca oleracea). I bought this one a few months ago to stick in the wildflower garden, and bought the last 2 today. The nursery that has these gorgeous plants is not very far from where I live. It's been there forever. I never went to it much though...the people that worked there were...well...rude! A few years ago I was looking for something (don't remember what) and decided I would try this nursery. I had forgotten what a great selection of plants they had, and all very healthy. However, the owner..was a grumpy old man. I heard years back of "a story" as to why he was like this--bad marriage, bad kids-I didn't know and really didn't care. But it just killed me to see someone working around all these beautiful plants so unhappy.

After lots of thinking as I was digging in the dirt, I decided that I was going to be friends with this man, no matter what it took. So, I started going to this nursery..a lot. And he had the most wonderful plants, I could find almost anything there. I went so much, that he would remember me when I came in. I let him know how thrilled I was to be among all the beauty at his store, and how grateful I was he had "just what I needed."
It took a while, but one day when I walked in, he looked up and smiled! We had become friends.

So, this spring off I go to buy the first purslane, and immediately noticed something was different about the nursery. I thought, oh no, they are closing. But no, they were not closing, "Grumpy" had just sold the store to someone else. The new owners told me the previous owner sold and moved out to his farm. I knew that was his dream, as he had shared that dream with me a few times. They also told me the plants would remain the same, but all the "bad things" would be gone. I heard them say that same thing to every customer that came in..and we all knew what they meant. They do still have the purslane baskets, and they are beautiful, but the nursery is not the same. The new owners are indeed very nice, but the vast selection is gone; no more unusual, hard to find plants anymore. No more shade hanging baskets, not nearly as many roses. No more rows of drought tolerant sages or salvias. No more baskets of scaevola (had to find mine somewhere else) or sweet potato vine. No more Grumpy. I am delighted to know he is finally retired and can live at the farm, and I maybe the only one in town that misses him..but there is now a void at that nursery, and I do miss him. We were friends.

" But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."

Thomas Jefferson