Petunias! A Shopping Success Story. Sheltering at Home Week 21

pink-purple-yellow-petunias — Pink, yellow and purple petunias — on our patio, ready for planting.

August 1, 2020. Sheltering at Home (With Petunias) Week 21

I did it. I went shopping.

The plant nursery down the hill was open and thriving. It felt pretty safe to go there. Everybody was wearing masks. The shopping carts were getting wiped down with bleach. And there were beautiful things to buy: asparagus ferns, rows and rows of succulents, a six-foot Japanese maple. And a shelf of gloriously humble petunias.

Petunias have a special place in my garden memories. My Aunt Dickie used to grow them on her porch in long planter boxes. My cousin Jeanie and I would pull the petals from their base and suck the nectar out the bottom. Dickie would scold us, but only half-heartedly. I suspect she did the same thing as a kid.

Fans of art and flowers will enjoy the photos at “The de Young Museum This Week: Bursting With Art and Flowers.” For wildflowers, go to “At Pt. Reyes: Wild Flowers — And Animals Wild and Tame.”

My first shopping expedition of the coronavirus shut-down was not so successful.