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Related Pages: Garden Grow 1 | Garden Grow 2 | Garden Grow 3 | Garden Grow 4 | Garden Grow 5

How Does Your Garden Grow?
For the first time in memory, and recorded history, here in Southern California we have had frost for a number of nights in a row and temperatures during the day that have been unbelievable, as low as 35 degrees!  High winds, heavy cloud cover and dark dank days have been with us for weeks.  (One cannot help wondering what the Global Warming theorists have to say about this.)  The yard is a disaster!  Almost everything has been killed or severely damaged by the frost including a Bougainvillea that has been in the ground for more than 25 years.  It is still not warm enough to cut back and/or replant so the saving grace for me has been spending time with my Limoges Garden Collection. I find my eyes straying to them constantly.  I think it is the outside color that I miss the most and the boxes help satisfy that need.  For those of you in the colder climes I think these might do it for you as well.

A.The New Adirondack Chair Box.  (That’s an oxymoron because Adirondacks are almost as old as I am.  They are just enjoying a rebirth today.  And if you are wondering why I call them Adirondack chairs -- they were first made in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State more than 80 years ago.)  This great garden chair has a pot of yellow blossoms on the seat, a watering can resting on the arm and an inquisitive kitty holding on tight while she surveys the possibilities. Inside, some painted posies and the clasp a posy as well.  Retail: About $215.00.  Our price: $193.90.

B.  The Garden Swing Box.  Off in a far corner of the yard we recently had to remove a couple of trees.  Rather than just removing them the gardener cut them down leaving just enough trunk from each to provide a spot for a swing to go in.  It's an idyllic spot to just sit and relax and enjoy looking at the fruits of our labors and the neighbors grey cat loves it as well. At this moment in time a Baltimore Oriole is enjoying the swing.  The swing actually moves.  Inside a group of colorful wildflowers and the clasp is a bird in flight.  Retail:  About $271.00.  Our price: $243.90.  New

C. The Handsomest Watering Can Box. No one does boxes associated with gardens and gardening quite as well as Chamart does. Their garden boxes always have a special touch. Here they took something as plebeian as a watering can and made it into a garden still life. It is sitting on a small patch of cobbles that are placed under the garden spigot with patches of low growing pinks all around it. Someone has just filled it with water and is about to use it. One of the wonderful details to it is that the water is frothy the way it gets when you run the tap full strength. The other really marvelous detail is the color of the brass for the spigot head and the can handles, spray head and band around the can. They didn't just use gold, they made it look like brass. Few painters in Limoges would bother with that unless they painted for Chamart. Inside some leaves and the clasp, a watering can with various garden tools resting in it. Our price: $226.90. Encore performance. We had this box a number of years ago. We brought it back because it is still the best of it's kind.

D.The New House Plant Pot. I saw this cheerful flower pot the other day and thought it would be a perfect home for a miniature potted Yellow Rose Bush I had just purchased. You can see my garden shears and small spade resting in it, dimensional and removable.  Inside the box, a butterfly, painted, and the clasp -- another flower.  Our price: $194.90.

E. The Enchanted Garden Flower Fairy Boxes.  Every garden is home to some of these sprites. They are the little creatures who, overnight, bring blooms to our bulbs, and touch our gardens with the miracle of color and scent that we enjoy. Don’t you ever wonder how it is possible that a bulb in the ground showing nothing but greens can, overnight, produce the most beautiful flowers?  I watched my Narcissus do that a few days ago. Nary a bloom was to be seen and one morning I walked out and there were dozens of them waving their tiny white blossoms madly.  It was almost as though they were saying -- Look at me! See what I did! The Flower Fairies are the ones to thank for that.  These charming tiny figures are dressed in petal skirts, kneeling beneath an open flower that is held aloft by a gold metal stem and leaves.  The wings of the fairies peek out from behind them. The base of each box is a Lily Pad. Inside, a butterfly, painted. The clasp, another butterfly.
Retail: About $335.00.  Our price: $301.90.  
Flower Fairy 1 dressed in all blue.
Flower Fairy 2 dressed in blue and pink.

E2. The Tiny Green Frog and His Friend Box. In California we have the tiniest green frogs that make their homes in potted plants on the patio and strangely, they don't like water.  I have, many times, started to water a pot on my patio only to have this tiny little guy frantically jump out of the pot trying to get away from the water.  I have often wondered how they get into these pots.  Some of them are large pots with Azaeleas in them and those litte tiny guys have to make a huge jump to get into the pot because the top of the pot  is more than a foot off the ground but they do get into them so they must be able to make  jumps of a foot or more.  Can you imagine a little tiny frog -- perhaps 1.5 inches long able to jump 12 inches? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would be prone to doubting that, but, it is true. Anyway, here's one of those little fellows and he looks as scared as they do when I start to water.  A snail is on the box just in front of him, painted, and a friend of his is the clasp.  Inside is a leaf.  Retail: About $125.00.  Our price: $112.90. With a Hip, Hop and a Huge Jump -- he arrived!

F. The Peony Window Box.  One of the most beautiful of all garden plants; it’s large, round multi-petaled blooms flower briefly but in great profusion and are wonderful for cutting if you enjoy flowers in your home. A strange thing about cutting flowers for the house.  I always feel guilty when I do it and I find myself doing it less often than I used to do it.  The flowers last much longer in their natural habitat than they do in the house and that gives me guilt feelings. Inside the box, a tiny painting of flowers and the clasp another flower.  Our price: $274.90.  This is one of Chamart’s hand made Limited Edition boxes, 250 pieces only.

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