So we finally went back to the nursery where we bought that Green Gage plum last year. I couldn't find any more Green Gage trees, so I asked. No, they didn't have any Green Gages this year. So we thought we'd perhaps pick up something else.
While we were outside, the young woman who seems always to be there came up and told us she had found two Green Gage trees in their clearance area. And of course I knew exactly which trees they were...
Last fall we visited the nursery in mid-October, just two weeks before they closed for winter. They had three of the Green Gage trees I wanted, priced at $89 each. Since they were about to close, they had marked them down 25%. So I bought one, and kept wondering if I should have bought two. And all through the winter, I'd see the two trees I hadn't bought, standing tall and alone in the cold...
So this week, those same two trees had been marked down to $20 each. They were in full bloom, and had a lot of bees buzzing around them. They were bursting out of their pots, but they had made it through the winter.
So now they're in my back yard. They seem to be in decent shape, despite having been brutally root bound. They're at least ten feet tall, so I'm not fearing for them as far as the deer are concerned. And I got both of them for less than the discounted price I would have paid last fall.
Of course they're probably more stressed than they would have been had they been in the ground all winter, but they seem to be doing fine.
So that's a win.
