Juniper Level Botanical Gardens
If you go east out of Cary on Ten Ten until you come to Sauls Road and then take a right turn you will find yourself in Juniper Level. That's where Tony Avent, a genuine plant nut, lives with his wife, four cats and tens of thousands of plants, none of them annuals. You know when you get there because lawns with brown grass and a few scraggly azaleas give way to ... uh! ... Tony Avent's dream gone wild.
It all started with 2.2 acres of barren land in 1988 and today is a nursery and botanical garden nearly ten times that size. It also holds the Avent's home or, more accurately, their homes. The garden, you understand, overtook the first one and it is now their business center.
And, as you can see here, the second one is in danger of suffering the same fate!
One the one hand, the place is the Plant Delights Nursery, selling over 100,000 plants of 1500 varieties of hostas and exotic perennials a year worldwide by catalog and email.
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On the other hand, the place is also the Avent's private Juniper Level Botanical Gardens and home. Nursery, garden and home are pretty much one and the same, with the greenhouses and equipment sheds shielded from view by evergreen hedges.
The whole thing is closed to the public except for eight weekends a year. One of them was this weekend and the CFO and I availed ourselves.
Paths lead everywhere throughout the gardens filled with trees and plants...
... and ponds ...
... and fountains.
One moment you are on a trail in the Appalachian mountain and then just around the corner ...
... in a desert somewhere in the Southwest .
Keep an eye on the Plants Delight Web site and visit them when they are next open for public viewing. It's well worth the trip to Juniper Level ... wherever that is. It's all free unless, of, course, you buy a plant or ten.
It all started with 2.2 acres of barren land in 1988 and today is a nursery and botanical garden nearly ten times that size. It also holds the Avent's home or, more accurately, their homes. The garden, you understand, overtook the first one and it is now their business center.
And, as you can see here, the second one is in danger of suffering the same fate!
One the one hand, the place is the Plant Delights Nursery, selling over 100,000 plants of 1500 varieties of hostas and exotic perennials a year worldwide by catalog and email.
.On the other hand, the place is also the Avent's private Juniper Level Botanical Gardens and home. Nursery, garden and home are pretty much one and the same, with the greenhouses and equipment sheds shielded from view by evergreen hedges.
The whole thing is closed to the public except for eight weekends a year. One of them was this weekend and the CFO and I availed ourselves.
Paths lead everywhere throughout the gardens filled with trees and plants...
... and ponds ...
... and fountains.
One moment you are on a trail in the Appalachian mountain and then just around the corner ...
... in a desert somewhere in the Southwest .
Keep an eye on the Plants Delight Web site and visit them when they are next open for public viewing. It's well worth the trip to Juniper Level ... wherever that is. It's all free unless, of, course, you buy a plant or ten.
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