I had a long conversation with Grace as to why they picked CA and their process of buying their home here, which was a short sale like ours.
When they knew they wanted to sell their home and move, they were offered property by so many other hybridizers in various states, the folks in Ohio were trying to temp them up there, as well as Alabama, Georgia and several other states, even her brother Van Sellers Vic Santa Lucia of Iron Gate Gardens in No. Carolina offered them property for free. Since they have been traveling all over the country for years as guest speakers for various clubs and Regionals, they were familiar with the locals and weather. They had started out in NY and knew they didn't want to go back to the cold, FL was too hot and humid past mid afternoon to work in the garden and then all the other offers were similar. They had been coming out here to CA several times for our club meetings and then vacations too and they both really loved it here with the year round gardening. Being near the ocean was high on their list and they had a few other wants for the area, a historic society was one I remember and a few other cultural things on their wish list. They wanted acreage and a single level house. No one knew that they were flying back and forth quite often in their search here and when they finally settled on the town, it took them a few trips to finally find the ideal property. They have a huge house on 5 acres and after they found out the community well wasn't what it was advertised to be, they bought another 5 acres from a former nursery grower who went out of business for overdeveloping his place right before the bottom dropped out. He had added 5 state of the art large greenhouses on the lot.
Pat & Grace are taking various horticulture classes to become familiar with what grows in their local and are making great friends and Grace is starting seeds of all kinds of various plants, using just a tiny portion of one greenhouse. They may eventually do a little daylily pollen dabbing again but she said just for their own fun. They are gardeners at heart and are just enjoying adding to their garden and experimenting. She loves that she can now grow many of the So. African and Australian plants (also some of my favorites!)
She said one afternoon they were sitting on their patio and she asked Pat what he had done today, he rubbed his chin, thinking, and said "Why nothing". And she replied, "Isn't it wonderful?!" All their lives, they have worked, first as teachers and then getting up early every morning to work in the nursery. Now they can really enjoy their retirement. But they sure keep busy!
