News / Blog

12/14/2011
A Work In Progress

12/14/2011
Autumn 2011 Haiku Contest WINNer Announced!

10/12/2011
My Dream

10/12/2011
Check This Out!

10/12/2011
Have You Seen Teddy's Fountain?

10/03/2011
Igneous Rock Gallery Haiku Contest Guidelines

10/03/2011
Summer 2011 Haiku Contest Winner Announced!

6/14/2011
WPMT FOX 43 Visits Igneous Rock Gallery!

6/14/2011
Video of Current Inventory

6/14/2011
New and Improved Landscape Lights

6/14/2011
Spring Haiku Contest Winner Announced!

5/03/2011
Fountain to be Auctioned at Derby Day!

3/24/2011
Simply the Best?

3/24/2011
An Enduring Tribute

3/11/2011
2011 PA Home Show Special

3/11/2011
Remembering Rick Alcorn

3/11/2011
Winter Haiku Contest Winner Announced! / Spring Contest Entries Welcomed

2/16/2011
Rest In Peace, Rick Alcorn

2/09/2011
Counting Past 130 and Balancing Rocks

2/09/2011
Autumn Haiku Contest Winner / Winter Contest Submission Deadline

2/09/2011
PA Home Show

2/09/2011
Igneous Rock Gallery Fountain Design Party Discounts!

2/09/2011
Sedimentary Rock Gallery?

11/17/2010
Current Special Promotions – Our Best Ever Offer!

11/17/2010
Autumn 2010 Haiku Contest

11/15/2010
One Thing Leads to the Next…

11/08/2010
I'm A Rock Star

10/15/2010
Sid and Gena's Indoor Fountain Sculpture

9/07/2010
Vacation Musings/Balancing Work and Play

9/07/2010
Igneous Rock Gallery Traveling Dog and Pony Show

9/07/2010
2010 Summer Haiku Winner Announced

9/07/2010
Igneous Rock Gallery Harrisburg Fall Home Show Exhibit/One Million Dollar Cash Giveaway!

8/10/2010
This One Could Be Yours

8/8/2010
Summer 2010 Haiku Contest Deadline Extended

8/2/2010
Jerry and Crystal Created Their Own!

7/13/2010
She Stole My Heart

7/13/2010
Table Top Fountain Workshop

6/17/2010
New Fountains

6/15/2010
Do You Want to Meet My Dad?

6/14/2010
The Year of the Creep

6/6/2010
My Impending Incarceration

6/6/2010
Spring 2010 Haiku Contest Winner Announced!

3/20/2010
First Quarterly Haiku Contest!

3/13/2010
Honorable Mention at 2010 Philadelphia International Flower Show

3/12/2010
Video of Valley Forge Display

The Year of the Creep

Three years ago I bought a boatload of small Japanese Maples and dwarf conifers. Greg Gulden, the proprietor of Suncrest Gardens, a specialty nursery in Mount Holy Springs, PA, decided he wanted to start fly fishing more. He sold off a bunch of large specimen trees to another nursery, let his employees go, switched to weekday hours by appointment only and regular nursery hours, just three of them, on Saturday mornings.

Greg offered us a great deal on a bunch of plants that had become root bound in their pots. He didn’t want to repot them or plant them in the ground, and we were the happy beneficiaries of his priority clarification phase.

We cleared our landscape in the back yard (except for the giant oaks), created raised beds, built a koi pond and planted our new collection. That was three years ago. At the time it seemed like it would be forever until these small plants would fill in and become the garden I envisioned in my head. To our delight they all pushed a lot of growth this spring and now our back yard garden is starting to come into its own.

I mentioned this to an avid gardener named Bob, a “Friend of the Gallery” with whom we had become acquainted at the Philadelphia International Flower Show. The conversation started off with Bob asking how business is this spring for Igneous Rock Gallery, how the Flower Show worked out for us. Then we talked about our gardens and the upcoming open house/garden tour that Bob and his wife were feverishly preparing for.

Regarding the patience required to get a new business on solid footing, Bob likened this process to growing a garden. The first year it sits there and struggles to adapt and not die. The second year it starts to grow roots, but you can’t see much growth. The third year it just may begin to take off and you may start to enjoy what you anticipated when you sowed your business/garden.

I was encouraged by Bob’s garden analogy and appreciate his interest in how business is coming along for Igneous Rock Gallery.

The gardening adage Bob quoted:

First year sleep
Second year creep
Third year leap

This is the “year of the creep” for Igneous Rock Gallery. We are grateful to have survived our first year in such a sluggish economy, and we are grateful for our “Friends of the Gallery”, including Bob. We are also full of expectation for the future.