A road trip and a new plant

Michael and I did something this past weekend that we haven't done in a long time - we took a road trip. We decided to drive up to Memphis to visit our friend JoAnn with an alternative agenda which was to stop at a huge concrete statuary place along the way. Well, it figures that the statuary place was closed. We drove on to Memphis and had a good time. JoAnn took us to some places that we don't have in Florence, like the Davis Kidd bookstore, the Whole Foods grocery store and some really cool (and expensive) gardening shops. I had spied a nursery before we got to her house on Poplar St. called Trip's so we headed back there.

As I was surveying the rows and rows of plants, I came across a pomegranate and knew that it would be coming home with us. For some reason, pomegranates have been popular here lately. People had been asking me if I'd seen that gorgeous orange shrub blooming here and there and when I tracked down what they were describing, it was the pomegranate. I'm sure they are not hardy plants and I suppose our recent string of mild winters have really let them do their thing. I had seen some at a local nursery but when I decided I wanted one, they had already sold out.

I have really become enamored with orange plants this year and I don't know why. I'm working on an orange and blue themed garden on the north side of the house (so far the results have been nothing to write home about). The pomegranate will get very large, assuming that it makes it through the winter, and requires sun so I'm planning on putting it in the southern most border that gets the most sun. I can't decide now if I should go ahead and plant it in these 90+ temperatures or hold off until fall. If anyone grows it, send me your suggestions.