November 26, 2007: Fred's Pictures of Crump's Gardens
	November 22, 2007: Thanksgiving Day at My House
	Return to Index for 2007

It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving and Crump's Garden, the greenhouse operation where Fred works, is having their Open House. The Crumps time the Open House so that people can come visit the greenhouses before very many of the annual crop of poinsettias are sent out. At this time of year, the greenhouses are full of them, and they are quite a sight to see.

Fred left my house early in the morning to do some watering in his own houses before going on duty at lunchtime as a tour guide.

Getting to the greenhouses from my house is pretty easy; heaven knows that Fred has driven the route often enough (I would guess on the average three times a month for the last fifteen years). He jogs south on Inwood, takes Mockingbird to the Tollway, and then goes north to I-635. He heads east on the beltway and then goes north on US-75. This takes him all the way to his exit for the greenhouses.

At the right is an aerial view of the Crump's greenhouse operation. On Open House Day, one or two greenhouses are designated as "tour" houses. For the Open House after Thanksgiving, one of the newer houses that is chock full of poinsettias is designated. For the Spring Open House, other greenhouses that might be full of mums or kalanchoes or other plants might be opened up.

Today, the newest house, which sits at the back of the property behind the house that one of the Crump brothers occupies, was the Open House for the tour.

When Fred got to the greenhouses and had finished his own chores, he had some time before the first visitors arrived, and he spent that time taking a number of pictures inside the various poinsettia houses. This will be the last poinsettia season that Fred will see at Crumps; he is due to retire on December 7th so that we can be more free to travel and generally enjoy ourselves. Perhaps this is why Fred took so many pictures.

Before you look at the pictures that Fred took, I think you should see the movie that he made in greenhouse 53. In it, he of course describes many of the types of poinsettias that Crumps grows, and of course the visuals as he pans across the sea of plants are arresting. But what is more interesting, especially to me, are the comments he makes in his narration referring to the fact that this will be his last Christmas at the greenhouses. Anytime you do something for 25 years or more you get quite used to it, and I know that retiring is going to be a bit difficult for him and seem very strange at first. But he'll adjust- I am sure of it. Anyway, listen to his commentary as you watch his movie using the player at left.

Now you can look at his pictures. I have put thumbnails for many of them below. To view a full-size picture, of course, just click on its thumbnail:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Open House began at noon, and I thought it would be fitting if I came by this time, since it was Fred's last. Our friend, Steve Friedman, is just about as interested in plants as Fred is (although he's not connected professionally to them in any way), so I dropped by his house over in Lake Highlands to pick him up and ride up to the greenhouses with him. Not many of our friends have ever seen the greenhouses, so this was something different.

We took the same route up to the greenhouses, basically, although we got to US-75 by a different route. Just north of McKinney, Weston Road intersects US-75. It always seemed to me that Weston went east-west at this point; I was surprised when I grabbed the aerial view for this album that it actually runs directly north-south past the greenhouses. Anyway, we got off there and made our turn onto Weston, parking just in front of the shop.

We walked up the hill as directed by some of the ladies (Crump wives, many of them) in the shop and came to the one main house where the tours were being given. I think Fred was a bit surprised to see us- but only a bit.

Even at this very, very late date in his career at Crump Gardens, Fred is still very nervous that he might be "unmasked," so to speak, by his co-workers there. My own view is that there isn't much they haven't already figured out (even dimwits can put two and two together given 25 years or so), but still, it wasn't appropriate for us to even let on that we were acquainted with Fred. This made it difficult to snap pictures of him, but I did get one good one of Fred and Steve.

I did not know that Fred had been taking pictures earlier, but I guess I could have assumed that, this being his last Open House. And you've already seen the movie that he took to record the day. I took a movie as well and, as it turned out, our commentary had some major similarities- again, something one might have expected. You can watch the movie that I took of the Crump Gardens Open House using the player below:

To end our visit to the Open House, I took a few more pictures of the poinsettia display, and I have put thumbnails for those pictures below. To look at any full-size picture, just click on its thumbnail:

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 26, 2007: Fred's Pictures of Crump's Gardens
	November 22, 2007: Thanksgiving Day at My House
	Return to Index for 2007