Contact Larry Denney at 336-384-2779.

Susan Graham enjoys going to the market even after more than 12 years of working long hours in her greenhouses. Her enthusiasm is made obvious by a trip to her greenhouse in Todd, NC. She takes meticulous care of her plants and is rewarded with outstanding blooms and foliage.

Susan grows perennials, amazing hanging baskets, and starts bedding plants from seed. You will find flats of petunias, French marigolds that grow to eight inches, and red, white and blue pansies. Susan also grows annual and perennial herbs, including bright and fragrant Pineapple Sage.

Susan Graham has won even more fans with her hand knitted and felted wool hats. Susan hand knits the hats from wool and wool/mohair blend yarn in a rainbow of colors and currently has three styles for you to choose from. One style features a rolled brim with fun fur trim, another has a narrow brim in solids and stripes with a braided hatband. A fashionable beret completes the collection. All of Susan's hats will fit an average adult's size head.

The hats can be hand washed in cool water with a mild detergent, then blocked over a form or bowl for drying to retain their shape.

E-mail Susan Allen Graham.

Iva Lee Hayes has been with the Watauga County Farmers' Market since it's beginning. She helped organize the market in 1973 and saw it open the following year. At that time the market was located at Boondocks Plaza near Hampton's Body shop. Ten or twelve other vendors participated, but of them, only Iva Lee and her daughter Sissy Moore are still members of the Farmers' Market.

Iva Lee sells all kinds of jams, jellies, as well as local honey, but is most well known for her homemade kraut. She also specializes in freshly baked pumpkin cake.The first week of the market, she brought three pumpkin cakes which were immediately purchased by one of the other vendors. She started baking more, and many Saturdays would sell 40 or 50 individual cakes, some customers buying enough to freeze some for the long winter months ahead. In the last ten years, she has decreased her supply somewhat. Loyal customers know to come early to avoid disappointment.

Also at Iva Lee's booth are many handmade crafts, such as dolls, baby quilts and wall hangings. She also brings plants from her garden, especially hens and chicks.

Dickie Jarrett grows an amazing collection of beautiful and unusual plants in his three greenhouses in Newland, North Carolina. He especially likes unusual ferns, and has a wide assortment of hardy and tropical ferns ranging in size from huge Boston Ferns to diminuative Table Ferns. He grows the uncommon Australian Woods fern from divisions each year, and keeps a supply of Japanese and Lady in Red ferns on hand as well.

Lovers of easy-care houseplants will be delighted with Dickie's begonia collection. He has perfectly grown pots of Iron Cross, Angel Wing, and the facinating Escargot Begonias along with Nonstop tuberous Begonias with their colorful blooms. Dickie prepares all kinds of hanging baskets as well, including baskets with the mid-blue blooming streptocarpus that will easily provide color all summer long.

Dickie also grows garden plants for the landscape, he has lots of colorful daylilies and around 4,000 boxwood liners.

Be sure to see Dickie's colorful and inventive birdhouses and wind chimes. He has unique birdhouses made from pine, cherry, oak, maple and black walnut, and wonderful mechanical hummingbirds and bluebirds for your porch or deck.

Contact Dickie by e-mail or visit Briarpatch Greenhouse in Newland from till 5 on Monday through Saturday.

Sissy Moore has been with Watauga County Farmers' Market since it opened in 1974. Still in high school at the time, she sold mostly house plants and cactus. She used her earnings to buy a 22x24 greenhouse, which enabled her to grow and sell enough plants to buy her first car. She now grows mainly hardy perennials, and specializes in unusual varieties. This often means plants too new to be readily available, but check for once popular heirlooms that have now become uncommon.

Sissy now has her own property and three smaller greenhouses. Her daughter Brandy uses the greenhouse at her grandmother's to start the hanging baskets that she brings to the Farmer's Market.

After the rush of the planting season calms, Sissy turns her attention to canning. She produces a large selection of jams and jellies. Raspberry, peach, strawberry and blackberry are most popular, but Sissy chooses pumpkin butter as her personal favorite.

email Sissy

Chris Teague lives his wife Heather. They have an 18 month old son Daniel, who is the boss of the family. Chris started growing plants as a hobby and now has three greenhouses and a number of fields in different places around Boone. He has been selling plants to the general public for three years, and sold plants at wholesale for two years before that. Chris grows about 400 varieties of perennial plants, 800 varieties of daylilies, and a selection of flowering annuals and shrubs. Find out more at Hickory Lane Gardens and Landscape Center

Chris also does landscaping and maintenance within a 60 mile radius of Boone. He is available for landscape design, brush clearing, hedge trimming, leaf cleanup and yard winterization. His yard treatments include a soil analysis, fertilizer and weed control. Chris can be reached at (828) 265-4950 or by his cell phone at 964-6905