I know every gardener must experience this at some point: spend hours, months, & even years searching for that special addition to your landscape. & when it is finally there, you undergo a supernova of excitement, pride, & gratification. My moment happen just within the hour.

When I was 13, my parents went on their anniversary trip to northern Arkansas. Despite the fact it was during school, they made me go with them (the reasons are stupid & crazy, but I'm not going to explain unless someone really wants to know). On our way back home, we stopped at a small business on the side of the road in Clinton. They were selling stepping stones, which my mother wanted to look at. While my mother drooled over what they had & wishing we could afford to buy "just a few", my dad & I wandered around. The elderly man who owned the place asked us if we liked apples. He lead us inside the tiny building where bushels upon bushels of apples sat. I didn't recognize their color. I tried to identify them & nothing was really fitting the bill. The man's wife came from the back & told us they were Arkansas Black apples. Of course, we have never heard of them & had to try them. We bought 5 (yes, I specifically remember how many we bought, because I ate every single one of them & only let my parents have a bite or two). Even though every one of us utterly LOVED them, I wasn't allowed to keep the seeds to possibly grow a tree of my own. A few months later, my grandmother asked me what I wanted for Easter. I cracked a grin & told her an Arkansas Black apple tree. My parents threw a fit over that, & I was denied once again (plus several more times after that). Seven years later, I am finally able to get my Arkansas Black apple. For the past three years I have been searching for them...& I finally found a guy who is close enough for me to drive to. Whether or not he will still have them when I am able to leave the house is a different story, but the fact remains I FOUND THEM!!!