The fella from Blackwater Utility smiled a lot and looked at us sort of crooked. "Why did yall decide to come from Lake City to Sumter to dig up these trees?" He asked at the same time he was evaluating how to best move the line.

We waited. Gregg from E.G. and Co. with his "God can make a tree, - we can move them" t-shirt, Mike, Flavio and Jenks from Moore Farm and Penny from the family who owned the ready to be developed lot on bustling 378 in Sumter, SC.

I told him that basically, they don't make 'em like this anymore. This crepe myrtle is an old variety, the bark is smooth and milky, the leaves are little, the flower are intensely colored. They are sort of like a vintage couch or car from the 1950's.

"Yeah but how did you know they were here, Why did you come from Lake City?" I reminded myself that not everybody has their eye on the plants on the side of the road, scouting for plants to salvage, while they drive."

But a lot of people do notice plants. For 60 years, Columbians headed to Myrtle Beach drove by the home and garden of Robert and Margret Garrett, just past Shaw Airforce Base. Lots of people stopped to ask about the towering Confederate Roses in the front yard. Lots of people went left there with cuttings and plants.

The Garretts house was in a quiet field 60 years ago. Two rows of crepe myrtles, embraced a half circle drive way. I don't know what all has grown in this field turned garden. But I know that a plant lover was here for a long time. I watched his house being torn down and walking through the remains of the garden, with his son and daughter in law, I spot lots of cool plants - like layers of linoleum on an old kitchen floor, you can read the trends, the changing interest of the gardener.

There are fruits and plants that an isolated gardener wanted for food; Chinese chestnut tree, Pecan trees, figs and grapes. There are old timey shrubs and flowers; Milk and Wine Lily, Daylily, Privet and Flowering Almond and Camellias. There are "younger" plants that probably came along in the 60's or 70's Jelly Palm and Yuccas.

"You wouldn't believe how many people just stop and try to dig something up," says Rusty, the gardener's son. Right now, the lot is purple and pink with those tall, old petunias. "People try to dig them all the time."

Rusty, may not be into gardening like his father, but this place and all of these plants have his childhood and his parents memories growing on them. Plants have layers that everybody notices. Leaves and trunks. Plants have layers that only some people notice. Fruits, smells, architecture. And, plants have layers that only their caretakers can see clearly. Ghostly images of Momma cutting flowers, Daddy giving away cuttings, a swing that is long gone.