Chinese Dunce Caps are a hardy succulent that adds color and texture to hens and chicks. Dunce Cap likes full sun and grows only 2 inches tall, but it will spread a foot or more and is great as a groundcover. (Mary Reid Barrow)

Have you ever visited a plant sale and wanted one of everything?

That's how I felt when I caught up with Meadows of Bliss at the Chesapeake Farmers' Market in Chesapeake City Park recently. Everywhere I looked, I saw something interesting and unusual. A special butterfly host plant on the back table, a rare succulent from Madagascar on the left, and a fun variation on a hens and chicks on the right. And Julie Finn in the middle enthusiastically dispensed detailed information about her plants.

Finn is the green thumb behind Meadows of Bliss, a three-year-old nursery in Currituck, N.C., where she bought land and built a large greenhouse. She raises both familiar and uncommon plants from seeds or cuttings.

"I only grow and sell plants I love and adore," Finn said. "I'm particularly fond of succulents and trees, but when it comes down to it, I'm interested in all things green."

Finn specializes in succulents from Madagascar and grows many species of Haworthias, native to that area. Haworthias grow with spiky arms, like sea anemones, and look a little like aloes. Quirky plants, some are green and white striped or spotted, others are pale green. They are just the plant to send off with your kid to college or to have in a small apartment, Finn said. They are small and require little care.

Nonhardy succulents, like Haworthias, make great houseplants for anybody who is busy or doesn't have a green thumb.

Hardy succulents thrive on neglect outside, too.

As Finn said, you raise a succulent with "tough love."

Water only twice a month.

One hardy succulent that Finn raises, in addition to the familiar hens and chicks, is the Chinese Dunce Cap (Orostachys boehmeri). A native of Japan, it went right in my shopping bag. Small and velvety gray, it is a dainty plant in comparison. In fall, Dunce Cap has "wacky white fall flowers that look like dunce caps," Finn wrote on the plant tag. Great in a pot or as a ground cover, Dunce Cap likes full sun and grows only 2 inches tall, but will spread a foot or more, producing its own little chicks.

Succulents of many colors and shapes still don't begin to tell the story of Meadows of Bliss. Finn sells native plants, butterfly plants and herbs. She carries both kinds of fennel for black swallowtail butterflies, and native and tropical milkweed for monarchs. She grows the native Monarda punctata, or spotted horsemint, that I have seen growing in a seaside setting here. With pale, rosy-lavender flowers that grow up the stem in stacks, it doesn't have the problem with mildew that other Monardas have.

And Finn sells both blue and white butterfly pea vine, which she describes as "well-behaved, fast growing, self-seeding annual vine from India." A white one (Clitorea ternatea "Alba") went into my shopping bag when Finn explained that it is a host plant for the larvae of the beautiful long-tailed skipper, a small butterfly with brown wings, iridescent blue body and long tail.

What Finn brings to the market is a smattering of what she has back at the farm. She raises small shrubs and trees, like sweet shrub and southern wax myrtle. She has seashore mallow, the dainty pink mallow that grows along the rivers. She loves hard-to-find heirlooms. The list goes on.

She likes to propagate rare trees, like the silk floss tree, a flowering native of South America. Its seeds are nestled in pods filled with white fluff that is harvested for things like pillow stuffing and, in the past, stuffing for life jackets to make them float.

Though Finn doesn't sell from home, she will take special orders to market and you can email her if you have interest in a specific plant. Better yet, visit her at the Meadows of Bliss plant stand at The Chesapeake Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Battlefield Park South and Saturdays at Chesapeake City Park. Finn often goes on Sundays to the Virginia Beach Farmers Market. Find her schedule on Facebook.

For more information about Meadows of Bliss, visit www.facebook.com/meadowsofbliss or email meadowsofbliss@gmail.com

Mary Reid Barrow, barrow1@cox.net

Follow her blog at hamptonroads.com/maryreidbarrow