Plant Sale

Today was the first day of the members only plant sale at The Huntington Library & Gardens in San Marino, CA(near Pasadena for my out of state readers). Fri and Sat is for members, Sun for the public. I couldn't go last year because it was just Sat & Sun and I had a big rose show to attend. So I was happy to be able to go today.   There were many employees & volunteers making our way easier from parking to signage directing us to the line up for the sale. I brought my red wagon to haul my purchases. And it was a good thing because I had to park WAY out there. I had a limited budget and only went $10 over. Here is my haul.

I got an Acacia craspedocarpa(quite a long name).  I adore those roundy leaves.  It's supposed to get 10-15 feet. Yikes!!  

And I brought home a Tecoma "Bells Of Fire". It is said to grow 3-5ft.   You might remember if you've been following along my post about a month ago on another Tecoma I grow.  Now I just need the yellow one :-) 

 Also I bought a pot of Babiana rubra-cyanea bulbs, a bag of hardy Gladiolus nanus "Atom"(red & white) and a bag of Leucocoryne bulbs of which I had been pining for a year.  I already planted all the bulbs in the ground.

A botanic garden's plant sale is one of the best places to find unusual plants. I hope you have one near you.  And you still have time to go to this one this weekend!  

Hydrangea

  Last summer I saw this amazing new Hydrangea in one of my client's gardens.  It had different leaves and each floret was smaller but the spray of flowers was huge!  After searching all over the internet, I discovered that it's Hydrangea arborescens "Invincibelle".  

It was spectacular and I started pining for one. I checked a few nurseries but only found the white one and it was spendy.   I took a few cuttings and tried to root them. One survived.   I still have it but it's one inch tall.   This variety of Hydrangea lost all of it's leaves in the winter and was a brown stick. It differed from our regular Hydrangea macrophylla whose stems are very fleshy and the new growth is green.  Flash forward to 2 weeks ago.  I was at a nursery and found a few of this special plant and they were just leafing out.  But they were $36.00.  I talked myself out of it.  Then I saw it again at the Descanso Gardens gift shop last weekend for $50.00.    Again I didn't buy it.   Then I saw this on Pinterest: 

 

And decided it was talking to me ;-)    So today I went back to Lincoln Avenue Nursery in Pasadena and bought the $35.00 plant.  I planted it in my garden as soon as I got home.  

Find all my pins here on Pinterest.

Happy Gardening!!!  

Warning Labels

Just a word of advice today.  Please always read labels before applying pesticides and herbicides.  Twice in the last two weeks I've been asked to apply products of which the homeowner did not read the labels.   One was a pre-emergent that prevents seeds from germinating(prevents weeds).  Today it was for snail bait.    Ortho bug geta.   Both products said they were TOXIC to animals and humans.  Both clients had dogs.  I showed them the labels and discouraged them from using it.   Both products were granular and dogs are attracted to stuff like that.  They think it's food for them.  Liquids are another story and do not attract pets.  Instead I squished about 20 snails today.  So be careful with products you buy.  We take care of our pets.  Take enough care to read labels.  Happy gardening!

Dwarf Alstroemeria

I am in love with these dwarf Alstroemerias!!!    I might have posted on them before.  But I just got the red one below and thought this deserved another look!!!  The common name is Peruvian Lily and they are native to South America.  It used to be that there were just tall(3 feet or so) varieties.  They are a great cut flower.   But in the ground because of their height, they tend to flop.  So maybe 10 years ago I started seeing dwarf varieties in nurseries and a few years ago I got divisions of the yellow and pink from one of my clients and planted them in my(then new) garden.  They still are kinda spendy.  I saw one at a nursery last week that was $25.00.  That's why I was happy to pay $14.99 for this new red one at Lowe's.  They only grow about 16" and look great in the garden!  And they STILL make great cut flowers, just in shorter vases.  And who has space for really tall vases in their kitchen cupboards anyway? 

 

Last year I found this burgundy one at Trader Joe's.  It got a little frostburn but is spectacular now.  

White was difficult to find and I got this one at the Huntington Library & Gardens.  

They do die back for part of the year in winter.  But some of them stay evergreen.  Oh, the advancements made in hybridizing!   They also come in purples and more oranges that I NEED too.  Try an Alstroemeria in your garden.  You can thank me later :-)

Green Flowers

This time of year it's really difficult to NOT BUY plants!  It's Spring and gardeners everywhere are seduced at the nursery.

Either you love green flowers or you hate them. I think they're really fun, weird and cool. Today I found and bought a green Azalea! It looks white-ish but is green! I have to find a spot to plant it into garden. Do you like green flowers?