I found some "usual" seeds, one I'd been looking for for a while (Malabar spinach), and some other new things to try: coleus (pretty plants for cheap), celery (you can grow that?), cumin (why not?), and a seed potato. I've toyed with the idea of potatoes for a while, now I'm finally giving it a try.
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| "new to me" seeds - and a potato |
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I'm so excited about the elephant ear. I've planted it in a big green pot (probably not big enough, but its the largest I have), and plan to use it to help "tropicalize" my back patio. The bleeding hearts will go under the cherry/crape myrtle. I've no plans yet for the other bulbs - they were true impulse purchases.
After picking out all my seeds and bulbs, I took a tour of the outdoor part of the garden center. Not to buy, just to look. I'm expecting another Groupon for this place to come out soon, and I figure if I identify what I need/want now, I'll know how many Groupons to buy. I looked at blueberries to replace one that died a few years ago, dwarf cherries, because I really want one and I think I've even IDed where I can put it, and camellias.
I need to pull out my one remaining nandina that grows by the front door, and want something all-season-pretty to replace it. I've been a little obsessed with the idea that a camellia would look great in that spot, but I don't think it will thrive in my SE-facing front border. So I just walk through the camellias and dream.
On the way out, I browsed the clearance shrubs. Yep, there were a half dozen camellias there, for a bargain. Also some cute mini-rhododendrons. I have probably the only house in Virginia without azaleas (or azalea relatives). Not for lack of trying, they just really don't like my yard. But this one was $10.
"No!" I told myself. "You do not have time to dig up a nandina and plant a camellia. You also don't have any space for a rhododendron, no matter how small." I have no free Saturdays until mid-May, so my limited garden time is already entirely spoken for with spring cleanup and garden-planting tasks. Anything extra will languish in its cramped pot until summer, when it the weather will be too hot for transplanting. I'll forget to water it, and it will die.
So I walked away. I exercised amazing willpower an restraint, and went home with just my seeds and bulbs.
I was regretting my decision even as I drove out of the parking lot. So the next day I went back.
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So much for restraint.
I've done the same thing, although sometimes I don't even make it home. I just end up making an Uturn and going right back. I bought a bag of acidanthera, too. That camellia is beautiful. That would be hard to resist. :o)
ReplyDeleteI was sooo tempted to U-turn, but it was dinnertime and hunger won out. I hope our acidanthera turn out as pretty as the photo.
Deletei just go in with the assumption that if I go in for one thing, i'll come out with six. or eight. or there was that one time we came out with 26. yes, 26 little plants, and Mulch Boy named them all in alphabetical order.
ReplyDeleteSo when you refer to a plant in your yard as, say, an echinacea, does he correct you? "Oh, you mean plant J." Or, "Oh, you mean Janelle."
DeleteHee! Well, actually once we took them out of the car and planted them, we forgot all the names. But we sure did impress the neighbor's kids while we unloaded them
DeleteWe do, though, have some plants that had names already: three boxwoods named Big Julie, Nicely-Nicely, and Harry the Horse, and a twisted hazenut called Nivek Gnarly. Oh, and Cindy-lou Who, a cedar.