MidAt plant shopping June 2013 ...

hi, Coleup. Can you and/or Happy do the same with my plants, since the stock seems to be going quickly? Set them aside and I will pay for them on Saturday afternoon?

thanks so much to all!!

Big schedule change! I'm coming down this morning! This is why I couldn't make any solid plans yesterday. :) I can actually be there around 10 when they open. Coleup, will you be around?

Hurray SS!!! I'm on my way shortly!!

What could be more fun than playing in the garden? Playing with gardening friends!

Oops, Coleup, our emails crossed! :-D Thanks so much for setting up a cart for me. BBQ pit sounds lovely! :-)

I'll be happy to take any overflow plants back with me to DC area!!

Sounds like FUN!!!

I hate being left out of this!!

Hehehe. Me, too, but, I am window shopping!!!

Do any of you realize how hard...demoralizing...frustrating...terrible
I feel when you all talk about these "buys"??? I can NEVER take part!

I have NO...Nada...Zip room to plant anything new. SO tempting--and so sad!

I cannot add anything NEW to my garden. It is a very empty feeling
reading all the talk about 3 of this--and 5 of that--and 50 of something else.

All I can do is distance my thoughts from all you wheeler-dealers and
accept the situation I have to live with. My 44 year old , full, established garden.

Sob...sob.... Gita

Gita, it is a case of "the grass is greener." I am so tired of looking at my yard with empty spots in it. I would LOVE to have a 44 year old, full, established garden. I keep planting to accelerate the moment when I can achieve that!

Me too.

I am so glad I have to work on Saturday so I am not tempted to meet up with all at the Outback Center, I love that place. This way I stay out of trouble.

Happy, I found a turtle head for 3.50 at a local HD! Got 1 for you.

Gita, some of us have to keep buying new plants to replace the ones we kill! I think I've only killed 4 shrubs/trees this year, and less than 10 perennials. I'm getting better at this!

Once I stop killing so many of them, I'm going to start digging out the grass to make the borders wider.

Thanks, SSG!!!

LOL you guys are too funny! Gita I would love to have a garden as beautiful and established as yours! And I definitely have had the empty-spot because something else died syndrome. LOL
Plus it would probably be better for me also if I could remove myself from temptation! It is all so new and I'm like a kid seeing candy for the first time!

Trust me, the addiction gets worse the more you indulge.

Happy--

I have been using "Milorganite" for my lawn for 3 years now. I put it down
in the spring--and that's that. I am going to push it to anyone who asks
what i would recommend. Scotts and Vigoro (HD brand) is so high in $30.

A customer came Sunday and bought a bag of Milorganite. He said he sprinkles it
around his property and the deer will not cross it. The scent of human waste--I imagine.
There is NO odor to it for humans--just FYI.

Thought you may want to give this a try. You always say you have deer eating
all kinds of things. Very gentle fertilizing--really low numbers.
Safe....organic....eco friendly.....Non toxic to animals....won't harm The bay....etc..

40lb bag for $12.37. You will find it at the back of the lawn fertilizer aisle.
At least in our store...Blue bag.
G.

lol, out of trouble indeed Catbird!

This morning at the Outback I almost had SS convinced that she needed a clumping bamboo! So, Roses and SS how about I get one of each and the three of us experiment at the Spring Swap with a piece of each? I'll overwinter them and divide and re pot up. Are you game to split the cost and split the plants? They can live in containers for a number of years!

I had a good time shopping with SS today. She was very restrained and I was wondering why when she said something to the effect that it wasn't that she didn't want a particular plant or it wasn't in her budget, but that she was calculating the 'planting time' she had available. Whoa nellie! That's something I rarely factor in! Probably why I could be a real contender for Most Unplanted Plants in the MAF. But then, I cut my teeth in serious gardening in the nursery business where multiple plants in pots are the norm!

I agree with you Happy! That liiltle reward center in my brain just lights up around plants! More slimming than Ben and Jerrys Chocolate/Chocolate fudge!

Another tid bit from this morning with SS. She liked the Camelias we were looking at and she mentioned that she has gone through a number of them while finding the right placement/care, etc. I said there should definitely be a Cheap Test Camelia so if it survived where you planted it you would know an expensive jobber would do ok!

Gita: I know you and I disagree on this, but I think Milorganite stinks horribly and continues to smell for about a week. We use it, but usually regret it for the next week. If I were smart, I'd put it down just before leaving town.

Coleup helped me find some good bargains today!

Happy and Catmint, I hope you get a chance to head out to Homestead Gardens tomorrow. It's just down the street from the Ace nursery. Their houseplant section is beautiful, and they had baby chicks for sale! Their plants were a bit more expensive (25%-30% off on some), but the place is huge and they have some interesting plants. Very nice selection of camellias at Homestead.

Coleup, I don't think I have room for the bamboo! I thought about keeping it in a container, but it would tip over so easily at 10-15 feet tall. I'm going to see how my aruncus and giant miscanthus do next year before I consider bamboo for screening.

I guess I'm odd in that I LOVE to read all your fun plant shopping. I shop vicariously through you all and get excited that you can expand your gardens. Every once in awhile I'll jump in withna purchase. Keep on shopping!!!!!

SSG thanks for the tip about Homestead Gardens! Of course more temptation for me to battle off--LOL! Sounds like you had a good trip. What plants did you come home with??

Aww, Jan, you are very sweet! :-)

Thanks, Coleup & Aspen! I didn't make it up to Pittsburgh today after all, so I should be here when Terri swings by. :-)

Happy--

Milorganite has a musty smell (to me) when i first open the bag. That's all.
I do not find it offensive--just 'earthy'...Maybe your nose is just more sensitive?
Is it possible that maybe you got an old, odd bag of it ????

Once i have spread it on my lawn--there is absolutely NO smell whatsoever.
Where and when did you find this offensive smell from it? Just curious...
It could not have smelled like anything once it was spread on your lawn???

I guess you have to weigh your options here. A little bit of smell--and NO deer--
and having your beds gently fertilized--Or--deer eating your plants.

G.

Milorganite (to my nose) smells when it's wet. When I was a kid, we put it on a hanging basket on the back porch and regretted it every time it rained! I'll have to try some in back (way back LOL) this winter, though, 'cause I think we'll have displaced critters trying to browse my little bushes.

I'm so HAPPY! I've been conversing with my plant fairies, and I'm getting real bargains on some lovelies. I was on the fence about Beauty Berry 'Purple Pearls,' but it jumped into Terri's cart when she said the more upright compact habit and purple-tinged foliage were just like the catalog photos. I got the 'Autumn Sunset' serviceberry, too. Coleup even found me a Forest Pansy Redbud... and a Japanese Snowbell, which I'd never heard of but fell in love with when I googled it. http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/2121/japanese-snowbell-tree.php

I lost my little weeping cherry this year, just never leafed out... good idea to put the Snowbell in a similar location. It does deserve a "specimen tree" sort of location.

I might have some snowbells for the next swap...I had kind of forgotten about them. Somebody remind me in the spring if I forget.

The Japanese Snowbell should be a beautiful specimen tree for you! My Snowfountain has struggled this year, ever since planting. :-( It did seem to heal a bit after I applied the systemic. Happy and her DH are going to help me move it to a sunnier spot, and maybe that will help...

I'm back home and in for the night. My car has never been that packed full with stuff - trees and shrubs for both Jill and I all fit in, although I have no idea how LOL. I sure do have my work cut out for me tomorrow. I'll get outside to start planting as soon as it is light enough. The shopping day was fun - thanks coleup and happy for a great time.

It WAS fun and Coleup really made it easier (many thanks). I'm feeling guilty for sacrificing a day in the yard, but I'll get over it!

I was very impressed with Coleup's car-packing skills! :-D We managed to fit everything in. Wish we all could have been there at the same time--would have been fun to explore with everyone!--but so appreciate Coleup's kindness and generosity in making this possible!!

I also found another Catmint 'Walker's Low' to replace the one I killed this summer. Only fitting, I think, that I should have a catmint! :-)

Ooh, that Japanese Snowbell is so pretty! I'd never heard of that tree before.

Catmint, I got 2 heuchera at Outback. I can't seem to resist them when they're on sale. I also got a sad-looking clematis on sale and a Yuletide camellia. I'm almost scared to plant the camellia!

I went to HD afterwards to get Leafgro for the grass, and that's where I saw just one chelone on sale. I also noticed a very pretty dwarf weigela with dark leaves and pink blooms on sale. I asked the worker there to look up the name, and they said it was "a shrub." When I looked at him kind of befuddled, he said it was "a regular shrub." He asked around but there was no more info on this shrub. Now I have a mystery weigela!

haha--I love that!--yes, it's a shrub--a regular 'mystery' one! :-D Ooh, I saw some of the pretty heuchera there--which ones did you get??

I got a Yuletide camellia too--so pretty!!

Terri, when I went back at 5 to meet up with Catmint two of the Garden Center people came up to me and asked if my friend whose car was so loaded with plants made it home ok! Guess we made quite an impression!.

I did mention to one of the associates that our experience there was so good that it made the 'cashiering' experience stand out for its lack of ease and grace.

Catmint and I had some bery good tlaks with the garden Center manager Gregg who ordered in all of the plants and trees and shrubs we all will soon be enjoying in our Mid A yards. He's been head "woody plants" man for over 25 years! Knows his stuff and has developed lots of personal connections with growers across the country. He is willing to work with us to do special orders, etc if we get to that point. Hey, he gave us his card which reads Plant Insect& Disease Diagnosis

Terri, I think we found our shrub guy! He even offered Catmint to deliver a beautiful Zelkova tree since he lives very near to you Silver Springers!

Sure, we buy plants and shop and look and buy plants, but we definitely don't buy any plant or product , The plants that jump into our carts are 'choice' and our tastes are quite refined and knowledgeable and specific to our own priorities.

"When the gardener is ready, the plant will appear"

Thanks to all for being my shopping buddies this week and I hope to shop and swap with all again. I may not be able to host a swap but I can hostess a shop! Great to get to know each of you a little better in between plants and to see the world thru your kindred gardening spirit eyes.

May our fellowship virtual and real time make our immenent planting forays chortles and not chores!

DANG, can you ever host "a shop," lady!

Huge thanks to both Judy & Terri for being my plant fairies today. I had a great time! I was even inspired to go to HD and shop while Terri was driving to my place... found some beauties there, too!

HA HA, yes home safe and sound. I managed to stay in the right lane the whole t ime which really minimized needing anything but the left hand mirror. It took me a little longer - I didn't think I was that much of a lead foot, but the difference in time by never going in to a left lane was a good 15 - 20 minutes.

Judy, you did a fantastic job being hostess for the shop. I really enjoy your company - as they say in the Anne of Green Gables books, "you are of the race that knows Joseph". I'd like to get back over there in the spring for a look at the nearby Homestead garden nursery. I was so close, but oh so tired to add that stop today - car was too full anyway! Lowell's girlfriend Suzanne was here when I got home and her jaw dropped as she watched me pull that huge snowbell tree out of my not so huge car. Too funny.