SHOPPING LISTS, Spring 2014 What are you getting?

Hopewell.

Thank you, Judy! That is it....G.

Sally, I bought Stylophorum diphyllum so hopefully that is the non invasive. Beautiful foliage on that corydalis.

Gita, you must have a whole different HD world down there because our HD is terrible for plants. They only carry the plants you'd find standard at every house in a new development. The only reason I walk through their garden section is to secretly laugh at their plants in my head. Sorry, I know that was mean but if you could see my face while saying that you'd know I was saying all this in jest :)

Stylophorum is good
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1014/

Jeff--
Are you talking about landscape plants? Shrubs and trees?
This year, as I mentioned, we will have a new supplier and from what we saw
last fall--they have excellent product.
Besides--our HD is a low volume store--so we are seldom overloaded with
anything. Things tend to be neat and orderly....most of the time...

It is hard to take care of the trees and shrubs--as many of them sit out front of the
store (The Apron) by the garden gate and beyond. Wind blows them over....
they get very dry...a bit ignored...we can be understaffed b/c we ARE low volume.

It also all depends on how well plants are taken care of. With me around--and some others--
they get plenty of TLC. "Bell Nursery" is supposed to take care of all the flowering
stuff and all the display carts. We have to do the landscape plants and ALL the Bonnies
Veggies and Herbs--the latter get daily watering...
Watering is a hard chore--one is always "fighting" the torque of the heavy 100'--
1" rubber hoses. Kills my wrists...Besides all that--I am a serious Senior...

I have been there 16 years now--last 10 sitting behind a big wall as a Phone Operator.
I am so happy to be back in Garden.... more wear and tear on my body--but it is work I love.
Gita

Our HD makes a large corral out in the parking lot for all the landscape plants that arrive. Shrubs and trees mostly and then the garden area attached to the building is mostly for perennials. I don't think our HD has anyone like yourself looking after the plants in any good fashion :)

Management should be on top of all that if it is not happening...

You--the customer--should voice your dissatisfaction with the quality of the
plants through the VOC (voice of the customer) system.

At the bottom of EVERY receipt is a phone # they always circle when you check out.
Sometimes the cashiers may ask you to take a "survey"...DO name names also.

Either way--your opinion counts more than you know. All good or bad comments are
forwarded back (From Atlanta) to the Store Manager and he/she HAS TO deal with it.
This is not always a pleasant thing--but the SM is, ultimately, responsible for the Store.

This holds for any retail business...unhappy customers==loss of sales.

I am sure you are aware of all this. Now--please ACT ON IT!!!
Gita

Greenthumb pointed me to a vendor (American Meadows) that sells trilliums, so I've purchased 9 bare root plants each of trillium grandiflorum (great white), catesbaei (rose), and undulatum (painted). They were having a sale that ends this week, sweet! I also got 20 bare root plants of trillium erectum (purple/red) from a seller in North Carolina a few weeks ago. Looks like I may have a good start for getting trilliums into the garden this year.

Aspenhill, Your woodlands are going to be so beautiful. Well they are already beautiful but they will be more beautiful.

Thanks for the tip Gita~!

Thanks Holly. When I think about my place, I know I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful natural woodland setting - all thanks to mother nature. I just try to enhance what is already there. What I've done so far has been a lot of work but doesn't actually look like much yet, and it will be many years before it matches the vision I have in my head. Two summers ago, Mike had some friends over who knew I was into gardening as a big time hobby. They walked right through my hillside shade garden (where I've spent 80% of my efforts) on their way to the dock, and asked where the garden was LOL. Isn't the fun of gardening having those dreams and slowly over the years making something of it? Lot of trial and error, successes and disappointments. I've only tried bare roots once before with maiden hair ferns from a co-op, and didn't have much success rate - only 2 out of 15. I bought bare root astilbes last year, but never got them planted :( I'm hoping for a much better return rate on these trilliums. Boy, am I itching for spring!

Wow Aspen, it would have been hard to control myself after putting that much work into something for someone to ask where the garden was...geez That's as bad as asking a woman if they gained weight! lol

I detest bare root plants. Mostly, I think, because they don't like me. I must not be treating them well or something but I have a heck of a time getting them to grow. When/if they do start to grow they are not very advanced the first few years. I'd much rather pay a little more and get something in a pot.

Unfortunately, many people who don't garden can only recognize a handful of plants and have no idea of the work involved, but they can always ask questions and at least pretend to be interested in the answers!

Aspenhill, I read about that happening to a hosta collector. A bus full of garden tourists walked right past his hundreds of hostas and said, "Where are the flowers?"

sad isn't it.....

Yeah well I try to do it for myself but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't appreciate others complimenting our gardens.

I've come to accept that no one I know enjoys talking at length, even for more than 15 minutes, about plants and gardening. That's why I have you guys!

I see that look on my families faces quite often, They love my gardens, quite often ask for advice and are thrilled with all the free plants they get. But try to actually talk about the Gardens, they are polite though.

yes, it is always such a rare treat to have someone over who shares an interest in plants and doesn't mind actually talking about what we're looking at! :-)

Has anyone seen Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger' or Colocasia esculenta 'Elena' locally?

Or a good online source?

I'm looking for a lime green elephant ear.

I think those are two of the ones Coleup gave me last year. Not sure they will come back after the incident with the GH heater. Some of them look promising but not all of them.

Yes, Holly, I passed on "Elena" to you. Hope yours and mine survive this winter onslaufgt and you have some to share with SSG. I got mine locally. Will let you know if I see any pre swap. We have an Aquatic Plant Center just down from Homestead Gardens that might have some. too. On line source is Plant Delights where you will drool over all the Alocasia, Colocasia and Xanthosoma available.

Check out some of the Plant Delights articles here: some thing for everyone!

http://www.plantdelights.com/Articles/Garden-Perennials/Perennial-Plant/Plant-Nursery

Amorphophallus from Leaf Cuttings
Arisaema, Arisaema, Arisaema (Cobra Lily, Jack in the Pulpit)
Bananas - Apeeling Plants for the Garden (Winter Hardy Ornamentals)
Baptisia - Revenge of the Redneck Lupines
Bizarre Plants Only a Mother Could Love
Buddleia - The Butterfly Bush
Building a Pitcher Plant Bog
Canna, Canna, Canna
Cacti in the Southeast
Cold Hardy Palms for Temperate Gardens
Cold Hardy Palm Suvival Report
Colocasias - Cool Elephant Ears for the Garden
Crape Murder - The Unkind Cut
Crape Murder - Stop! (Cut the Crap, not the Crape)
Curcuma Hidden Cone Gingers
Cyclamen for the Garden
Cypripedium Orchids - Does the Lady Slipper Fit Your Garden?
Danae racemosa (Poet's Laurel)
Dear Deer, We're Closed for Dinner
Echinacea Explosion - The Coneflower Chronicles
Edgeworthia chrysantha (False Winter Daphne)
Epimedium World (Fairy Wings for Your Garden)
Fuel Sources for your Hummer (Hummingbird Plants for Your Garden)
Gardening in the Shade
Hardy Terrestrial Orchids
Hedychium - Ginger Lilies for the Garden
Hellebores (A Rose is a Rose except...)
Hellebores, Hellebores, Hellebores
Hosta Breeders and Other Strangers
Hosta, Hosta, Hosta
Hostas for Warm Climates
Hostas with Fragrant Flowers
How do I overwinter my hardy tropical perennials? (Palms, Canna, Banana, Colocasia)
If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Garden
Juniper Level Botanic Garden Winter Temperature Data 1973-2013
Leaves that Light Up the Garden - Variegated Plants
Matteuccia struthiopteris 'The King' (Ostrich Fern)
Native Plants Myths and Realities
Neonicotinoid Pesticides in perennial gardens - Understanding the Issue
Organi-size Your Garden
Paul Aden Hosta Introductions/Breeding
Plant Delights Nursery Hosta Breeding Program
Pruning Green Meatballs - Save them for Spaghetti
Plant Hardiness and Mapping Out a Strategy
Pulmonaria, Pulmonaria, Pulmonaria - Lungworts for the Garden
Rain Lilies Book 1
Sabal × brazoriensis - A preliminary evaluation of the ancestry of a putative Sabal hybrid.
Salvia, Perennial Sages for the Garden
Ringing the Coral Bells - The Heuchera and xHeucherella Story
Sabal Minor (Scrub Palmetto Palm)
Sarracenia - The North American Pitcher Plant
So You Want to Start a Mail Order Perennial Nursery
Soils and Soil Preparation
Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink)
Stokesia laevis 'Peachie's Pick' (Peachie's Pick Stokes Aster)
Tiarella - A Crown in the Garden
Tony's Top Ten Hosta Myths
Trademarks in Horticulture - Their Misuse and Abuse (Name that Plant)
Tricyrtis Toad Lilies
When Should I Plant My Plants?
Zingiber mioga (Myoga Ginger)

Haha...right on Catmint, the glazed over look is something I try to prevent. It's difficult for me though because gardening is all I really do. I don't have any other hobbies really so when everyone else is talking football I'm lost. My wife is pretty funny though. Only one time a year she'll let me take her around the house and show her everything and tell her how it's growing and such. She could care less but does it for my benefit.

Coleup, please let me know if you see it for sale around here! I hear Elena is really hardy so I hope it survived the winter for both of you.

Heya! Anybody interested in Astilbes, Phlox (P. paniculata, tall garden phlox), or other goodies from ADR this spring? Bare root, pick up at the spring plant swap or from me the week before. :-)

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1352109/

LOL, just caught up on the last few posts before this... Sounds like there's not a lot of interest in "bare root" here! I find they do best for me if I pot them up right away and plant them out after they wake up and put out a few new roots (usually a matter of just a few weeks, although if we got these as late as end of May I might pot them up until Fall planting time).

This message was edited Mar 4, 2014 8:57 AM

ssgardener- did you see my EE waking up that I posted on the indoor garden thread? It may be the Elena that coleup mentioned. I know this one came from her as well, a light green. I'm just not sure how lime green Elena is supposed to be. And you cannot tell much from the picture, but I have one large one and one small one in pots. This EE I have, grew leaves up to two feet long by fall.

That's a pretty lime green color!

bear in mind, it was emerging under a table.
8 ^O
I am thinking I have an Odora. the Elena in Plantfiles is a Colocasia and points down. Mine quite strongly pointed UP with a wide, kind of round, light green blade. coleup, did you pass along any Odoras?

Sally, yes I did distribute 'odoras'. Yours looks like one for sure...not 'elena' Elena color is much more toward chartruce yellow than light green. See pic below of elena next to red.

SS Here is a link to someone selling off some of their EE collection as soon as it can be determined what has survived their Kentucky winter.
http://allthingsplants.com/thread/view/18837/Swaybacks-elephant-ear-sale/

For many years before I discovered DG, I didn't know a single person who had any real interest in gardening. I did it for my own enjoyment, and even though I am not easily influenced by what is considered "popular", I did think that I had an odd hobby that made me "different" and somewhat of an "outsider" with coworkers and social acquaintances. With DG, I felt the true friendship of kindred spirits for the first time in my life. Sequoia, Mike is much like your wife - he has minimal interest in gardening or my gardening efforts, but he does stroll around with me once in a while and grudgingly takes me to public gardens for special occasions. I've dragged him to Winterthur, Longwood Gardens, Mt Cuba, New England Wild Flower Society, and the Pine Knot Farms Hellebores Festival. I've got plenty more on the Bucket List LOL. It cracks me up when I hear him showing and rattling off the name of a plant to a visitor, or piping up about general gardening stuff in a crowd of people at his favorite Moose Lodge hangout.

Thanks for the link, Coleup! I'll go take a look.

I really enjoy all the input you get here. Several of my gardening areas were greatly influenced by discussions we had here in the Mid-Atlantic Forums. Plus it is always great to get some positive feedback on what you are doing.

Seq, just have us up, we can ooh and ahh for hours, en masse!
Thanks, coleup!, I'll renew the tag on this Odora.
Here's a link with a whole lot of Alocasia , Colocasia, and more pictures
http://www.dragonagro.com/wholesale_alocasia.htm

And beyond pictures this article does some 'splainin' of history of colocasias and their breeding and varieties.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Article/Colocasia-Elephant-Ears

Also see LariAnn Garner's articles here on DGas she is a grower breeder of these Aroids. I think that is where Holly got some of her EEs.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1422/

excellent article from PlantDelights

excellent article from PlantDelights

coleup, O Research Whiz and EE Guru- you've probably told before, but is there a definitive difference between Alo and Colo-casia? I think I know this:
Alo- like an A with point up , blades point up, and petiole attaches at edge of blade at a notch
Colo- tend to point down, and petiole is attached at a point obviously enclosed by the leaf blade

But many pictures on that wholesalers thread don't seem to follow. They could be mislabeled, or is it just not so definitive? Or do I have those tips wrong? And then there are Xanthosomas. Maybe some are called Alocasia on the wholesalers list.

Haha...yeah I was super excited when I joined DG and a lot of us that post regularly become a quasi family...at least that's what I'm feeling around here anyways. I've sure learned a lot since being on too! My Dahlias are especially appreciative of some of the members in the Dahlia forums :) It is funny though, all my friends come to me for gardening advice but they always want a quick answer and do lose interest before I'm finished giving it...lol

Does anyone sell smaller starts of ornamental sweet potato vines? I want about 5-6 small starts but I only see them in mixed baskets or in larger containers.

I only see the bigger pots for sale around here, too. More $ I guess, since people are willing to buy. If you get 1 of the bigger pots early, you can take cuttings from it and have them well rooted by planting time. Also, you can dig the potato at the end of the season and save it to get lots of starts next spring.