Whos in Calgary and what are they doing?

Pam and I started our greenhouse tours today - only two so far - look what we have!

And here am I.

Looks like you're having fun getting lots of new plants.

OMG! Look out Calgary! They're on the loose, those DG'ers.

LOL

Looks like you got lots of treasures to start with.

Fancy (Carol) is such a sweetheart and we had a blast! It was such a treat to be driven by someone that *knows* where we are going. ;) I saw my first named violets, in person, and of course had to pick at least one up. Lithrops, a New Zealand Flax (that had been hit by frost on the tips.....so got a really great discount on it :) and a number of heirloom tomatoes, etc. will be stuffed into the car for the return trip. Thank goodness for greenhouses the wind was pretty typical for the prairies today.

Carol's yard is so gorgeous (she has lots and lots of spring flowering plants) and I'm looking forward to seeing pics her newest purchases flowering! The majority of the plants in the above pic are hers......she's even more dangerous than me at a greenhouse. ;)

I've fallen in love with her Shelties!

This message was edited May 2, 2006 9:37 PM

Here 's the violet Lilypon was talking about.And some of her other plants too.

Here's DD Carol.......she's in her favorite greenhouse. ;) She's thinking she *might* join us tomorrow tho.

I think I stopped breathing for a moment when I saw your phormium Pam!!! You can't even tell it was hit by frost! What I would give to get one that size......I don't even think I've seen one that big before for sale.

Steve

They have another one Steve - come and get it!
The store trimed off all the frosted parts! Didnt see any reason to carry that stuff back home and it made it easier to get in the car!

carol

Sure looks like you two are having a lot of fun. Great finds too. I can hardly wait till a leaf falls off that AV. ha ha.....

Get Carol to put up more pics of her yard, Pam. Wish I could have come too.

B

Brenda : Before or after I get all that stuff planted?

Looks like you 2 are having a ball..Did you check out that new Greenhouse on Chestermere Road.. I have been there a few times and the people are fantastic..I will definetly be making a trip to it this spring..

Not yet - it is on the schedule!

I presume you mean Cobblestone?

How about before and after, Carol. You two will be great shopping buddies before the week is out.

Carol - I wish I could come get it...*sigh*.......But I'll just have to enjoy it in the pictures! I can't believe they even trimmed of the frosted bits too.
May I ask how much it was? Just so I can say to myself "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it!!!"

Steve

Well I think the original price was around $50 but they gave Pam a 40% discount because of the frost damage so it was $30.00.

Pam dear,

I seem to remember a teeny tiny bit of a fuss at Victoria airport just over a year ago. Seems to me it concerned NZ FLAX> Did you have to buy another really HUGE one??? Maybe a diff. colour. They have mini ones too you know. Holes carries them.

Guess I was dreaming - about the airport I mean.

Looks you and Fancyvan had a wonderful shopping day.

I was so happy with mine, thought it was probably the only one in Winnipeg. NOT. Went to Assiniboine Gardens (City park) to find 4 or 5 huge specimens in their gardens.
Hee hee.

inanda

inanda I only brought back a itty bitty piece of the rainbow New Zealand Flax.....it was the brown NZ Flax that was larger. With both I tried to pick out only the youngest growth to take AND so that I'd get them aboard the plane. ;S

Steve you would have thought you'd died and gone to heaven to see the one I walked away from ........some stalks were 4 to 5 feet long! I really, really had to think a couple times about leaving it. ;'( Still grinning ear to ear about the one I did get tho. ;)

Fancy we got DD back to Chinook Mall tonight so I'm free tomorrow (and maybe DD if'n she can get outta bed ;). YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!! A wee bit excited here...Moose Jaw and Regina don't carry many of the plants I've seen here (and they are just starting to arrive).

Brenda I'm pretty sure a leaf will fall off it. ;)

p.s. we survived another evening of driving in Calgary (and only got lost twice & just for a short spell). These small town prairie peeps are starting to figure out Calgary. :D





This message was edited May 2, 2006 10:40 PM

30$, What a steal!!! Phormium is now on my list of most wanted plants.
I have to keep going back to the picture to see it! What variety was the one that got left behind? Poor guy....now all alone....

Steve

Two more gardening centres today! Here is the back porch now - and guess what Pam bought today - see that nice 'fan' right in the back - in theyellow bag?
Two maybe 3 more tomorrow! And then we are done unless Pam wants to go back to one of them!
I have managed to get almost everything on my list including 2 hostas(whirlwind and Fire and Ice) that I have been looking for for a couple of years. And I have about a dozen new plants for my white flowering shade garden that I started work on last year.
Seriously folks I'm the one spending all the money - Pam is mostly taking pictures!

Fancy - It's looks like you've had blast these past couple days from what I can see in the photos!
And whats the latin name for that succulent plant at the very front in your photo that looks like a Hen and Chicks?

Pam - Is that another Phormium I see? Lucky you..... :D

Steve

OH MY!!!......(catching breath)......Oh My!!!

White flowering shade - tell me more.

Steve: that is one of Pams plants: Echeveria Rundblade says the tag.

Echoes: on the south side of my yard is a perennial border running about 50 feet from the front edge of the house (north side of the fence.) By the house is a shubert chokecherry, 20 feet along a Jap. tree lilac, another 10 feet a Sib coral dogwood. another 10 feet a dwarf American cranberry and then a giant Colorado Spruce a few feet further. This is all semi shade either by my neighbors house or the fence and the trees/shrubs. There was a huge patch of Johnsons Blue geranium in one section and two large patches of fleeceflower in the others which I dug out last summer Then I decided I would try to create a shade garden with mostly white flowering plants. So starting a few feet one side of the tree lilac there is a hosta/primrose border running along most of this area so certainly it will not be all white! Also in one section I pulled together 5 astilbes from various spots in the yard - pinks and rose. So far what I put in last year: bleeding heart, large and dwarf aruncus,lysimachia,(not sure if they survived) purple leaf cimicifuga, peachleaf bellflower already there ,a white veronica, a dwarf astilbe which I think did not survive, yellow foxglove and the hostas and a blue veronica already there and a couple of heucheras which are not white of course,
This year I have to add: fringe leaf bleeding heart, pearly everlasting, white nancy lamium, tiarella(2) White clips campanula, an anemone, , Solomen seal and a white astilbe,Arenaria(soapwort) and white myosotis. Also for a bit more color variagated Jacobs ladder and ornamental comfrey and a pretty purple leaf plant Anthuriscus sylvestris(??)
Well we will see what happens! Interesting looking for such specific flowers but they are certainly out there!

Pam
I am having flashbacks to Victoria and airports!!!! I remember someone being worried about being let on the plane!
Exactly which car did you get to Calgary in anyway? Are you planing on buying a trailer?
LOL
Ann

LOLOL It's a smaller station wagon Ann ....DD has to go back prior to us leaving so the ***WHOLE*** backseat will be empty!!! =) It really does remind of BC's RoundUp....I've seen so many lovely greenhouses AND plants I can't find back home.

Steve you are right it's a smaller tri-coloured Phormium that I picked up today (sitting in the plastic bag)....they also have a miniature one that I'm *thinking* about. ;)

isn't great having the Pam's enthuseaism when out at GH's! I wish I had her energy. Sounds like a great time had by all. (PAM!) go back and get the smaller phormium that your thinking about, doesn't everything good come in 3's?

Carol, you really do have to put up more pictures of your yard it sounds great.

Linda

Picked up another Black Mondo too! :^)))

I

Hey ladies,

I can't believe you didn't take in the African Violet show at the Northland Mall last Friday and Saturday....I even made it all the way from Drumheller!

Joanne

Joanne: So how come you didnt let me know you were in town?

Actually Pam didn't arrived until Sunday nite so thats another reason we missed the show!

3 more garden centres planned for today! Not many left.Friday is reserved for the 'Let's go back there' visits!
One good thing about this is Pam can rate all the local garden centres for next year's Western Canada Roundup!

This message was edited May 4, 2006 6:30 AM

Carol, your shade garden does sound like it's developing very nicely. All plants I love. I bet you two really put the meaning in " shop till you drop."

Carol - A white garden is something I've wanted to do for a while now, but I don't think I have the space for it. I'd love to see pictures of yours though, and the rest of your yard!

Pam - You should get the other Phormium..... :D ....you know you want it :)

Steve

Steve there are some garden pics in my garden diary.
I'll be taking some spring garden pics soon and will post them.

BTW Linda Carol moves faster than me at the greenhouses.....she is a force to reckon with! Thank goodness we are interested in different plants!!!!

LOL Steve it will depend on whether or not we track down a Japanese Maple today (and how much that baby will cost ;).

Gotta get my rear in gear now or Carol will be beating me to the hotel lobby again! ;)

I vote our next RU is in Calgary. Hd no idea there were so many good make that GOOD nurseries in Calgary.

Pam, I can see echevaria leaf/baby swopping in your future. Sounds like you are both having a fab. time.

Edited to ask Where are the LILIES? Water lilies - lilium - didn't find any? Nor living up to your name!!!!

This message was edited May 4, 2006 11:08 AM

LOLOL the few I've seen are the more common water lilies Ginny. Between Dad and I we have 40 different ones.....there are very few left that I'd want to get now.

Today's haul (for me) was a species clematis, a ****JAPANESE MAPLE**** (thank you, thank you, thank you Carol for taking me out to that gorgeous Greenhouse)!!!, a HUGE clerodendrum, glory vine 'bleeding heart vine'. and others I can't remember now (lots of Hens and Chicks tho Ginny :). Also a very generous cutting of a lovely pink epi. All of them at very, very, very reasonable prices (given their sizes).

We stopped at a lovely backyard greenhouse where they sold many hardy species plants (oooooooooooooooooh were many sooooooooooooo gorgeous there). The owner hasn't any grass, just paths and his yard is full of very, very pretty exotic prairie tough plants. It was like walking through a specialty park in Victoria. =)

I won't even begin to try to remember what Carol bought..........I'd give my eye teeth to see her yard all this summer tho.

Not a very clear pic but this is the Bleeding Heart Vine I picked up for $24.95!!! The pic doesn't even capture the length of all the vines.

BTW one plant that I was hoping to find on my travels was a Euphorbia obesa : http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/53174/// If anyone sees this succulent, somewhere in this vast country of ours, please let me know!!! I'd be tickled pink to pay for it and the shipping costs. One person is looking for me but who knows if he will ever see it again.

Carol - I will make sure to check out your diary. As your yard sounds very nice!

Pam - I see you got your Japanese Maple, and I love your bleeding heart vine!

Steve

A wee bit obvious about it was I??? ;) It was so nice to find a gem (or 3) in each of the greenhouses that we visited.

We have nice greenhouses in SK but with the sheer numbers here chances were I'd find some of my favs instead of waiting three years before a couple made it to our greenhouse (and of course I'd have to be there the day the shipment arrived or it would be gone).

Maybe just a tad obvious :D :D :D
Just curious....but, do you have a sunroom or greenhouse where you grow your plants??

Steve