Cabrillo College sale

Made it to the Cabrillo sale yesterday afternoon...opening day. I'm so glad we went up for the first day...it's like the gold rush when the gate opens. Last year's offerings list had shown many that I wanted that weren't available this year so if you have not seen their new page with the list for this year you may not find what you're specifically looking for. Last year's list had about 100 that I wanted, this year's list had about 65 and even getting in early did not guarantee that I'd find a certain few. I was rewarded by being able to grab a certain one that only had 5 there...I only took 4, didn't want to be totally greedy. Taking our garden carts was worth it though they do have lots of carts available. I got 49 of the salvia that I wanted but didn't check through the other plants since we wanted to head back down through Sur after the sale. Andy Maycen of Piergrossi's Nursery was there helping work the sale which was great, his knowledge and an extra pair of hands helping grab pots was invaluable. I think he likes to be there just for his love of the place and their salvia collection. If you go and have extra time and want to treat yourself to a really good dining experience, hit the Roadhouse (I think that's the name) in Davenport, about 9 miles north of Santa Cruz on Hwy 1. Excellent....nice ambiance, fire in the fireplace , great food, breakfast served all day. Yesterday's special was an omelette stuffed, literally, with spinach, asparagus, onions, mushrooms, cheese ( I think it was brie), sauteed red potatoes with artichokes, onions. Really good. Was about $30 and far better than our usual "grab a burger on the run" style when on the road. We'd gone up a day early to enjoy the trip more and it was worth it. Saw a lot of happy people leaving with great plants. I hope some of you can make it today or tomorrow.

Glad you got the things you wanted! Turns out I'm not going to make it, things at work are so crazy that I've got a bunch of stuff to work on this weekend, plus my parents are coming next week and I'm in the middle of finishing up 500 little projects that I'd never quite finished, not to mention giving the place a good cleaning since right now it looks like a tornado came through here. Oh well, there's always next year! I couldn't have gone last night anyway because by the time I got down there after work they would have been closed.

Oh....I'd definitely shelve everything else and go to the sale....I'm sure all would understand. (big smile). After what I saw yesterday...if you go next year, try to plant to take the day off and go on Friday. I was in line an hour early and there were maybe 10 people in front of us...which didn't mean diddly once they opened and everybody dashed. I would have run also, but it was hard to run pulling my cart and I was sure I would have run down an elder or two. Plus I would have left the DH in the dust. LOL.......You could tell the salvia collectors by the murmurof "Betsy's here" as she walked by,and the non-believers by those saying, "Who?"

While I could shelve the finishing projects/cleaning for the parents thing, unfortunately I can't shelve the work stuff, plus most of the things I would have wanted are probably gone by now anyway and if I ditch all the things I'm supposed to be doing and drive all the way down there and find out the things I wanted are gone, then I'll be in a really bad mood!

The only one I specifically wanted that I didn't get was iodanthe.....I lost mine, drdon lost his. He was hoping I had one still alive, I was hoping he still had one alive and it was on their list, but one of those 'frontrunners' must have beat me because there were none there. I'll have to look again at my list to see which ones I wasn't able to get. Which ones were you looking for, Liz?

You might check Annie's Annuals from time to time for S. iodantha--I had one in the garden at my old house that I got from there. I don't think she had it last year though or else I probably would have picked one up for my new garden. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention and missed it!

I actually didn't have a wishlist for Cabrillo yet, I figured out a couple weeks ago that there was no way I was going to have time to go so I never bothered to make my wish list. The only one I really really wanted was S. dombeyi because mine got infested with spider mites last summer and is practically dead now, but I found one at UC Berkeley's sale a couple weeks ago.

Good, Liz......The one I really needed to get was dombeyi also and that's part of why I wanted to get in at the earliest. And if you'd gone, I don't think there would have been one there this a.m. I'm glad you found one elsewhere. I owed Don for a bunch that he'd given me and dombeyi was one he wanted also, so I was lucky and got dombeyi for him. Gerris had also asked if I'd get one for him and I did. Now just have to figure out the packaging to ship to Gerris. Do you not have to greenhouse yours there?

Sherry, glad to hear you got your dombeyi's! It is such a gorgeous plant, I hope mine will avoid the spider mites this year and maybe bloom for me. Last year I think it got so stressed from the mite damage that it didn't have much of a chance to come back and bloom. I have to keep mine in a greenhouse, I think if I lived closer to the Bay or the ocean where there's not as much frost (at least in a normal winter!) then maybe I could keep it outside, but I'm a little farther inland and we get enough days of frost even in a regular winter I wouldn't trust it outside.

That's what I thought and why I didn't want to bother with one for myself. If I had time to get into other plants I want that would have to be greenhoused, then I would have one. Maybe later. I'll need to do a greenhouse come fall, but too busy right now, and also need to spend time reconfiguring things to fit one in.

It's also one of the few salvias that's not perfectly adapted to our wonderful dry summer climate, I think it's native to somewhere tropical and humid so I'm not really sure if it would be happy with the semi-xeriscape conditions that I have in most of my garden. Yet another good reason to keep it in a pot! I have an extensive collection of tropical plants so it enjoys spending time with them getting watered and misted more frequently in the summer and then in the greenhouse for the winter.