Show and Tell

gypsy, those are some really beautiful pieces! Thanks for posting photos!

Thank you...if you mean the stakes, they probably come from China. If you mean the tables, I'll pass the compliment on to the DH, funny how he never gets tired of compliments..lol.....I really love having my camera now. It took a long time to make myself get one and even longer to get around to using it, but now I see all kinds of stuff I want to take pics of. We have a Roundup down here day after tomorrow and I've already warned everyone....I'm bringing my camera, so instead of wishing people had taken more pics, I can take lots myself....heh heh heh....

I cannot wait to see those pictures!! Your Dh is so very talented how blessed you are!!

The stakes are nice, but the tables are spectacular, and will be prized heirlooms I'm sure!

Oh, Marie...his talents come with a price, you know...lol....I think it's cool that your DH brings home horses! If we could just have everything in one package........

yeah, and then we'd all be fighting over him, because we're all so perfect and deserve only the best...LOL!

My Aunt Ann used to tell her husband (my Uncle Leon)...
"If we all liked the same thing, everyone would want you, Leon....."

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Well, I went out for a nursery crawl looking for boronia, and found that and a whole trunk-full of other stuff. Hit 2 nurseries, and filled up most of the car.

One of the finds was two $35 (I think Monrovia) variegated ginger lilies that I've had my eye on for 6 months----they were in the "hospital" on their 3rd markdown at $7.88 apiece (finally affordable). I had put other stuff back to get them, but I got them!! I also got a really neat tiny-leafed black succulent that I'll post a picture of tomorrow.

Right now I have to go cook a nice dinner for DH so he has something other than my carfull of plants to focus on...LOL!

What !!! Where did you go ??

I'm glad you had such a great find, can't wait to see your pictures!

So, what do you think of the boronia? Yeah, I've been thinking about the variegated ginger also...just have a hard time figuring out where I can put the gingers ($35 sounds about right for Monrovia, what a find!), maybe I'll find room, right now I'm just frantic with tearing out and re-doing beds that have been let go , so maybe I'll find lots of new spots for planting. This time of year, there just isn't enough time in each day!
My great joy is that now the DH likes to go nursery hopping with me...I promise him lunch and dinner and that I'll be in a good mood...works every time.
edited to add that I really like nurseries that have a "not looking so good' sales area. Roger's used to have a red tag area and doesn't anymore, I miss that. I have the growing grounds of a large wholesale nursery about a block from me and they used to put out by the back fence stuff that is free to grab. I think the people living right next to that spot must patrol it evey hour, 'cause I haven't seen anything there in a long time.

This message was edited Mar 13, 2009 7:10 PM

OK, so for all you enablers here's yesterday's haul from Sierra Azul and ProBuilders (formerly Lumberman's, formerly San Lorenzo Lumber):
Sierra Azul had several different varieties of boronia, and I decided I liked the chartreuse one best. Not the fullest plant they had, but the sturdiest trunk, so it will fill out. I'm going to put it in a container in the courtyard where I expect the fragrance will be more concentrated. I couldn't smell it in the car yesterday because my 2nd stop was at Corralitos for ham, so that was all I could smell the rest of the afternoon.

And here's the cute black little succulent I had never seen before (Sedum album 'Nigra').

Nice haul! I can't wait for my semi-annual trip to Sierra Azul...I always go on my way back from the UCSC plant sales in the spring and fall. I'm totally addicted to Australian plants and they have a much better selection than anyone else.

What species was your Boronia? Not all of them are as fragrant as B. megastigma--I've grown a few cultivars of B. crenulata and if they're fragrant I haven't noticed (I haven't stuck my nose in them to see if they were fragrant, but they're definitely not something you'd smell just walking by)

All the ones they had were b. megastigmata with various bloom colors (this green, brown & burgundy).
I also ordered a couple of 1-gal low-growing grevillea ~12" that she said blooms almost year-round and is very popular with the hummers. I think it will work in the front in area I prefer to ignore.

That "astroturf" that looks like moss I'm also planning to put in front where I wish I could grow moss. Hopefully I didn't make a mistake, since I didn't even look it up and I had my Sunset book with me the whole time...the definition of impulse buying...LOL!

Yes, grevilleas will definitely attract hummingbirds--I've got a decent collection of different species and they're up there with Salvia and Agastache on the list of hummingbird favorites in my yard.

I think the astroturf stuff will probably do OK for you--I know SA is a little closer to the ocean than you are, but I've been there in the summer before and it feels really hot there too so I bet it'll be OK. At least you're good and take the Sunset book with you--I don't even pretend that I'm going to research things before buying them! LOL Berkeley Hort saves me because they usually list Sunset zones by the plants (although I've chosen to ignore them and still bought something that's not for zone 14 before...usually doesn't work out but I've had a few pleasant surprises)

My microclimate is typically 2 degrees hotter in the summer and 2 degrees colder in the winter than the rest of Gilroy. We've got a weather station set up, so I have good data. I have to be really careful with the "20-25" degree plants---they can only go in my courtyard in containers in partial shade, or in one teeny bed on the east side of the house. I did pretty well yesterday only getting stuff that it looked like I could actually GROW!~~

oh fun ima - love the black Sedum .... and it flowers white, how fantastic will that be. Everything looks great!

Just got them all entered into my Have List & looked up. Had to add some to Plantfiles. Next step: figure out where to plant!!! Some I know exactly----others, not so much!

Ima...I believe the Brown boronia is the most fragrant, I could be wrong, but if the one you got is in flower, you should have been able to really smell it. I'm jealous over the other stuff you got, I may have to go back nursery hopping this week to get over it.....

Actually, apparently they are all "brown boronia" regardless of the flower color. At least that's what they told me at Sierra Azul. I stuck my nose in all of the different colors, and they seemed to have about the same intensity of the same fragrance. So I went with the "Lutea" as I like that bright chartreuse. And I have an empty turquoise pot....now I just have to figure out who her companions will be!

Oh...I thought 'cause the one I got is brown, that there was only the one Brown boronia....it was the only one they had when I found it.....you mean there are more I have to look for? Ooooh, boy.....

I think the yellow flowered one may be a new thing for this year--I had never seen it before but ran into it at two different nurseries yesterday.

I posted this request on the ID forum to see if anyone can positively ID this salvia for me. If anyone here can help, I'd sure appreciate it.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/963162/

Okay, the boronia that I got is officially 'Jack Maguire's Red'.....sometimes I actually look at the labels......

I saw that one---gorgeous. Dithered between it and the Lutea. Then there was the one with the actual brown blooms....I think I had each color on my cart sometime while I was there.

I was looking them up on an Aussie site yesterday, and there's one called Harlequin that has yellow and red blooms. Not TOO spectacular.