New Plants!

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Had a fantastic day today - Visited a friend's nursery* and wow. It may be a small (tiny) nursery compared to where I work be there was just so much that was so exciting and generally just all around different from what I'm used to seeing day to day that I may have gotten carried away.

* When I started out and only really knew that there were annuals and perennials and one of them came back and the other didn't he was my... not exactly supervisor but basically. I'd say I can blame my love of plants on him so it's only fitting I can count on him to carry plants that can still excite me even though I'm surrounded by thousands of interesting plants on a daily basis.

My goal was to find, and purchase, maybe 3 blanket flowers of some sort, one of the compact varieties like 'Arizona Sun.'

Here was the first thing I found that I needed to have:







Arum cornutum

I had to have this. Now I have one. I never would have expected to just stumble on it like I did. So happy. He also had a very exotic looking Arisaema I'd have gotten (if the Arum hadn't been there). Maybe next year.

The next plant I needed with no questions asked was this stunning Euphorbia 'First Blush' that I will underplant with Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco.'


Euphorbia 'First Blush'


Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco'

I also ended up with a Hosta 'Frosted Mouse Ears,' Tiarella 'Happy Trails,' and two Echeveria (It's not my fault, they were on sale!).


Hosta 'Frosted Mouse Ears'


Tiarella 'Happy Trails' - I'm counting on this for a terrible dry shady corner where nothing else will grow.





And if you're wondering, no. No blanket flowers came home with me. I have terrible luck with them anyway and at best make it 2-3 years for me I do love them though and they perfectly pick up the yellows and reds in my Opuntia (which is also flowering right now) but really I can get them anytime. Not so much with Arum cornutum & Euphorbia 'First Blush.'

I even get tomorrow off to plant everything. I wonder where it'll all go...

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, June 2010

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On the whole my garden sits waiting through the spring into June when it starts to take off. Here's a few quick shots of what's flowering for me on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Of note as well are the Iris & Ivory Silk Lilac which both managed to start and finish flowering between the May Bloom Day and today. Honestly the Lilac can't finish fast enough. The entire front garden is covered in a disgusting mulch of brown finished flowers, mimicking the same colour in the tree. It's much too large to try and deadhead so it will stay looking terrible for a little while longer. By the time it finishes flowering as well the strong fragrance becomes a little too strong and a little too much.



Calamint (Calamintha grandiflora) - The larger pink one is almost finished, the dwarf white one will soon start and go until a hard frost.


Hosta 'Tiny Tears' is a very cute dwarf hosta I've recently bought.


Siberian Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) needs to get cut back hard and divided once it stops flowering, that won't be for a while though.


Dahlia 'Louisiania' is really starting to pick up. Maybe I will try keeping this one over the winter.


My NOID Red Rose will be stunning this year. Each stem has 25-30 buds on it. I'll replace this picture with one of it open in a little bit.


The 'Tumbler' Tomato - brought home an unhappy looking plant from work. May or may not make it but it's covered with unripe fruit. I imagine all it needs is a good amount of fertilizer and it should be fine.

And that's just a quick sampling of everything I have flowering outside this Bloom Day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Euphorbia myrsinites flowering & Hosta 'June'

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This opened a few days ago.

It's actually the only thing that bridges the flower gap between Daffodils and Dwarf Iris.



Euphorbia myrsinites

The blues and yellows play off beautifully with my Hosta 'June' while the sharp texture of the Euphorbia is a nice contrast to the larger leaves of the Hosta.



Hosta 'June'

Consider this a bonus post for the previous wall of text. I have my computer hooked up to my mom's monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers etc. and it's working well enough right now (I did clean it out a little while it was on the move and that may have helped). I'm going to try to get lots of pictures taken and cleaned up while at the same time backing up a lot of files onto an external drive. I have all day off tomorrow (last day off on a weekend probably until mid to late June) so I should be able to get a lot done. It sounds like it'll be a really nice day so we'll see...

New Perennials for 2010 + New Plant.

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

I spent all yesterday being trained - part of this included talks from a number of suppliers each of whom talked about the new introductions they're carrying.

One of the most exciting perhaps was the Heucherella 'Golden Zebra' because it has very similar foliage to Pelargonium 'Vancouver Centennial,' only hardy, and with more of everything.

There were a few double Helleborus from the "Winter Jewels TM" line - 'Painted Doubles' was the nicest we saw in flower. One that was supposed to be white was actually pink, and one that was supposed to be purple was also pink, and they were both very nice but just not as nice as 'Painted Doubles'

Heuchera 'Mint Julep' was nice as well. Would be excellent if you've had bad luck with Brunnera 'Jack Frost' but want similar colours in your shade garden.

Hosta 'Niagara Falls' was an interesting new take on a common plant. This site has a nice picture of one. The veining is nice enough I guess but the undulated leaf margin is a really nice touch.

Sedum telephium ssp. ruprechtii ‘Hab Gray’ has yellow flowers. Cool.

I walked away from the meeting with a Colocasia 'Diamond Head' which I'll take a picture of on the weekend. Solid black leaves (they uncurl green but seem to quickly darken) on burgundy petioles. And it can get big.

I'm also beginning to feel less strongly about needing that orchid. There are actually two and they're still there. I might wait and see if they go on clearance when they finish blooming.

Update: The Colocasia has some pretty bad hard water marks on the leaves, picture will be delayed.