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.
My computer may or may not be dead again. I imagine I'll replace it this time just because it's doing this all the time now and I don't want to wait until it finally dies for good and I lose everything I have on it.
I was extremely lucky today to get to go on a growers tour with a number of store managers and department supervisors (I guess if I have a title it would be assistant supervisor at best, that's the description anyway whether there's a title or not. Everyone else there outranked me) and corporate higher ups.
It was a fun day that started at 7:15 AM (the drive started at 6:00) and ended at 5:00 PM (home at 6:00). Ok other than being very long and starting very early it was a fun day...
Long story short:
Cappuccino Petunias. Everyone is divided one whether we like them or not now that we've seen them grown out and in person. They seem fairly variable. Sometimes more pink, sometimes more white. I think they're interesting up close but have little impact from a distance. I think using these as filler rather than the focus would be a good approach with these. I saw them in a container with pink... verbena? (I'm not up with my annuals but I think that was it) and bacopa. It was a nice blend but a little subdued. I think I prefer them more on the white side as well. The pink look muddy.
BBQ skewers. There is an alternative to
making our plants boring. One supplier has solved the question of how to make Ivy Geraniums look good on the bench in pots by sticking a skewer in the pot and clipping off the top. That's it. 4.5" pot = 1 skewer, bigger pot and plant = more. You can't see the skewer and the plant looks fantastic. Fantastic idea. (None of our growers are moving towards these plants. We like 'em big and floppy as long as they still look full. We also deal primarily with local growers so ship-ability is not a huge concern and in some cases (Passion Flower, Mandevilla, Bougainvillea etc.) with specialists who are growing the plants they love because they love them, not so they can ship them across North America.
Sideshow (TM) Osteospermum and some Pelargoniums (I don't recall the name). Similar to the usual only more round and full rather than upright. In the case of the Osteospermums this leads to plants able to form a ball shape, the Pelargoniums apparently trail a bit like an Ivy Geranium but look like a Zonal Geranium? I need to look up more information on these... And any grower who carries hanging baskets of only Sweet Potato Vine... You can be pretty sure that's the one that's going to trail.
Hosta 'White Feather' & 'London Fog.' So cool.
Heuchera 'Plum Royal' & 'Sugar Plum.' Very nice. Both seem to be purple with a silver overlay on the leaf.
Senecio vitalis 'Chalky Blue Fingers' & Aeonium 'Kiwi.' I should be able to get both of these easily. Prefer the Aeonium but thoughts on each?
I have a small number of pictures but they'll have to wait because I'm blogging on my mom's computer.
