Spring fun at Molbak's

 

A couple of weekends ago when the liquid sunshine was turned up too high to work in the garden, I thought it might be a good idea to tidy up our house a bit.  The thought passed quickly and we got in the car and drove to Molbak's Nursery in Woodinville instead.  When I die, someone else will tidy up anyway so why waste too much time on that now? There are a limited amount of springs to embrace in one's life but the housework goes on forever.

 

These stone-faced folks greeted me and were not at all impressed with my attitude.  "Cleanliness is next to godliness!" they seemed to be saying. 

These two seemed to have already given a piece of their minds to someone else.

The new foliage of Pieris japonica 'Flamingo' will keep this brilliant color through part of the summer. 

 P. japonica 'Forest Flame' is another favorite.

Yucca filamentosa 'Ivory tower' looked beautiful!

 And came with their own developing ivory towers.  Tempting!

Mahonia aquifolium doesn't have the showiest flowers in the genus but their fragrance more than makes up for that!

Lonicera x hekrotii 'Gold Flame' must have just come from a grower far south of us as ours aren't blooming yet.  Hummingbirds love this one!

Wouldn't it be nice if ranunculus bloomed longer, or were reliably perennial. They scream happiness!

All those petals and the circular shape reminds me of the flowers we used to make by cutting a circle in a bolt of crepe paper, stapling the center and drawing the paper up toward the center. 

They look a bit like the product of an affair between a rose and a begonia.  I wonder if Jerry Springer would be interested in doing a show about it.  A little genetic testing, some fighting plants - I'd watch.

Surprise, someone was fooling around with a California poppy!

Moved to tears.  Oh the shame of it all.

 

Pericallis 'Senetti' comes in such beautifully saturated colors!

A perennial kale (zones 8 and above) with nice variegation,  Kosmic Kale is reportedly quite tasty as well.

Hosta 'June'

I was surprised that this was in the hard to find area.  Arum italicum is a wonderful winter foliage plant!

Is artificial lucky bamboo  (Dracaena sanderiana) unlucky bamboo? 

Pretty cool!  Tillandsias?  collection of small flowers?  How would you use this?

Fell in love with this and it rode around in my cart for a while.

She even took me home to meet her family.  My would-be mother in law's tongue just wouldn't stop wagging.  Too high a price so I left her as I had found her. 

 While I admire the miniature or fairy gardens of others, it's not something that I do.  If the fairies aren't happy living under mushrooms and in my plants and trees, they're free to fly on over to more posh digs. 

Looks like a fun place to spend the summer!

Must be some big chickens as that coop is bigger than the house and barn.  Do fairies farm?

 

I like this one because you can close the top, trap the pests and release them elsewhere.

If they persist, I hear that a nice dose of diazanon mixed with D.D.T. will take care of them.

 

The teeny tiny plants and planters section was sweet.

 

I found a couple of 3 inch concrete urns that look like the huge ones sometimes seen in the gardens of old homes. they look quite regal with tillandsias in them.

Tea lights would make the cut out pattern dance across your table.

 

 

I think that Danger wrote about these retro hanging planters that she found in Portland.

Stop growing plants upside down!  Stop it now!  Even this plastic tillandsia doesn't like it one bit.  O.K. you may use sea urchin shells, put tillandsias in the hole in them and hang them upside down so that they look like jelly fish but that's it.

Is it live or is it Memorex?

I thought that these were the bees knees for a while but then realized that my basement is full of more realistic looking ones of these that could be used as planters.  Added bonus -  the ones in my basement will match the wall colors in every room of the house.

Clever repurposing of this piece!  A terrific way to display these.  

Happy Monday!