An Afternoon of Local Surprises

On Saturday, I needed to get a few terra cotta pots so I headed to McLendon Hardware, an institution in Western Washington.  See their interesting history here. The nearest store used to be in Sumner, just down the hill from where Bonney Lassie gardens and not far from Windmill Nursery and VanLierop Garden Market.  McClendon does amazing seasonal sales in their garden department and it was always worth the drive.  How lucky Tacoma is to have been chosen as their newest location.  

The garden buyer here does a great job of finding great plants.  

I'd never seen Brugmansia sold this way (although I'd gotten them via mail order before) and was intrigued.  This rode in my cart for a while but since there are already several huge Brugmansias that have wintered over beautifully in the greenhouse, this would be a redundant purchase so it went back on the shelf.

The story of Talavera Pottery was new to me.

Last time I visited the Sumner store, there was an even larger selection.  (If you need more to go with the ones you got at the show, Alison.)

Another surprise this year has been seeing so many Peony 'Coral Charm' for sale.  This is the favorite peony of Tatyana at My Secret Garden and she's posted lovely pictures of it.  I'd resisted it a couple of times but decided to yield to temptation.

Two other delightful surprises awaited me in the outside garden area.  First, fresh from Iseli Nursery in Boring,  Oregon  were some Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pines, still looking very gold and with the lowest price I've seen for them.  (bit larger than two gallon pot which is usually about $250. for $89.00)  The second surprise was running into a new gardening acquaintance to whom I'd been introduced at the Seattle show.  Nan is a long time Tacoma gardener whose garden I will get to see soon.  We had a great time poking at plants and talking about gardening.

There were lots of terra cotta pots there but I was looking for shallow and large ones to use for agaves so it was off to the box stores but on the way, Tacoma Boys called my name.

This place has great produce and other food and an extensive wine selection but where else can you go and buy plants, pots, potting soil 24 hours a day seven days a week?  You know how it is, you're up at 2:00 a.m. and decide to do a spot of gardening but don't have just the right pot or run out of soil...

Intresting pot shape& the spotty chartreuse glaze is pretty nifty, right Danger?

One of the things I don't like about Tacoma Boys is that they sell their pots at two for the price of one or sometimes three for the price of one; not sure which it is now.  They will sell you a single pot for half price or one third price but the full price sticker shock always puts me off. O.k, so half of 460 is 230 but if it's two thirds off... let's see, 459 divided by three is 153 which is a reasonable price.  Why not just price the pots lower to begin with?

Oh well, on to plants.  Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' always reminds me of this post and its author.  And here it is, at Tacoma Boys!  What the heck, I haven't killed this plant yet and have a head pot in the greenhouse that might like this hairdo.

Finally at Lowes to find the shallow pots.  Riot of spring color 

The outside garden area at this particular Lowes is o.k. but the indoor plant area is quite good.

Opuntia monacantha monstrose 'Variegata' and

Cereus forbesii monstrose, along with some really nice golden barrel cactus  were among the cool plants here.

So, the little errand to get pots turned into a couple of hours of looking at plants.  Worse things could happen.