Joy Creek and Means, The Last Two Stops on the Post-Hortlandia Nursery Romp.

Joy Creek is a nursery which I frequently visit on the way home from Portland.  See previous posts here.

Joy Creek is a great retail nursery but they have even more extensive offerings in their mail order catalog here. 

Last summer, when the Garden Bloggers' Fling was in Portland, many of us fell in love with Clematis 'Oshikiri' in bloom in J.C's garden. See description and photo here.   The nursery had sold out but recommended checking their mail order list when it came out in January.  I remembered but forgot to order.  When we got to the nursery, I couldn't find one among the large selection of clematis.  Rats!  However, I asked the kind folks about it (I didn't remember the name)  and a nice young man went off somewhere and produced one.  This may be one that they bring in as the tag, including planting directions was in Japanese.  Anyway, I was so excited to have captured one of the last ones for this year (their site shows that there are now 0 available) that I forgot to take more pictures.  Oops!

 Oh well, it's always a Joy to visit Joy Creek!

Next stop, Means Nursery just down the hill and across highway 30.  Here the intrepid plant hunters Vickie and Alison check out the perennial offerings.

You may remember that Means is a large wholesale grower with fields in a couple places in Oregon and in Ohio where the corporate offices are located.  This is their only retail outlet and prices are often crazy low.  For more information, go here.

You never know when you'll find 8 foot tall magnolias on sale for ten dollars.  Their specials are sometimes out of this world.

They supply several big box stores on the east coast among other clients.  This deciduous azalea was as fragrant as it is beautiful.  Wish I had more sunny space in my garden!

Always great prices on their Acers!

 Labeled Ficus cardota 'Italian Black' (Maybe Ficus carica 'Black Italian'?) with that handsome foliage was tempting!

Again feeling a bit silly for starting tomatoes from seed this year.  The "Mighty Mato" was new to me.

I knew about grafted tomatoes but the two variety idea was really interesting. 

 So many possibilities. 

Meanwhile, in my greenhouse, the seedlings that I planted into four inch pots are ready to go into gallon pots, and the two that I bought in gallons were planted into five gallon pots and are now as tall as I and have green tomatoes that will be ready in a couple of weeks.  

Hey there experienced tomato growers, what is your opinion about pruning suckers from indeterminate tomato varieties?