(City) People's Progress

Back in February, Seattle's City People's Garden Store re-opened with new owners after having closed, everyone thought permanently, in December.  Visiting shortly after the re-opening, (post here) I was impressed with the amount of work that had happened in just a couple of weeks to refill the empty building. Back in June, after touring some gardens in the area, we decided to see how things were going.  What a delight to find the nursery once again wearing its summer finery, packed to the gills with great plants and all manner of garden accoutremens.

Tropical waterlily leaf underside. 

 Twig furniture is back.

The covered area once again an array of lovely vignettes, this one featuring Jose Gonzales, on of the new owners.

You may remember Jose, who's worked at City People's for years from this YouTube sensation:

Indoors, there is a greater emphasis on houseplants. There is still some really nice gift ware but plants are the main attraction. This makes complete sense for an urban nursery.

A chorus of mother-in-law's tongues (Sansevieria.)

Looks like Alison and Jose have successfully brought back the magic of this place.

May you find new magic in the wonder that is your garden this weekend or at least keep cool.    

Stopping by City People's Garden Store

After the plant sale a couple of Saturdays ago, I decided to stop by a nursery or two.  After all, this one was on my way home - sort of.  City People's Garden Store is in the middle of a busy urban Seattle Neighborhood and there are always interesting plants and all sorts of garden-related merchandise to peruse.  (previous post here.)

The good-sized outdoor yard closes for part of the winter so it's always exciting when it opens again and the new plants come marching in.

 Thuja orientalis 'Franky Boy' has lovely thread-like foliage which is "Wonderful in winter when 'Franky Boy' turns to bronze-orange."  Tempting and now that I've seen more images on the web, I may need to go back and get one.

There's Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph' which seems to be coming down in price a bit this season.  

Lots of cool miniature evergreens and Acer palmatum.  What a difference a couple of weeks makes.  My Acers are unfurling leaves now!

Think Pink!  And a bit of purple.

 Echeveria

My newly-planted tulips are just starting to emerge from the ground while the ones that have been in my garden for years are blooming now.  Go figure.

Looks a bit like the holidays but heck, any color this time of year is welcome.  Of the three Hippeastrum that I put in the greenhouse before Christmas, one is completely finished blooming, the huge one with three bloom stalks is starting to wind down a bit, and the third is just now starting to show the top of a green stem.

Perfect with those red and yellow tulips!

A bevy of beautiful pots which usually seem a bit higher priced in Washington than what I've seen in Oregon.

Let's mosey inside and see what's going on.  This time of year, there are racks and racks of interesting seeds, bulbs, etc. along with everything one could possibly need to start them all. The indoor plants were calling out to be admired.

It's true, there's always an agave!  In this case, there were lots of them.  Looks like Fleetfoot and Foulweather Succulents and Cacti  have been by recently.  Wouldn't it be cool to see their growing operation?

Such cute little babies.  

No straw flowers glued to these cacti!

The indoor store goes on and on and is full of fun stuff!

Oh, Mr. Bromeliad, you are certainly handsome in bloom!

Although it doesn't quite fit my garden, I always admire this cool twig furniture.

What came home with me?   Three little oddballs:

Monadenium ritchiei

Can't find any information about this one but it's sure cute!

and Pseudolithos migiurtinus  

Happy new week!

Seven Gardens, Two Nurseries, Six Hours part VIII City People's Garden Store

You may remember past visits to this cool nursery here and here. For those of us addicted to plants and gardening, there's always something new and wonderful to find at  just about any nursery and this place always has a lot of great merchandise indoors and out!

From Eucalyptus lehmannii - pretty cool,eh?

I wish this potting bench would work in my garden!

It's nice to see the back area chock full of plants!  

Quite a contrast from this picture taken in February!

You can see some of the bare root stock had started to arrive but those poor lonely benches made me sad.

Back to April! Look at the huge leaf on that Astilboides tabularis.  Throw in some slug holes and a bunch of litter from a cherry tree nearby and you've got what mine looks like.

The carnivorous plants are blooming!

I love this time of year don't you?  Our gardens are so full of life and color!

An arisaema unfurls a bloom.

City People's Nursery carries  this fun  furniture.  One might think that it was permanent but the sprouting of new foliage from the large vertical branch on the front right tells us that this is indeed new.

So many lust worthy plants!

Calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine' came home with me. 

Twig bench in front of  Hydrangea 'Plum Passion'  

I didn't get the variety of this columbine but the color glowed!

If you look hard enough, there's always an agave!

Great conifers!

Some gorgeous acer palmatums!

They also had a nice selection of bamboos, including one that I though I killed this winter.  I almost bought a replacement but Alison urged me to be sensible and give the poor naked bamboo in my garden a little bit more time.  I'm happy to announce that just yesterday I was studying mine for signs of life and noticed new leaves sprouting from some of the branches.  It will take some time to regain it's former glory but I'm glad that Alison gave me such wise advice and saved me some money to boot!