Ye'll take the High Road

And I'll take the Lowes road. 

 

 

True confession time.  I sometimes shop for plants at big box stores.  Shamelessly walking in to look at plants, not just checking them out because I need a piece of pipe, a new weed whacker, or some concrete.  I do believe in supporting nurseries and small hardware stores for that matter but it's also fun to see what's available for a cheap plant thrill.    Here is some of what Lowes had when I visited.

 

 

Pieris japonica still thrills with it's early blooms and, in some varieties, interestingly colored foliage.

 

 Winter fire dogwood

Lots of lovely pots of the daffodil and muscari combination. 

 The bargain of the day was these sweet double mauvey pink double primroses in 1.25 quart pots  inside of lovely pink plastic decorative containers.  $2.98.

 Ranunculus have such  interesting flowers.  There are so many tissue paperey petals!

I used to grow these in Alaska where they'd bloom for quite a while and each fall the little tubers were dug and stored inside for the winter. 

Here, they seem to show up as early spring pot stuffer/ annual material and I don't see them growing much in the ground in gardens in these parts. 

 These flats of mixed sedum are great for making succulent spheres.  Start with two half round hanging wire things (you know, the ones you put coco fiber liners in, shove the sedum (it's grown in a fiber mat.) into the pot, fill with soil.  Repeat and then flip one half circle onto the other. (landscape fabric & chicken wire over the top will help keep the soil in place. Wire the two half circles together and voila, a sedum sphere.  If you want to add sempervivum, or other succulents, just make a hole in the mat with a sharp implement and push them in through the outside.

Jasmine's  tropical perfume wafting over the place whispered "summer's almost here" to me.  I've been hearing a lot of voices in my head theese days.

Traveling inside to the house plant department, I saw these. 

 It's getting pretty dangerous in here!

 Cute combination.  Love the unlabeled  plant in the back!

 I was sorely tempted by this Agave lophantha 'quadricolor!'  This plant always reminds me of Loree because I bought one to give her before I met her for the first time but decided on a different plant instead.  Mine must have been too wet before I brought it in this fall because it died this winter.  While it's a striking plant, it doesn't do a lot of growing in our cool summers.

Another temptation!  Aloe dorotheae

 Graptosedum 'California Sunset' had me swooning over those gorgeous colors and cute chubby foliage.  I may have to go back and get one. 

 Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

Here's what came home with me. 

 Home Depot is very close so I decided to see if I could find some of the mismarked Yucca gloriosa variegatas that I read about here.  They were there, cost 6.95, and the tag read Yucca gloriosa.  They left off the variegata part but at least they weren't  labeled Yucca filamentosa like the ones in Portland.  Why the difference I wonder?

I'm kind of nuts about this plant right now as I've a few that I planted about  eight years ago that have grown into stunning plants that look fabulous all year.  The variegation becomes much more pronounced with age and I want to add a few more.  Hooray!