Time for a Sunny Saturday Nursery Field Trip: Bremerton City Nursery

To avoid actually working in my garden on Saturday, I jumped in the car and drove west to visit a couple of nurseries on the Kitsap Peninsula.  Today, let's stroll around Bremerton City Nursery.

The colorful Euphrobia 'Ascot Rainbow' is at it's best this time of year. 

Tiny Narcissus 'Tet a tete Boucle' is kind of sweet.

Anemones always look so good in nurseries but someone usually forgets to include them in his fall bulb orders. 

Some people have tidy lists of plants they'd like to try, even nice pages on their blogs. Someone you may know has random-sized and colored post-it notes stuck to the side of his computer desk.  These are mixed with notes containing the botanical names of a few plants that I already have but can never recall.  Anyway, a few years ago I read some author's work about fragrant plants.  Cistus 'Blanche' was a favorite for the ressionous fragrance of the leaves.  I made a note and added it to the collage.  What a nice surprise to find the very Cistus I'd searched for so many years ago.   The leaves did have a pleasant fragrance but  where would I put another shrub?    I may regret not bringing one home but there were quite a few still at the nursery so who knows.

Primula vulgaris  delivers a good dose of riotous warm color that's just the thing for some spring zing.

The perennial area will have filled out quite a bit with our recent few days with  temperatures near 80 degrees.

Pink new growth of Thymus vulgaris 'Silver Posie' 

No nursery is complete without a friendly greeter!

Ah, citrus in bloom. 

Time to stock up on tender succulents if you didn't winter them over inside. 

"There's always an Agave."

Did I remember to take a picture of the tag so I'd be able to tell you which Alocasia this is?  Nope but it's visually stunning even without a name.

Here's what hitched a ride with me. The oxalis and some of the primroses are to give to the paraeducators in my program  but the succulents are for me. 

Surprises in the Greenhouse

Sometimes things get a bit busy and I don't see the inside of the greenhouse for a few days.  At this time of year, things are happening quickly and there are usually some surprises to be found after a brief absence.   Here are a few that greeted me this weekend.  The church choir is off for the summer so I actually had a two day weekend which I celebrated by not leaving the garden.

the buds that appeared on the Trevesia palmata are beginning to open.  What fun blooms!

Amorphophallus knojac is hardy to zone six but outside it emerges late in June by which time I would have forgotten it was there and planted something else in it's spot.  In the greenhouse, it comes up much earlier and it happens very quickly once it warms up.

Mine came from Cistus Nursery several years ago and now has produced several offsets.  the huge central leaf will be huge again this year.  Why not enjoy it a bit longer by keeping it inside?  It'll need a bigger pot soon. (This is a 5 gallon size.)

A big surprise was this bloom on an Echinopsis subdenudatum rescued from a box store last year.  It's rewarding me for pulling off those silly strawflowers that were glued to it. Looks like there'll be a few more blooms to follow and as if the little cactus to the right will be blooming as well.   Such big, pure, and delicate flowers from such a small and prickly character. 

What's been your favorite garden surprise this week? 

Drawing Inspiration from Friends

Okay so the title was a nice way to say stealing ideas from blogging pals.  In keeping with the theme, I'm stealing some photographs to illustrate this post.  I'd long admired Pam Penick's fabulous entry planting of Dasyliron longissimum in her entry garden.

Photo by Loree Bohl, stolen from Danger Garden.  You can see Pam's post about installing this here. 

Back in April, I saw A dasylirion longissimum at Cistus Nursery and decided that I'd make this work somehow in my own garden even though it's way overcrowded.  

I almost gave the plant away because there is simply no place in my garden that would allow the same kind of empty plane that Pam's entry has but a couple of weeks ago, Loree reminded me of how well her dish planters worked in her garden without the negative space. 

Photo by Loree Bohl.

Then this post of Gerhard's Garden showed his Dasylirion  growing beautifully in a metal planter.  The universe must be trying to tell me something. 

While I love the look of rusty steel, it's heavy and often expensive.  However a recent stroll through a local hardware store (a big plant sale and 50% off all pots had nothing to do with the visit) had me contemplating shiny aluminum tubes that were inexpensive and light. 

The hottest and sunniest location at my place is out front but when standing the tube here it just didn't  work very well so the tube went into the greenhouse perhaps for use as a plant stand but it didn't  work there either

The pipe/Dasylirion idea still made me want to find a place for it  so it got put in near the Danger Gardenette. This isn't the hottest spot in my garden but perhaps the plant will still grow in this mash-up area.  

I

Portland Nursery Hopping # 3 Cistus Nursery

Technically, Cistus Nursery isn't in Portland but on nearby Sauvie Island but it's always a stop on any visit to the Portland area. 

The plant addict's heart beats a little faster as he walks from the parking area across the drive and the nursery sign comes into view.

Almost in the Big Top and excitement builds.  There are always treasures to be found here.

For a moment, we're in southern California.

Agave americana mediopicta alba is a favorite of mine and it was tempting do bring home another but there are already two in my plant hoard.

Justicia rizzinii was tempting but only hardy to 25 degrees.

Grevillea juniperina 'Molonglo' happily blooming away.

I passed up putting Acacia pravissima in my cart.  Happily, when I was cutting some bamboo back, I noticed that the one in my own garden had survived the winter and looked happy.  The bamboo had sheltered it nicely during our freezes.

Correa reflexa 'Carpenter Rocks' hopped right into my cart.  Only hardy to twenty degrees, it may not survive if we have an exceptionally cold winter but at least for a while, these winter flowers will brighten some gloomy days.

Senecio cristobalensis

Impatiens omeiana 'Ice Storm'

Oh those beautiful Yucca rostratas.

A Dasylirion longissimum came home with me as I'd love to imitate Pam Penick's fabulous pipe planter idea for this plant.

Camellia japonica var. quercifolia 'White Mermaid.' An oak leaved camellia?  Who knew? 

Ribes speciosum 'Rana Creek.' I can never get a good image of this blooming in my own garden but isn't it a sweet thing?

Agave ornithobroma  

How lucky are we to live in this region where we can grow agaves, olives, plants with large tropical-looking leaves, and moss on everything?

The vibrant color of Abutilon 'Mother of Pearl' is thrilling.

Time to take our purchases to the front counter and check out.  Fortunately the nursery supervisor was on duty making sure that her human servants were on their toes.

One last look as we head out.  

Time to head out and hit another nursery before stopping for dinner and heading for home. 

Happy May Day!