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Friday, May 3, 2013

New plants and Hortlandia

Hortlandia was fun, the most flamboyant plant there was at the Cistus Nursery booth, Fremontodendron californium.   The hardiness info on the internet is confusing.

The Carnivores were talking amongst themselves.;-)

I came home with a coveted pygmy running bamboo, Pleiobastus pygmaeus, which should make a nice border ground cover, I plan to chop it up a lot before planting-

I also found a beautifully colored Antennaria dioca 'Rubra', Red Pussytoes, it is literally bursting out of its pot, I have great hopes for it as a drought-tolerant ground cover-

And other plants I purchased recently include a number of ferns I'm trying in my 2 new shade gardens, I hope the deer don't like them.  Dryopteris seiboldii, Seibold's Wood Fern, described as being a black leather and studs kind of fern, and Osmunda regalis purpurascens, Purple Royal Fern, which starts out with purple new leaves, then turns green, then has yellow fall color.

Cyrtomium fortunei, Arching Japanese Holly Fern,  and Dryopteris atrata, Shaggy Shield Fern, below,

Wintergreen since I finally killed all mine off, and a great ground cover, Ceanothus gloriosa 'Point Reyes', which I have had many years, but in a protected place whereas this will be at the top of a bank, but it should like the drainage and dryness fine.  Mine has flower buds forming.  These plants are all from Little Prince of Oregon, which has a frog on their tags, and says, "Our plants won't croak!"  Cute.

It's so much fun doing Spring plant shopping, especially since new plants will survive better before the dry season and hot weather starts.   Otherwise I wait until fall when the rains start again.  I'm also hardening off my seedlings now to plant out.  It's nice to have a couple of new beds to plant.

The next shopping event coming up locally is the Master Gardener Sale, Mother's Day weekend.

Don't come, I want all the bargains for myself.;-)

-Hannah

10 comments:

  1. You found some great ferns, I am a sucker for them! I love the red pussytoes too. We get Little Prince of Oregon up here in Washington too, their tags are so cute.

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  2. Thanks, Alison. I haven't been much for ferns since I have some wild ones in my yard that spread obnoxiously, but since I'm developing some shade gardens in neglected places under trees, I thought I would try some.:-)

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  3. sounds like a fun sale. How do you keep from buying everything in sight, LOL

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    1. Limited budget. And passing 360 seedlings under lights to keep watered, harden off, and find a place to plant, and more sprouting every day. I got totally carried away with seed starting this year.

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  4. I adore that description of the dryopteris you bought!!

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  5. I hope it is as tough as the description, I am a little intimidated by plants that need water since I can't really water 2 acres very well and most plants I grow learn to get along without much or perish. I am going to try with the 2 new shady beds though... I use a lot of soaker hoses and quick connects to make watering vegetable beds and a few flower beds easier.

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  6. AH ! Plant fever strikes you, too ! Good choices!

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    1. Plant fever unfortunately tempered by trying to grow too many plants that croaked on me, so this year I went overboard on seeds, it's so exciting to try to germinate difficult ones especially, and so much fun to see the little seedlings pop up. I'm getting addicted. I just tried Gibberellic Acid on some recalcitrant varieties that have been failures...

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  7. Hortlandia sounds like a lot of fun! I agree with you, spring plant shopping is sooo much fun!

    Fremeontodendron has been hardy for us in western WA for many years. They need good drainage, full sun and form smallish trees. People with sprinkler systems do not do well with Fremontodendron as they are not fond of regular water. Several of them around town perished or were damaged a few years ago when we had the great phormium death due to the PKW (phormium killing winters.) It's a wonderful plant!

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    1. It was very pretty. And very tempting. However, I am near Portland but at a higher elevation and have lost quite a few marginal and even not so marginal plants to freakish cold snaps, so it's hard for me to get into more risky plants. Portland with the rivers is so much more moderate, as is Seattle near Puget Sound. One year the first frost was Dec. 20 and then in 2 days dropped to 6*F, which meant no hardening off for plants, so a large Eucalyptus supposedly hardy to 0*F died. The last few years I lost all my hydrangeas, and an older fig that was 8' tall.:-(

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