Wednesday, February 9, 2011

New Plants

When the sun comes out here, it's hard to resist buying plants! A couple of weeks ago I went to the Tacoma Home and Garden Show, and there were quite a few vendors there selling plants. I bought a Sarcococca ruscifolia (Sweet Box). I need to find a good spot for it, where I will get the benefit of the sweet-smelling flowers in the late winter. I wonder if it will flower if I put it in dry shade near the back porch?

I also bought some lily bulbs and some daylilies. 


An old favorite, Strawberry Candy
Dragon's Eye

The photos on the packages really don't do them justice. I think they will both look good in the same bed with the pink Barbara Mitchell.


I also bought some purple/lavender daylilies.

Indy Charmer

Royal Braid

I'm planning to put them in a bed with Entrapment.

But I think the real stars in that bed later this summer will be the two lilies I bought -- 'Robert Griesbach', an Orienpet hybrid and "Eyeliner', a fragrant Asiatic hybrid lily.  I am really looking forward to seeing 'Eyeliner' bloom, it has purple black speckles, and a purple/black picotee edge.

A couple of weeks ago I also made a trip up to Sky Nursery in North Seattle to meet a poster from GardenWeb, who posted that she was looking for one-gallon pots. I had loads from all the planting I did last year in the new beds, so I traipsed up there to meet her. I didn't expect a trade (it's just empty pots), but she very graciously gave me both a Hellebore called 'Red Lady' and a nice large division of Brunnera 'Jack Frost'. Gardeners are the most generous people!


While I was at the nursery I decided to get some berry bushes -- two 'Chandler' blueberries, which will be going into a mixed shrub bed, and two 'Captivator' gooseberries, which I'm going to grow in pots. I've done a bit of research online and they take well to being grown in pots, so that's my plan.

I was originally going to also post about my seed sowing (lots of cold-tolerant tomatoes!), but this has already run on too long. Next time!