California Gardening: Show and Tell, 1 by wcgypsy

wcgypsy wrote:
Okay, so I've been out once again this a.m. trying to singlehandedly keep the nursery trade afloat...heh heh heh, oh, I've been having SUCH a good morning! I love Breath of Heaven /coleonema, but something about the pink flowers has always bothered me...I've grown it and actually pulled it out because of the pink flowers, just too pretty or something. I've never seen the white flowered form available, so either it sells out right away or nobody likes it because the pink is favored, so instead of waiting and waiting to someday run across the white, I finally asked our own Andy Maycen, who's currently working Plant World, if he could order it for me and he did. (Thank you, Andy) So, I go over to pick them up and I'm going to take all 8 that he ordered, 'cause maybe he had to do a minimum order included with something else and I'll sell the ones I don't need. Ha! You see this coming, right? Then I looked at them and picked them up and smelled them and the greed took over and I knew I had to keep them all. Then I realized what I want to do with them and got *really* excited about them. Without planning on it, a lot of roses have ended up in the same section over on the west side of my house and I like some kind of 'unifying' plant in my beds...I've recently put into the ground 2 roses that had been in very large pots and thought that I'd like to put the white coleonemas in between each of the roses around in this section. Our house is white board and batten, so I really like tying in some white flowered plants to visually 'connect'. So, not only am I getting these beautiful plants, I actually know where I'm going to use them....oh, joy!
Then, on the way up to pay for these lovelies, I pass boronias...in flower....oh, dear. Do you know what boronias in flower smell like? Could you pass them up? Two of those jumped onto my cart. Then, of course, there were some really healthy Waverly salvias. Yes, I already have those, but these are really healthy looking and mine in the ground are in terrible soil and not thriving. These will go into the really *good* soil spots and I can also take cuttings from them immediately..win / win situation....Then I get to drive around for another hour with this incredible scent filling the car. I also went to check out a new just starting farmers' market where I will make tons of money to pay for all of the plants I buy..(yeah, right).
If you are not familiar with boronia, now, while it are in flower, is when you'll maybe find it at the nurseries...absolutely incredible fragrance...and the Breath of Heaven, likewise.
So, dinner is already planned..quick and easy Beef Dips. It's overcast and yucky outside, so I think I'll just curl up with my new stack of library books and be lazy, maybe even light the woodstove. Already made my Starbuck's stop for the day and a tumbler of Irish Cream this evening rounds out just about the perfect day....life is good.
These are my loot for the day: