How many trips to the garden center this year?

I have a gardening buddy and we make the rounds-keeps us out of Nordies lol. I am taking out the lawns so am on the look out for plants that require as little care as I can manage. (The cottage gardens and vegetable are enough trouble.) Then there is the never ending manure and bark purchases.

I just love going plant shopping. Other women do shoe and clothes shopping, I do perennial and annual shopping!!

I recently moved in with my dear domestic partner (husband soon!) and his landscape is nil! I've had a heyday choosing plants and decorating outside. He loves my creations!

edit: frogrus, what's nordies?

This message was edited Jun 13, 2004 7:17 PM

Is Nordies, Nordstroms?????????? just a guess from a Canadian! It's hard to even imagine how much one spends on plant material a season, isn't it? Well...........as they say......this ain't no dress rehearsal!! Elaine

If I do not go to a garden center at least once a week I have withdrawal pains, have been known to go to as many as 5-6 garden centers in one day. My children forbid me to stop when we are driving and I see a new one, a garden shop or nursery that is on the highway if we are taking a trip. But this is a dicatorship and if I am driving I am stopping. I have found some great plants that way. Not to mention browsing on the web and from my catalogs, that I do most every day or two.

My DS (15) has already figured out where some of my favourites are - we get close and he's already saying, no, we're not stopping there, no, no, not today, aw, come on mom, do we have to stop, we don't have time today...

Actually where I live there are not too many garden centers. I can hardly count Super Wal Mart, as they do not take good care of their plants. If I happen to get there the day the truck delivers okay. That is 30 miles away and to get to a fairly good garden center is 130 miles so you can see why I don't get there very often. I did grow a lot of things from seed and a lot are still waiting for me to get them planted so you can see how far behind I am. All my daylily seedlings, a 100 or so are still waiting. have a lot of Dianthus Sweet williams to get set out and quite a lot of misc. plants I haven't found the right locations for. Donna

I have to hit Lowe's at least 2 times a week. Picking out plants is the fun part, it's all the other stuff that goes along with having a beautiful flower garden that breaks your back. I keep saying I'm finished and have everything that would be happy in zone 7, then spring rolls around and I catch the fever all over again.

This message was edited Jun 14, 2004 2:49 AM

Lot of trip to Lowe's and Home Depot sometime at Wal Mart too! Also trip to Huntington Botanical Nursery, too!
SnowElk

Well, we all seem to be keeping the nurseries in business huh? LOL
I go with no intention of buying, but hey, who am I kidding! I go first thing in the spring before I can plant, just to find my Brandywine tomatoes, then check out what roses are available. Then I have to make room in the house to keep them until I can plant.
I used to say that I was finished, but no more...something always has to get moved or replaced!
I have a girlfriend who sells the most awesome rotten horse manure, so have spent a small fortune on that this year. Best stuff I've ever used!
Spread 6 yards of hardwood mulch, cut down a sick crabapple, so had to replace that with perenniels..
Number to trips? Have no clue! If I don't go by myself, I'm with my DD! Even hit Farmers Markets!
Oh, I should mention that I cannot for the life of me grow from seed! I must kill them with kindness or something! Give me the biggest plant from a nursery! LOL LOL
(Crabapple was in the rock, but sick long before the rock was in place)

7 trips so far. I got all the flower beds done in April with about 3 trips (I did not hit all my usual stores this year) but a little cold weather caused me to need a few replacements, then varmits caused me to need a few more replacements, and I believe varmits will once more send me to buy just a few more aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh, BUT I admit I do enjoy buying flowers. Next year I plan to try some seed, it will be my first time.

Springlover, is that boxwood? If so, what var.?

I love the way you have it planted in a curve. I might do that in my front yard!

My gardening buddy and I are on our third round of our faves - about 6 of them. We go quite a ways! I can always find room for a new plant or two!!

I mostly grow from seed.
I do get a few tools from the garden center .
And the wal mart is a joke.
I rent one of our barns to the horse rancher down from us so i get all the free horse manure that i need.
I do plant run's where i go for a long ride we live in the country so lots of back roads to find great little treasures.
And some times i will see something in someones yard and stop to ask about what it is, where they got it, and if i can get a cutting.
My children will not ride with me in the spring or in the summer if they can get out of it.
so i go with one of my garden buddys.
We make a day of it and always come home with lots.

I go to the garden center 6 times a week!!!! I work there!!!! LOL! But I buy something at least EVERY DAY!!!!!!! I can't resist with my 30% discount! I'm really scared for when they have their 50% off sale!!!

Ooh Celia, sounds like heaven to me.

I've gone to the garden center maybe 6 times, mostly for supplies, not plants. Although I've had to buy a few coleus' that caught my eye. Not bad considering I work across the road from a very nice garden center and live about a quarter of a mile from another one.

That's what I call restraint! Those new coleus are sharp aren't they!

Osteole,
I'm in Michigan, and I THINK they are Gem something....never have a memory for this kind of stuff. Anyway, they are for my zone 5. I'm sure there must be one for you in AR!
Thanks for the compliment! My son and daughter in-law helped plant all 65 of them. Since they don't garden, they really got a work out that day! LOL LOL
We nearly lost most of them this year due to my ignorance...had way too much soil on the trunk so lost the lower branches. We also have a problem with Leafminer this spring, but took care of that ASAP! So they are on the mend this season!
Good luck in finding a boxwood for your area.
Kris

There is a Boxwood Gem I believe....Buxus something.

LOL... too many to count as I live within a 5-minute walk of Lowe's! Got some pretty lil 29-cent pony packs of flowers last week though... limited myself to the quarters and pennies I had in my wallet. ;)

Springlover wrote: My son and daughter in-law helped plant all 65 of them. Since they don't garden, they really got a work out that day!


hahaha that's histerical!! 65 plants?

We are talking about how many trips to the garden store, not robberies of the garden store! LOL

This message was edited Jun 15, 2004 5:49 AM

This message was edited Jun 15, 2004 5:49 AM

This message was edited Jun 15, 2004 5:49 AM

Darn edits, brackets were making text disappear<<>>><>

This message was edited Jun 15, 2004 5:51 AM

Smaller garden and little room makes for fewer trips to the garden center. But it is still fun to look around.

Repeat after me: I am not going to the garden store again today. I am not going to the garden store again today. Nope, didn't work. I'm going .....I don't even want to count the number of trips so far, Even worse if I take DH along, he's good for at least doubling my usual treasures. However, this year in SE Wisconsin, we are growing MOSQUITOS!! Walked out to the road to put trash out for pickup. Pulled a couple of weeds on the way back, got three bites in less than 2 minutes. Gonna be a long itchy summer.....

I go just to go, to see whats new. This includes pond stuff, gardening tools, checimals,things to water with and stuff for my walkways....
I love to go to the gardening centers they are are fun and relaxing place weather you buy anything or not.....
I really like the fact that Home Depot and Lowes have put so much effort into there gardening depts and have so much neat stuff coming out all the time thats new....

:o)
Dee

I can't pass one up without stopping or coming back. However, I now buy most of my plants off of ebay or via trade because the average nusery really doesn't have what I am looking for.

Even knowing that I still stop. You just never know what you might find!

Bill

I order seeds in the middle of winter and start some soon thereafter under flourescent ights in the computer room. Particularly like to order from Pinetree as I can get small packets.(And they carry Prudens Purple Tomatoes). I keep starting small trays of seeds and the first thing I know I have 100 seedlings. Then I transplant and run out of room. Seeds never fail for me. I have a plethora of plants. Just need to find places to stick them.

Not only do they know me by name, they know what I like and send me over to the new arrivals section. My Boyfriend and his friends are over all the time and insist that WE won't be able to live in our apartment anymore, the jungle, they call it! Oh well, it makes me very happy, not only is it stress relief but I love the fact that I can indulge in something productive and satisfying and at somepoint down the road have a successful business doing what I love. Good addictions are the best aren't they? Now only if waitresses made more dead green presidents...Mere

How many times? How many grains of sand on all the beaches? How many stars are there in the sky? What is age of the universe? Add one more and that's how many times I went to the Garden Center this year!

Its gotten so bad that if we are driving around DH starts to speed up and say NO. Ive learned my way around a little more without getting too lost and have discovered a few more nurserys to visit.
Two of them know me on site and by name, they tell me sorry we dont have any more daylilys today, just the same ones. I can walk around a nursery forever and be happy.

I work at one...*big grin*

Does anyone keep a count? Real gardeners never even think of it!! What a silly question it was! LOL.

I go to the garden centre only for supplies also. I have my own plants and seeds or I receive some from my friends.

meezersfive: got three bites in less than 2 minutes. Gonna be a long itchy summer.....

Try some 'eau de Vinegar' before going for your stroll.
1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar (anykind) in a spray mist bottle,
douse body liberaly... keep away from face; that part can be done by spraying a washcloth or papertowel & wiping on the face. **_Must keep far enough away from eyes!_**

How many trips to the garden center this year?
Ya mean January 1st, through December 31st?
I get dizzy on Merry-Go-Rounds; but at the garden centers they know me by my first name!
Even in the out-of the-way places!

I found some pods, planted them but don't what they are. Does anyone know?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Thanx, kooger. I couldn't find them without a name. I have to wait till the beginning of July to gain access to the other forums.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

This message was edited Jun 17, 2004 3:38 PM

That one I know, just looked at it 10 minutes ago- centaurea 'montana'. I planted mine last fall and it's already a foot across! Very pleased with it. It is sometimes called perennial cornflower or bluet on the tag. That's what someone told me. :)

edited to correct name: should be centaurea montana - 'montana' is not correct according to PDB, cultivar name is not montana.

This message was edited Jun 17, 2004 11:57 AM

I can relate to Monterey--I can't even count the no. of times I've been. I start early in the season and make the rounds, sometimes 6-7 a day. I had just gotten my yard looking great and to maturity, when I met my husband in 2002 and we bought a new house, which had nothing! I had to start all over, but its fun, except all the back breaking work!

When my new husband and I went to Destin last summer for the first time, I found the neatest garden place called The Gourd Garden. He said, "Surely you're not bringing back plants with us!" I managed to get 5 plants in a box in the back seat.

We just went again for Memorial Day and ended up staying within 1 mi. of this same place, near Seagrove Bch./ Seaside. Again, I bought things, mostly tropical, that you can't get here. I have an unfinished basement that I weather all my tropicals in over the winter.

Here is a picture of part of my new yard, with the pond and stream bed I built. The pump is solar powered so that we didn't have to run electricity out to it. My grandmother's daylilies, twice transplanted from NC, are along the fence in the background.

About keeping the bugs off you, I just heard recently that if you rub a Bounce dryer sheet over your skin, that it repels mosquitoes and bugs from biting you. Haven't tried it yet, but its worth a try...and you'll smell good, too!

My yard looks like a garden center!

My husband and I have been going to the garden centers several times a week for awhile now. I also work close to several nurseries, and I visit them during my lunch hour quite often. It's a great way to relax or to destress if I had a bad morning at work.

My husband decided that he wanted a tropical theme for the patio this year, so we are in the process of transforming our full sun, southern exposure, concrete patio into a tropical paradise, using container plants! Not an easy task, being that there are no trees in our backyard to provide some shade, but we put up a large umbrella and will also be putting up a reed fence to help provide some shade. We also put up some misters to provide some humidity for the tropicals.

I think my husband is actually having more fun than I am at picking out plants, and just the right pot for the plant. It seems like everyday when I get home from work, there is something new that he has found for the patio! We will be going again this weekend!

kathymac -- you're so lucky!!! If I could get my DH to look even once at the work I've done in my plantings it would be a miracle. Cherish him!! As someone said here yesterday in another forum...."he's a keeper!".

I retired last October, so this spring I had plenty of time to shop for plants and care for them on our new deck. Here are just a few.