Everyone got their spring orders in?

Hibiscus place & HVH are both open for business and taking orders now...hurry up before the good ones are gone!

Here's what I ordered:

From Charles & Cindy:
Anasazi Maiden
Buttercup
Creme de la Creme
Haute Couture
Lion In Winter
Magic Moments

From Matt:
Amber Suzanne
Da Vinci
David Boulin
Medicine Man
Nightmare
Persian Rug
Temptress
Veronika Todd
Yoda

Hi ecrane,

I know you will not be dissappointed in the blooms you get from Da Vinci, Medicine Man, Nightmare, Persian Rug and Yoda. I can't tell you much about the others but I am sure they will be as beautiful. I have these and love them. You may want to consider Irish spring. I was skeptical until It actually bloomed. The bloom in person is beautiful and it is prolific. Sometimes darker green and sometimes lighter green with the soft pink eye. I've attached a pic for you.

Irish Spring was on my maybe list...but I had to pare down because of $$ and greenhouse space! I'm sure I'll probably end up ordering it before the end of the year though!

Oh Liz you are so bad. I am so easily led astray too.

I am in a snit too because I was going bamboo shopping today with Zu but got rained out. So I am great need. I have to memorize a little speech for Tom about what is money for but to make one happy. I only got thru Hibiscus Place so far and went gaud nuts. LOL Heavy on the Barry too. I am so excited. I had 13 but had to go back in and get 1 more, could not be unlucky could I be?

I need to go thru all the pics on here too for there are many I wanted thru out the year.

So you didn't get Liz??
http://www.hibiscusplace.com/html/k-l.html

And of course I took Robert's advice to you, Liz and asked for Irish Spring. I am so easy.

OK I just went to HVH and was so disappointed. Everyone I wanted is already out of stock. Boy that is fast. Lots of their news ones are gone too. Including your Creme de la Creme Liz.




This message was edited Jan 3, 2008 1:12 PM

I hope I got the ones I wanted from HVH then--it let me put them in my shopping basket but I'm not sure how quickly their website updates as people buy things, so I'm afraid it might turn out some of them were sold out. I'm going to cry if I don't get the ones I wanted! The only bright side is they will probably get some of them back in stock later in the season so keep your eye out. I think there might be a way to ask them to notify you if one you wanted comes back--I remember getting an email from them last year when one that I wanted came back in stock, but I don't remember what I did to get them to notify me!

And Robert doesn't have his 2008 catalog open for business yet so you can always look there too in a couple weeks (Jan 16th I think) I'm sure I'll find a few must have's there too!

I have it on my calendar! Robert, can't let us down. LOL

I will have to look later if there is a way to have them notify me if they come back in stock.

I am off to a nursery, see if I can beat the rain. Yesterday I was so excited for I swore I could smell spring and today I bet it is like winter out there. I love February and March, crisp but beautiful I am so ready. There were so many birds singing here yesterday. Such a happy noise. They hang out in my 20 foot bougainvillea.

I think I will roast a chicken tonight, comfort food for a terrible storm.

Living vicariously through you guys! And chicken soup for me, this pending storm brought a sore throat this morning so I get to hunker down the next few days watching movies while looking out the window, sucking throat lozenges and drooling at rose and hibiscus links. Beats getting sick while it's sunny out!

Hope you feel better soon Sue! This weather is miserable enough without feeling sick on top of it! I know we need the rain, but I wish it would just all come at night and leave the days nice and sunny! I do agree with you though, if you're going to be sick it's better to be sick when the weather's bad because it's not like you could be out doing something fun anyway.

Poor Sue! I hope you feel better soon. I was out there all afternoon and it was mean. My raincoat got wet all the way thru, what a sucky raincoat. So stay in and keep warm.

I heard on the radio we are going to get 3 storms in a row with hurricane winds to 75 miles an hour. My hoophouse will be trying to go airborne all night.

I made it to 2 OSHes. I looked for your rose Happy Chappy, Liz. No luck. And each OSH had some different roses and many less than in years past. However I did manage to go shopping with Zu. We had phone shopping. LOL. I bought her 4 roses from OSH and talked her into a tree rose of Laura Bush. Sue, I bought the tree rose of Lovestruck. My only rose I can buy this year, set in stone. I so hope it is the hot one we all liked.

Where else can I look online for hibiscus? I am so in the mood to shop. Is Robert's store online yet so I can at least look?

He's got some stuff to look at www.hypnoticblooms.com You can look, just not order yet! I don't think he has all his plants in there yet either. www.exotichibiscus.com is another OK source, but I don't like them as well as the others. Don't order their liners, I am 1 for 10 on getting them to survive, but their plants have done OK for me (maybe your thumbs are greener than mine though and you'd do OK with the liners!). Shipping is also very expensive if I remember right.

I'm still hunting for Happy Chappy--I did check my OSH over the holidays, but they didn't have any groundcover roses at all. I also went to Armstrong before Xmas because they had told you it was coming that Thursday, but it wasn't there, then it didn't come in the shipment right after Xmas either. They told me they had another shipment coming this week, so if it stops raining I'll have to go look this weekend but I'm not holding my breath. May just have to take my chances ordering it from J&P! I've got a few more places to check though, I've been to Navlets in Danville (they had it in patio tree form, but not the regular groundcover one) but haven't made it to Sloat yet or Alden Lane or Orchard Nursery, so maybe one of them will have it if Armstrong doesn't come through.

Well shoot Liz. And I told you it would be all over. So Navlets didn't have it? I am shocked. I will go to the one in Fremont soon to look for you. I am going to see Zu next week and we will look for you.

You should email me your number and we can call you if we find it. There is one nursery there that has lots of bareroots, in fact I saw my first Happy Chappy (a double tier) there and tried to get Zu and Lali to dig it up out of their display garden for me. LOL

Armstrongs told me it would be in. Liars liars. LOL. You can always order some from their LA homefront though last year I ordered a rose for Zu as a gift and they never got it in and never told me either. But when I was so unhappy with them they sure compensated me well.


If I get out of here early enough next week, I will stop at the Armstrongs in Novato and look for you but I bet we can do better money wise. There is also a good Sloats there. I just know Zu and I will find them for you. We go to lots of nurseries.

Lowes and HD are also a possiblilty though Lowes usually has weird ones but HD has J & P. I am good on a mission Liz. I will find them or bust.

Between all of us we have to find it somewhere! LOL I'll dmail you my number in case you do run across it. My ability to spend time hunting for it has gone down since I had to go back to work today :-(

Navlet's did have it, but they only had the patio trees, and since I really want it as a groundcover in my front yard, that won't work for me. I may check back there this weekend though in case they decide to get the groundcover ones in. I also checked HD in Pleasanton and they didn't have it, neither did the brand new Lowes that just opened in Dublin (I was so excited when it opened...I like Lowes so much better than HD for most stuff, but the closest one used to be in Livermore)

Hi Kell,
HD usually have more of the hybrids at least in texas. Lowes here in texas usually have the standard GV's. I am in buying mode everytime I head to houston LOL Like I dont have enough already. I just love them. I am starting a blog soon for us hibiscus addicts It will be at www.hibiscusaddiction.com LOL (Not Up And Running Yet) But Really I am. It may be fun. Hello My name is Robert and I am a hibiscus addict. I got the domain now to just find the time. I will drive several hours on my quest to find what I want. Thats a true addict LOL

I think we're all addicts here! Lucky for me I can usually satisfy my hibiscus addiction from the comfort of my computer! It would probably be better for me if there weren't so many great mail order places, if I actually had to find the time to drive places to find things, I wouldn't buy nearly so many plants!

LOL Robert, are you talking hibiscus at HD and Lowes? Liz and I are talking bareroot roses. I so wish our HD and Lowes had fancy hibiscus. The closest I have come is that Sue told me she bought one at HD maybe 2 years ago. I have never even seen 1 there. I know when I was staying with my Mom in NJ 2 to 3 years ago they had tons of them at HD. I bought her lots. LOL.

To be truthful, I have an addiction to most plants. Name any and I want them. My latest crushes are bamboo and succulents. I am beyond hope. I too will drive and drive. It is all an adventure. Our friend Zuzu (famous on the rose forum here) lives 2 hours north and has 1024 nurseries close to her. I am always hot to go visit her. LOL

Liz, now that I am retired I get around. The trouble is when you work you have lots of money and no time, then you retire and you are broke but have so much time to spend the money you do not have. Just not fair at all. So far I do an admirable job.

And Liz............A LOWES IN DUBLIN???????????????? Where??? Though when Lowes first came to Ca I loved it. But last year every time I would go (there are 2 south of me), I found it lacking. In fact HD started to suck too last year.

Hi Liz,
This is so true!!!

I see hibbies at Lowes & HD but never the good ones. OK, I got Celia there and I like her, but she's not fancy like my others!

The Lowes in Dublin is near the corner of Dublin Blvd & Tassajara Rd--if you're coming east on 580, get off at Santa Rita and make a left, then turn right on Dublin Blvd and you'll see a sign for the entrance. It just opened a couple weeks ago, and I don't think too many people know it's open yet because it has not been crowded at all the times I've been there.

THANKS!! So it is far up. I will add it to my nursery loop when I go that way. I saw a great trellis there that was tall enough for my lapageria last year and waited to get it. Then I rushed around to all 3 and it was gone. I wonder if they have it in the new store. I so need it. I noticed OSH today was getting in their spring garden supplies.

Robert,
I forgot what I ordered from you, already. Could you send me a list, so I can add to it?
Cat

How can anyone NOT want to buy hibiscus, roses or any other plants after reading this thread. My Sasanqua are still blooming and the Camellias are just starting but I am so ready for Spring.

It is sooooo hard to not fertilize the hibiscus this week. I want them to be lush and full of flowers again, but I'll be good and not push them.

That is so funny you say that Alice for as I fell asleep last night I decided to foliar feed mine to see if I could get them going again. I looked at so many hib pics yesterday, I was dreaming about them.

Here it is pretty scary, all night I could hear the hoophouse bouncing up and down and back and forth. It is still standing but really getting tossed about.

I got 3 movies in from Netflix yesterday, I may stay cosy in bed today with my cat.

Liz, how is it out your way? I hope Sue is doing better and staying inside today.

It's all windy and nasty here--the greenhouse has held up fine so far but my satellite dish got knocked out of commission for the 2nd time in a month...I'm starting to think maybe I should get cable instead! Now I have to figure out when I can take a morning off work next week to have them come out and fix it again. Not to mention I'll have no TV all weekend and it's going to rain...I might have to clean the house or something to keep from being bored to death! Although I do have a whole pile of seeds that I was going to start over the holidays and didn't get around to it--maybe I can do that instead!

Got Netflix movie come in today too, throat hurts to swallow, plumber coming today, showers are backed up, only one toilet barely flushing, (I went to Starbucks last night at 11:00 for a pee and a chai tea latte for the throat!) pups HATE going outside, the baby just whimpers the whole time, she is scared of the strong winds, then they both rub themselves back and forth along the couch to try and dry off.

A good day to stay cosy in bed with cats, dogs and laptop drooling over hibiscus blooms! :-)

Watch that throat Sue, I had strep before Christmas and it was not fun so do be careful.

I am so sorry you CA gardeners are having such nasty weather. I hate it when it is so windy, it is hard to relax with everything in constant motion. We had 3 unusually cold nights but we are back to normal today.

Sue, my dog does the same thing in one of our bedrooms. After my son left I was changing the linens and I saw that the edge of the spread was filthy from Boolie rubbing all over it. Good thing it was my son sleeping in that room and not someone who would have noticed. :-)

Stay warm and dry folks.

So far, I have ordered from Matt:
Antique Rose
Barry Schlueter
Chivalry
DaVinci
Double Agent
India
Irish Spring
Kalakua
Gerald Derr
Blue Ruffles
Firehouse
Irish Spring
Medicine Man
Nightmare
Lemon Life

HVH:
Raspberry Swirl
Fantasy Charm
Anasazi Maiden
April Showers
Candy Stripe
Hot Pepper
Bonnie Lass
Porcelain Doll
Rodeo Drive
Suede Buttons

My want list from Robert:
Exotic Lavender Lady
Kiss Of Death
Culture Shock
Holy Guacamole
Horned Toad
Meditation
Mission
Night Vision
Rocky Road
Royal Palace
Virtuoso
Horned Toad

I have started doubling up on the spots in my garden, leaving plenty of room for the new ones.
Talk about going into the "red" financially!







This message was edited Jan 5, 2008 5:23 AM

In the red is right, Cat, me too! It's fun that we've all ordered some the same and some different - again, we'll get to see what the blooms look like in different parts of the country! And, we'll all be broke together, lol ;-)

Here's my ordered so far list from HVH:

Dark Angel
Anasazi Maiden
Buttercup
Frankie Blue Eyes
Haute Coutre
Island Queen
La Coquette
Lion in Winter
Magic Carpet Ride
Montserrat
Pochahantus
Porcelain Doll
Solar Eclipse
Space Oddity
Fallen Hero, and
Love Story (cuz I left this one planted at my ex-DH's house before I moved)

From Matt, I've ordered:

Da Vinci
Jazz
Anna Nicole
Frosted Flake
Heartbreak Hotel
Nightmare
7th Heaven
Sweet Potato Pie
Veronika Todd
White Diamonds

And, I just looked over at Robert's upcoming blooms *WOW*!!! Probably a good thing they're not quite ready yet, since I've already spent so much ;-)

karen

Hey Karen, good to see you around again! I'm starting to feel like I ought to go buy some more now...my list feels so short next to you and Cat! But I only have so much room in the greenhouse--honestly a few things are going to have to die in order for me to fit in the ones I did order! I think next winter I'm going to have to develop a scoring system for my tropicals to determine which ones get to come in the GH and which ones take their chances outside...each plant gets some points based on how much I like it, and some points based on how unlikely it is that it would survive outside the GH, and the lowest scoring plants get to brave the frost! Or maybe I'll buy one of those cheapo Flowerhouse type things for the overflow.

There you go, great idea - an overflow greenhouse!! LOL ;-) Mine are all in the kitchen and our bonus room - that room doesn't have heating or cooling, and it gets pretty cold, but Sadie the guardian and the plants don't seem to mind too much. If it gets any colder though I'm going to have to put heater out there for my plants, lol. It's so funny, my daughter's friends came over a bit ago for her 18th birthday, looked at the kitchen and said "yep, the crazy plant lady is back in business" LOL!

I'm glad to BE back, things have been so weird the last few months, but I'm back off work on disability living in "the bubble" again. I plan
to make the best of my bubble existence by fixing up the yard of my rental house and going back to doting on my precious plants and the one still at home, but only till college next year, daughter. My team of Dr.s will not be letting me go back to my previous job (or any job I can't do from home), and in my opinion (haha), I'm too young (and obviously too broke) to go on full-time social security disability, so I've decided to take online courses in medical coding and transcription. Dr. says if I talk to the local hospitals, I ought to be able to get an at-home position pretty easily considering my office skills and "can't leave the bubble" medical history ;-) It's funny though, last year, I was itching to get back to work. Now, after returning to work unsuccessfully for those couple months, I'm glad to be back in the bubble to stay this time - gives me more time to be pursuing my passion of gardening :-)

karen

This message was edited Jan 5, 2008 8:45 PM

I wish I could quit my job and garden full time...unfortunately I don't know how I'd pay the bills if I did that! I like my job fine, but gardening is much more fun! Medical transcription sounds like a good way to fund your hibiscus addiction...good luck with your classes!

Thanks :-) I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be off the way I'm off though - in all truth, teams of Dr.'s, weekly 5-hour, 4-needled infusions and living life in a bubble isn't all that fun -I just try to concentrate on the perks of being at home all the time, lol ;-) and, of course, the occasional, don't tell the immunologist, "sneaking out of the bubble", haha. I snuck out to see Sweeney Todd with some friends recently, shhhh, it's a secret ;-) it's probably why I'm sick again now too, but oh well, at least I got a couple hours out in the "real" world...

I know now that Cat and Kell are nurses, I believe Kyle is a landscaper, and Robert is a full time hibiscus guy, and I'm a full time bubble girl, so what is your job? I think it's fun to hear what people do to earn enough money to buy plants, lol!

karen

Hope you feel better soon...I'm glad you got to sneak out for a little bit though! I hope you are able to sneak out occasionally to go plant shopping too? I definitely wouldn't want to get sick and have to quit my job because of that--I'd just like to be independently wealthy so that I could afford to stay home and play with my dog and my plants all day! My background is in science (chemistry) but I recently switched to doing consumer research instead (my company is nice, they let you switch around into different jobs like that even if that's not what your background is in). So I spend a lot of time having people test new products and I find out what they liked and didn't like, then I tell the scientists what they need to fix! It's a lot of fun and I really shouldn't complain :-)

Speaking of sneaking out of your bubble...mark your calendar for the HVH open house on Aug 30 (assuming I'm remembering right that they're on the last Sat of the month) I'm hoping to come down for that and it would be great if you could come too! I'm going to have my dog with me though so I'll need to check first if they'd be OK with me bringing him in, I can't leave him sitting in the car in August! I have a friend who's getting married in Malibu on the 31st, so I'm hoping to have time to drive down to HVH on the 30th and then make it back up to the LA area that night for dinner, etc.

Glad to see you too, Karen! Good luck to you in pursuing your new career. Sounds so tough being stuck inside. I hope you do much better now. And I hope you get to sneak out with Liz to go to that open house. Food for the gardener's soul. Can you wear a mask if you go out? Are you worried about germs?

What kind of products, Liz? If your company tests gardening supplies, hey remember all of us. LOL

Nope, not gardening supplies--that would be really cool if we did! I'm sure I'd have a whole garage full of things that I had to check out just to make sure they worked OK! We make household products--cleaning products, water filters, cat litter, things like that. You live close enough, if those sort of products interest you and you don't mind driving to Pleasanton from time to time, you could probably sign up to be in our consumer pool to test things--dmail me if you're interested and I'll give you more info.

Oh too bad. Gardening and I would be so there. LOL. I suck at cleaning so I would fail at being a tester there. Like today. I spend 10 minutes cleaning and 1 hour online. I so suck. My husband is watching his games so I do not feel so bad about it.

And of course I am not really cleaning the house. God forbid I do that. I am cleaning off my seedling tables to house more brug cuttings. A friend sent me a bunch and I rooted them on my windowsill in plastic bags. But time they got taken out of the bags and put under lights and foliar fed to get them going. One of my NY's resolutions was to be a much better brug mom. I plan on pushing mine long this year, where last year I let them stagnate with no real care.

Sounds like you've got your priorities right! I'm not a big fan of cleaning either, I clean when I have to but believe me if I could afford a cleaning lady I would hire one in a second!

Liz, that sounds fun - I'm definitely going to put on my calendar!

Kell, if I do go out I'm supposed to wear a mask and gloves. Honestly, I usually don't do it though, I just try to avoid people wherever possible, and I don't go out much unless I have to or am desperate to (for plants, etc.). If I do sneak out of the house, I avoid any place crowded like the plague - I just HAD t go see Sweeney Todd though - sometimes I get tired of being such a freakshow...

Somehow I think that Michael Jackson germaphobe look doesn't suit me, although one of my friends was joking that she'd paint up a bunch of masks for me - some with flowers, some with skulls and biohazard signs to scare people into staying away, lol! Or, she suggested that I wear a bunch of veils and become a "woman of mystery". I should have way more fear of germs than I do, but I must admit that when I was still working at the end of October (and the Dr.'s thought I'd be okay with enough protection from the immunoglobulin infusions) I did go over to Disneyland when working a conference at the hotel next door. Only went on two rides though because when I got into the first line, I looked around and it reminded me I should look at every person there as a walking infectious disease (and needless to say there were a heck of a lot of people). Not a great way to think of your fellow man, but unfortunately when you don't have a functioning immune system, that is kind of how it is. All my friends and family know that they can't visit the bubble if they're even a little bit sick. Must be why I like plants so much, since I'm "allergic" to people ;-)

karen

And, Karen, you are so lucky because you get to spend your days with viscious guardian dog!
I've been so busy, that Tuni's has been going to puppy play care for overnighters, so I don't feel like a bad mom. The cats love it, because there is no "jumping" all over them, lol.

Yeah, Sadie is really wanting spring to come. She doesn't like this house nearly as much, I think because there's not a big sliding glass door leading to the family room and she feels left out when we're not with her now.:-( She's gotten pretty used to being inside the house cuz I don't want her to be lonely...The yard is an okay size and I'm going to plant some tropicals (of course) and keep all my hibbies in pots. Won't look nearly as nice as the old house with all my cool hardscaping, but hey, ya can't have everything, right? Hopefully with the tax return, I'll be able to get a tiki or two just to make the yard "my own" ;-)

I'm placing my first order for hibiscus from Matt. I only have the common reds and pinks that we can get at HD and Lowes. The hibiscus will be in 14 -20 inch pots, outdoors in the summer, in the 60 degree greenhouse in the winter. They will be pruned severely in the fall so they take up less room in the greenhouse. I want big flowers, vibrant colors, with blooms primarily in the summer. Of Matt's recommendations, based on my picks and conditions, which are your favorites:
Cherry Cola (will I like brown?),
Chocolate Berry Truffle (I want to make a standard of this one),
Climax,
Gator Magic,
Rainbow Christie,
Veronika Todd
Silver Memories.
India,
Susan Schlueter,
Tropical Punch,
Softly Spoken,
Think Pink and
Whirligig

Thanks for your input.