Lilac 'Sensation'.....

Zone envy here. Love Lilacs.

This is the first lilac I've ever had! I've seen some dark purple ones around here I would like to have....
in SoCal I always thought I should try the hybrids that supposedly do well in warm weather down there...and why can't I remember the name? Starts with 'A'....? figured I would be disappointed....this one was given to me....

I've thought about those hybrids too, but They just don't look the same...and sure don't smell the same.

Sure it looks wonderful, and fragrant too? How nice!

Aha! The Descanso Hybrids.....! Could not remember the name....I've reached that age....sigh.....not one word out of you, Mike !

Oooooohhhh, Sherry tell me about that lilac. Is it a CA native? Evergreen? Big enough to hide the neighbor's junk pile? I love that color. Must have that. I suppose that would mean a 30" pot - plastic, $130.00. But it would be worth it to have that fab color to look at on the other side, except that that's the side I wanted to put the milkweed in. Hmmmmm have to think about shade and aphids - probs?

No, not a native...and it really would not be very happy in HB and you would not be happy with it...
http://www.missouribotanicalga...

Hmm. 11: 45 till 2: 40. That's about right for the memory to kick in, at least for some of us. Of course sometimes it's the next day, and in my case there are a few names that I seem to have a mental block for. Pumice is one that comes to mind. I finally had to write it down next to the PC. I use it often, and have spent lots of time in it in my lifetime, but whenever I want to mention it I draw a complete blank. " you know, volcanic ash...little white chunks?" Drives me crazy!
Whoa! Carol where are you shopping for pots? For that price it must be a pretty one.

Carol HB...think buddleja would be a better choice for that spot where you want a lilac.

Really, it's true that by this age we do have sooooo much stuff packed away in those memory banks that it's sometimes hard to locate THAT word.

Too bad we can't defrag our brains to organize all that info we've gathered over the years.

I really do make a point of not taking in unnecessary details....I will mention something and jer will question all the details...why should we not eat that? why should we take that and I have to always tell him that I do not need to remember those details, it's enough to know that I should, or shouldn't. I have phone numbers from 50 years ago stuck in my brain, why do I need that?

I kid Jer that he's like the old men in rocking chairs on the porch, going over and over their oral histories...we did this in such and such year...and then we did that in such and such year...I ask him to please write it all down so he has it to refer to so he doesn't keep asking me the same questions which he soon forgets the answers to anyway and then starts all over again. He gets me trapped in the car on a long road trip and starts up with this and I swear I will jump out of the car....

Well, hmmm.... the pot I first found at Armstrong, and is also available through Amazon (free shipping). I'm still looking. But I am definitely going to need a couple of big ones and anything heavy at that size is just not feasible for me to deal with unless I pay for help. I will have to pay for help to get the part of the backyard paved:



The grass and cardboard yard is mine. The gravel is the neighbor. Need more boxes. The little nursery pots are seeds I finally got started. Nothing coming up yet and its been since Thursday... yak.

So, no lilac for me. Buddleja would work. I remember seeing one that's very close to that color, and its the color that attracts me first, not the plant itself. Must look for that one again. I need some brights.

Thanks, everybody.

That's a little different than me. I don't remember dates when things happened, but because I did all of the paper work, I still have to stop and think to separate birthdate, SS # and CDL# from my ex. of fourty years from mine. Lot of life has happened in those 40 years, but those # are still stuck in my head. I never could remember trivia.

I have never remembered dates - even when young. The kids always had to remind me about their birthdays and they were overjoyed when I opened my own office and had a secretary. They would call her and she would get their birthdays and lists in the follow-up file so I could block out time to shop. Funny how the husbands always got so weird about me not remembering anniversaries - supposed to be the other way round, isn't it?

From the Botanical Garden in Brookings today....

Melaleuca squamea...
















Viburnum edule / Squashberry











Penstemon heterophyllus











Embothrium.....




















Callistemon pallidus.....














Erica ventricosa / Wax Heath

















Linum dolomiticum......













Slender Net Bush......

Sherry, those first several shots of the melaleuca are fabulous. What a lovely area that is. I really like the repetition of the melawhosy. Some of the gardens have so many different things are mixed in together that I just get confused, but yours is just perfect.

The Brookings Garden is small, but interesting...they have a very knowledgeable Garden Club there, all of whom are interested in the unusual...due to the immediate climate there, so much more can be grown than some realize. I also really like the melaleuca squamea. I have a bunch of small melaleuca squarrosa, that to me seem almost identical...and they're growing fast. Thinking I will get half into the ground and keep half in pots for now to see how they respond to the Verticillium Wilt. I'm thinking they may be resistant.....

The Garden is small, but when things are not in flower, they are not noticed much, so I make a habit of stopping there often and then I'm always seeming to see something 'new'.

Thanks for sharing the photos Sherry! They are all so lovely!

Now that I have returned, finding some nice blooms in my garden..some holdouts from April too:
Calandrinia spectabilis


Geraniums are having fun this May, more blooms have showed up or some has held on nicely, thanks to this nice cool days we are having, and I believed it did rain too while I was away:



Some of the succulents are also in bloom now:
Echeveria ramilette: been blooming since April and more has showed up this May


Echeveria purposorum


Ornithogalum dubium is on its last stage of bloom:

Like that orange!

BTW, Carol...my Brake Lights Yuccas have sprouted, thank you again.....