lol...see? That's what happens when we talk about this stuff. I did take a quick look at her site a couple of weeks ago. I've just spent the last half hour cruising through a new book and deciding that I could be quite happy with pulling most of my stuff out and planting a meadow of native grasses that require very little water if any....some of the stuff I've been planting, I would like to grow for at least one season, so maybe I could start my grasses from small plugs or seeds now and have them ready to go. It's very difficult. You look through a book and think, this is what I want, then you look at more pics and think, No, I want this too...

But I really do love those grasses and instead of just incorporating them in like I have been, perhaps to go with all grasses, might be good. I have so much stuff that requires, (and often doesn't get) yearly cutting back.

'Reimagining the California Lawn' has some nie meadows done with sedges.....

Okay, Zuzu which ones did you get? Did you think I wouldn't have to know? What if you got one that I don't have?

I have been watering and repotting hydrangeas. Dang things get big but they are so pretty. Shamrock and Quickfire are so nice, and the smaller cityline ones....on and on.

Got a few good customers today. Was so glad to load the stuff up, I am running out of room. I have a huge inventory of rhodys and they keep needing bigger pots. This spring I hope its warmer and people come when the early ones bloom as I have an overage of them, people buy what they see bloom and the spring this year sucked.

I hope the service goes well Gypsy. Not too many tears....more good memories I hope.

I was waiting for someone to ask, Rebecca. A lot of them were sold out, but I ordered Black Magic, Iced Champagne, Minnesota, Quasar, and White Gem -- two of each.

Liz, which fuchsia did you mean? This one was at UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens so not mine:
Took this one at Annie's and another in SF Botanical Gardens, tried it twice, real cold tender, gave up:

I've tried to grow both of those. They don't survive the winter in zone 9.

Great selections Zuzu, I had to go peek at her website to go see them, she has so many, it would be so hard to chose!

How can anyone not love lamb? It's my favorite food, and I love many tuings.

But I hate coconut. The first time I was exposed to it, we were vsiting neighbors and I had to be polite. They passed around a box of candy and I got this awful mouthfull of shredded yuck in chockolate. I held it in my mouth for hours, until we left and I could spit it out.

Never again!

Corey

P.S. Miracle Whip is an abomination (YMMV). The only miracle is that they acheived the impossible: how could anyone possibly make MAYONAISE taste bad?

I wanted a lot of the sold-out ones, Sue. I was happy to see that she's carrying some of the varieties we used to buy at Empire. I hope her Voodoo cuttings grow quickly. I have two Voodoos now and they're so gorgeous that I want them in every shady corner of the garden.

I remember liking real lamb, but mutton is too fat for my taste, and all of the lamb they sell here in the United States is really mutton.

I like coconut, but I hate licorice -- the taste and the smell. I have some pesky anise plants in my garden that refuse to die, and I get sick from the smell every time I have to pull them out of the ground.

The worst smell of all, though, is lemon balm. It actually makes me dizzy.

Edited to change lemon verbena to lemon balm. I have nothing against lemon verbena.

I don't like licorice either, throw out all the black jelly beans.

Well I think you guys need to give bolivian fuchsia another try. I am zone 9 and its hardy here. If we get a hard winter with a lot of frost it dies to the ground but always come back and comes back strong. I take one of each, the red and the alba and put them in the greenhouse over winter and they do not lose leaves, it goes to about 30 degrees in there. If the winter is too cold you will not get the cool bark but they come back and you will get blooms. If you can grow brugmansia you can grow these, both die down in a hard winter but come back.

They are easy from cuttings. I did my first one from seed, got a ripe fruit, just squashed it in a pot with soil, watered it and about 100 seedlings came up. I have one now that came from seed in the gravel in the greenhouse floor, its about 4 feet now. I like both colors but if I had to choose, I would choose the all red one.

I will have ripe berries soon if anyone wants some I can send some fresh squashed up berries. I know I have some on the alba, but can check the red one as well. I had never done fushsia from seed except this one, but someday I am going to try some of the others, as they are hybrids you may get some really cool ones.

I also got some iochroma from seed, I found a ripe seed pod and squashed it in a pot of something else, and they are growing well, but I did not label so have no idea which one it is. I didn't expect any to sprout.

I hate licorice, the taste and the smell, but I love coconut in any form.

I am going to check out those fuchsias, I have 2 of them, not the others.

You said:

"If you can grow brugmansia you can grow these, both die down in a hard winter but come back."

I can't grow Brugmansias here. They die in the winter and never come back. Or they do what the Tibouchina does: Comes back so late that the frost kills it again before it has had time to bloom.

Then you are a touch colder then me. Even though we can both be zone 9, where my uncle lives, its a depression and he gets hit with more cold than I do, he is just a couple miles from me. Lots of time he will have frost when I have none. Well if you have a garage you can drag it in, its worth a little effort. You can probably grow Fanfare, its sold by Annies. Does real well here and a little tougher but a huge awesome bloom. Nice foliage as well. It gets about 5-6 feet here and loses leaves in winter but does not die to the ground, usually.

I gave up on tibochina, looks crappy for 11 months, you start to get some blooms and its gone. I don't do it anymore but they used to do really well here. The weather has changed so much, I also have trouble with abuliton for the same reason. But I have not totally given up on them, red tiger abuliton is so beautiful I will keep hoping for better winters.

I LOVE iochroma, just planted a red one and brought a couple of cuttings of the huge purple one I left behind, the hummingbirds loved it. It was over 8 ft tall. The new owner cut it down, dug it up, his mother-in-law mistakenly said it was poisonous (thought it was a brugmansia) Ugh!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/... (all my 2010 images are on my PC, not the laptop I am currently using, I need to still transfer them ober)

I have Fanfare. Those big Fuchsia bushes with the little blooms have no trouble surviving the winter here. They don't even die back in winter. I always have to chop off at least half of the growth in February. Those fancy Bolivian ones, though, are less hardy.

I grew Iochroma here for a few years, Sue, but one winter a couple of years ago was just too cold for them.

It's odd that you have trouble with Abutilon, Rebecca. I don't grow them, but everyone else around here does.

Our winters have extended into spring and the result is cold and damp weather. Things that used to be great plants now struggle into summer to come out of the winter uglys. My abulitons are just now coming around and its almost the end of July. Still not totally leafed out.

I hope you are not meaning that fanfare has a small bloom. Mine has a huge bloom. For tiny flowers my Isis fuchsia blooms all winter, is about 4 feet or so and the hummingbirds choose it over the feeders. I find that some of the ones with the tiniest flowers are the ones they prefer. But they do like them all.

Sorry Gypsy, still talking about fuchsias, I think you told us to shut up about it, seems we did not listen to you.

Sue, I assumed your pics were from your garden - obviously, I shouldn't assume. Now, of course, I remember that you take beautiful pics wherever you go. If you couldn't grow the bolivian fuchsia in SJ, then I'm probably out of luck where I live.... although my brugs do okay - they lose their leaves, but come back. Tibouchina do well up here (& the deer don't eat them), as do abuliton - another one of my favorites (& a favorite of the deer)! Our temps are probably a bit more moderate than your's were in SJ - we're a few degrees warmer than Redwood City, in the winter & a few degrees cooler in the summer. Lochroma is new to me (no big surprise) & I definitely need to think about it - it's gorgeous & my hummers would love it!

Zuzu, although I love to support Pedrick's Corner, I've had reasonably good luck rooting cuttings from my fuchsia. In fact, she gave a very thorough tutorial on rooting cuttings on DG thread... though, this spring, I just stuck cuttings in the soil (same pot the fuchsia's in) & some of them seem to be taking... My tibouchina cuttings also seem to be perky, so far, - hadn't succesfully rooted those since my kids were small. Haven't had any luck rooting abuliton thus far, but also haven't had many cuttings, since I planted 4" pots a couple of years ago.

You're right, Rebecca. I mistook Fanfare for a different Fuchsia.

Liz, I would always rather buy a plant than root my own cuttings, especially a $3 plant. Cuttings are just one more thing to keep track of, and I always seem to be behind schedule on everything as it is.

Plus who wants more of the same you already have when you can get something brand new?!!
I took some cuttings of things from my last garden, almost everything took thankfully! That plum iochroma, a couple of salvias, (Black and Blue and Costa Rica Blue), a favorite variegated butterfly bush 'Santana', http://davesgarden.com/guides/...
my favorite Osteospermum 'Marbella', an abutilon with huge leaves, and a gorgeous Orange Cestrum http://davesgarden.com/guides/...

Long day today...some good, some not so good. Went to Donna's memorial service. Really didn't want to go, but glad that I did. It was a beautiful service and she was an exceptional lady. lived her life to the fullest.

Got to see some of my favorite people and we went for a great lunch after the service....



Left to Right...weegy / scrwylouie on ATP, Kathleen, Kathleens' husband, John and Marie / desertdenial.