Well, I guess all said & done, the Hunt today was successful. It almost wasn't. Lots of disappointment today, but lots of goodstuff, too.
Got up early this morning to be on the road to Paulino's Nursery. Today's the first day that they start selling their roses. I was one of the very first people to buy from their stock, and I was not impressed. I went there looking for Ketchup & Mustard, Twilight Zone, Sugar Moon, and possibly any blue rose I could find (specifically Blueberry Hill). For the past 4 years that I've been looking at their roses, the first weekend of May is always their sale where the roses are $20 (normal price is around $29.99). I had the expectation to spend about $100 there. Imagine my surprise when I saw that A) they had but only Sugar Moon & K_M (only blue roses they had were Blue Girl, Intrepid, Heirloom, Neptune, & Ebb Tide), and B) the roses were $31.99. Little bit more than I wanted to spend. Not to mention that I just really didn't see any Sugar Moons there that I felt that should come home with me. I did pick up a Ketchup & Mustard, but was a bit disappointed that there was hardly any scent. So there I go, with only 1 rose in tow when I was expecting a lot more. I went up to the counter to pay, handing the young lady a $100 bill. She looks at it like it's a bug or something, then is a bit pissy because she can't break it so needs to get change. Bleh, this is my fault how?
However, life became much much much better when I went to my next nursery, Timberline Gardens. Tabby here is the one who suggested it & I had picked up a Groupon for $40 worth of stuff for $20. I'm willing to try it out. And boy am I glad I did! Holy guacamole did I get myself into trouble! Not only were their roses all the most beautiful 3gal Weeks roses, they were also only $25!!! Score!! So Chris Evert, Sunstruck, Sugar Moon, & Marilyn Monroe came home. That was only $103, I had $40 in a groupon and $65 in change from Paulino's. It's official, I'm now broke. That's OK, I have one more Groupon to spend clear across the city (I'm already clear across the city from home, about 34 miles from home).
My timing was off by about 30 minutes, so I had like 30 minutes to kill before lunchtime. Since I wasn't too terribly far off, I decided to hit this one Home Depot in the middle of Lakewood that I always manage to find good stuff at. So down we wander to that particular Home Depot (off of Wadsworth & Colfax for anyone interested in mapping this). It's a fairly new Home Depot, only about 5-6 years old, and built definitely NOT for the garden center. They usually end up taking up half the parking lot for their plants because the way it was built can't really support the amount of garden supplies they get in. I saw that their rose stock had been depleted pretty heavily because roses have been on sale for $8.88 since Thursday, so I figure I'll just get some petunias & then check the extreme back of the store where the docks are. And boy did I hit the jackpot! There was a single virgin pallet hidden between a bunch of metal shelves that had either Red Masterpiece/Touch of Class roses or evergreens. And on this pallet were some of the most beautiful Blue Girl roses I'd ever seen. I'm drooling over these roses! There wasn't a broken cane or a nasty leaf on any of the plants.. there was about 20-22 plants on this pallet. However, there is no way for me to get my cart back there as I have to squeeze my fat butt between the shelf-units to get to that pallet. And that's when I started to unload the pallet myself (which I've done plenty of times). I'd look at one rose, determine if the budunion was big/strong enough, and then either reject it onto the extreme top shelf of the shelf unit next to me, or skooch my way back to my car w/rose in hand. I was waddling back to my car with a 2gal rose bucket in each hand when I saw an older Hispanic lady making her way to my cart. And I don't think it's because she wanted the petunias hanging on the side of the cart.. my purse was in plain view. So I zipped rather quickly to my cart & gave her a Look Of Death (not to mention I topped her by almost a foot.. don't wanna piss off a 6' 300lb woman with 2 roses in her hands). She backed away from my cart & kinda ran over to her husband's side, who was loading soil onto a flatbed cart. I then repositioned the cart so that my purse was much much closer to me and was never more than 3 feet away from it. I limited myself to only 5 (!) roses from this section (all mismarked.. all marked as "Intrigue") and checked out. Of course these were still on sale for $8.88, PLUS! I had a $5 off of $50 coupon, so made out like a fat-rat there.
I had planned on going to a restaurant that was new to me (a American Indian eatery.. supposed to be Pueblo style & I miss home-style food like that as I don't get down to NM very often). So DH & I wander off in that direction to the restaurant. YUCK. Not only was it a bit overpriced ($21 for 2 fry breads & 2 waters), but it was also incredibly bland yuck food. DEFINITELY not going back there again.
From lunch wandered down south to Silver Sage Nursery. And, I was a bit disappointed there. They had gotten a shipment of roses, Tiffany, Touch of Class, and Chicago Peace. That was it. OK, so I'll get a lilac or two. All they had were the "chinese" lilacs, which I don't like (Chinese lilacs smell almost as good as a French lilac, but the Chinese lilacs don't make for good cut flowers and the flowers themselves are much much smaller and not as wide-petaled as the French lilacs). So struck out there. Hmm.. looks like this place carries mostly trees.. ok, so maybe they have a mimosa? Nope, the guy (who's incredibly cute) doesn't have a clue. Never even heard of a mimosa (other than the drink). Ugh!! Well, I have $30 to spend.. what to get? DH sees something, asks if they grow here? Sure, Salvia grows VERY well here. So got 2 Dark Knight & 1 Sensation Rose Salvia. Tada, spent the $30, no problems.
So all & all, had a successful hunt. Got some gorgeous roses, got to check out 2 new nurseries, and had fun buying purdy stuff. Spent the afternoon planning on where to put some of these roses and weeding.. and weeding.. and weeding some more. Ugh! It never ends!
The back of the van with the 3gal Weeks roses & 2 salvias. I had lifted the back seats out of their "stow'n'go" position so I had a well to put things into.
The side of the van with all the Blue Girls & one salvia / petunias.
Sunstruck (third picture you can see the Chris Evert in the back)
Ketchup & Mustard
