Well, ok, it wasn't midnight. It was about quarter to 10pm, as they close at 10pm. Today was a miserable day.. 102 deg was the official high, which broke the previous high record. DH & I stayed in the basement most of the day as it's very cool & comfy down there w/the AC and fans running. DH is from Northern European stock, which means that he's a bit on the fuzzy-wuzzy side. That's a lot nicer than saying that his mother dallied with a bear and that's why he's so frickin' hairy. Anyways, he wasn't feeling well due to the extreme heat, so we stayed downstairs doing stuff that I'd been wanting to do for some time. At around 5:30ish, we finally adjourned upstairs and worked in the kitchen as I wanted to change out the shelving in the kitchen to give me more space. After we broke everything down, that's when I realized that I wanted to paint it, too. By this time, it's about 8pm, so we got a bite to eat & wandered off to Walmart & Home Depot to do some shopping. While DH was getting my paint made (I chose "Tiggerific" for the main walls http://www.homedepot.com/Paint... and "Green Acres" for the trim http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/...), I decided to wander out to the garden center and see what kind of trouble I could get myself into.

And boy did I.

For some reason, they'd gotten in a fresh shipment of roses! w007! for me! I picked up only 8 roses.. ONLY 8. But the ones I got.. wow! Now, because of the EXTREME heat, no one had a smell, but I *know* that some of these smell good, so that's why I went ahead and got them. I got:

Henry Fonda (marked correctly)
Henry Fonda (TOTALLY marked incorrectly.. NO idea who this is.. I'll see about getting an individual name tomorrow when I plant it, looks more like my International Herald Tribune, to be honest!)
Honey Dijon
Honey Perfume
Intrepid Red (why do they call it Intrepid red? HMF has it as a bright orange rose! http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...)
Gemini
Angel Face (can't help myself!!!)
Betty Boop (at Home Depot??)

YAY! Now I just have to put everyone in the ground first thing after I paint the kitchen. Then water like hell. And pray. But, for $9.97 ea? Can't beat that with a stick!!

What a beautiful shopping cart! You're my kind of shopper. We could do some real damage together at nurseries.

That's so funny about the orange Intrepid Red. It's a Coiner rose. He was the breeder of my Tantalizing Red, which is a mauve blend.

HMF shows Tantalizing Red as more of a pink.. where did he get the "red" name from? Weird.. huh.

DH is wondering on where I'm going to be putting THESE roses. I told him that I still have plenty of room throughout the yard for more roses.. heheheheheheh Just getting depressed as it's getting close to the end of the growing season and the nurseries are starting to wind down their stock. *sigh* It's such a frenzy with our growing season...

When you have some free time, take a look at the Coiner roses.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

Don't you get the feeling that he named his seedlings before he saw them bloom? Aside from our mauve and orange "Reds," Frivolous Pink is an apricot blend, Hailstorm is pink and white, and Miss Amber is orange.

I have always felt that most men are at least partially color-blind. They should not be allowed to name roses.

Oh, yes, I also wanted to say - what a healthy group of roses you found! I wonder if all Home Depots have received new roses - maybe I'd better go check...

Gosh there carts look the same everywhere you go, huh?! Eh, full!!! ;)

Alan

LOL Alan! You got her pegged!
Great score Toni!
This shot on HMF of Intrepid Red reminds me of the scalloped edges of the new Easy Does It rose.
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Hehehe...well in all honesty, I had the same problem at home depot this weekend, but I can't post it here since my cart wasn't full of roses. I ended up with a beautiful ZZPlant speciman, two beautiful pots and 2 cement turtles. One turtle was for a friend, and one turtle was for me =)

Alan

Alan - Had to figure out what a ZZ Plant is.. nice tropical. You could probably grow that outside, huh. I can't have plants on the inside of my house except for my purple velvet & some African violets.. I have a cat who, given the chance, would eat every plant down to the dirt (has in the past).

I took this one in to the office and have it in my office. No cats here, so houseplants are safe. But the only houseplant I grow is hoya's. Everything else I kill inside the house. I do far better outside. I'm not sure how those would do outdoors here, I've never tried them, but maybe I'll divide some off a plant and see how they do outside.

Alan

Well, didn't get any pictures of my latest shopping spree, but, tonight at Walmart, managed to get a fresh shipment of 4 Butterfly Weed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...), 2 Cardinal Flower (http://plants.usda.gov/java/pr...), 2 purple coneflowers, and 2 blue balloon flowers (http://www.gardenguides.com/13...). All of these were $5/ea! And they have a 1 year guarantee on them, as long as 1) you hang onto the receipt and 2) you take the dead plant back to the original store. Great news for a beginner like me! Plus, every time my LGS has butterfly weed in stock, it's always $14.99-$29.99, depending on the size of the container and they ALWAYS sell out. It's a great plant for this area!! In fact, I think it's even a Colorado native! Can't beat that with a stick!

SCORE!!!

Your Walmart is clearly a lot better than my Walmart - I hate the place!

I've found out the hard way that most of the nurseries here are no longer offering a guarantee on their plants. I love going to Nick's.. they've got some wonderful plants, not the normal plants and have one of the largest selections of coneflowers in town. However, they only guarantee their shrubs & trees.. and then they give you the 3rd degree as to why the item died. Paulino's, the largest nursery in the state I believe, doesn't guarantee any of their plants. Tagawa's, the nursery closest to me, does guarantee all their perennials/shrubs/trees for 1 year and don't fight or fuss if you bring something back, but they cost 1.5-3x what the other places cost. And it's kind of funny as Tagawas also has a wholesale nursery where they supply plants to other nurseries & big boxes! In fact, I was at Nick's this past weekend and saw a plant that had a Tagawa's tag of $14.99 right below the Nick's tag of $8.99.

Go figure. I was able to buy one of those 1gal hex pots of liatris (also known as gayfeather or blazing star) for $18.99 and Tagawa's sells those for $24.99. And sells OUT.

That's why I love the big boxes.. same exact plants, 1/3rd the price, better guarantee. Unless it's something unusual, then I will go to the nurseries. I try to keep a running tab in my head as to how much X store sells X plant and in what condition X plant is at. 2 weeks ago, I got a whole van full of plants for about $52 from Lowes. The plant vendor was there and was clearancing out a TON of plants. I got 5 coral bells (I think Stoplight, but I'm not 100% sure) for $1.22/ea, a purple mist salvia for $4.77, 3 purple flowered ice plants for $0.88/ea.. if they croak, I'm out, what, 2 bucks? LOL! I have NO idea why the coral bells were on clearance.. they were in beautiful shape! Too bad roses are rarely clearanced.. and those that are are usually Knockouts.