Reaching Critical Mass

Even by my own standards, I've spent a lot of time at plant nurseries and garden centers over the past couple of months.  This weekend, a friend and I made our previously delayed trip up north to Carpinteria to shop 2 of our favorite nurseries there, Island View and Seaside Gardens.  I posted on both back in early April so I won't cover either one in any great detail in this post.  (You can find coverage of the earlier visit here.)

Both nurseries had lots and lots of rusty metal stuff for sale, of which the following are just a small sample.

Island View Nursery is still emphasizing succulents and indoor plants.  They had some beautiful bromeliads but they were pricey.

However, the prices on the smaller succulents were good by local standards.  The 4-inch pots were priced at $3.25 each and the 2-inch pots were $1.50 each.  They had a good selection, although nothing really unusual.

I picked up 3 ferns and a few succulents.

My Island View purchases, 3 mother ferns (Alpenium bulbiferum) and assorted unlabeled succulents

At Seaside Gardens, I took a look around the demonstration gardens before making any plant purchase decisions.  Whereas California poppies and flowering succulents made the biggest statements at the time of our April visit, on this occasion grasses, Salvias, Tagetes lemmonii and Leucadendron dominated the landscape.

Salvia 'Purple Magesty'  (unfortunately unavailable for purchase)

Tagetes lemmonii (aka Copper Canyon daisy)

Here's what I took home from Seaside this trip:

Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' (available in a 1-gallon size!), Phormium 'Tiny Tiger', Dampiera trigona 'Purple Wire', Sollya heterophylla (an Australian native I grew years ago and have rarely seen since) and a solar gazing ball (it was 1/2 price)

I also stopped back at the Marina Del Rey Garden Center on my way home from my friend's house to pick up some more Alternanthera tenella I wasn't able to find elsewhere plus some other items I felt I "needed."

Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red', Salvia 'Wendy's Wish', and assorted unlabeled succulents

And I haven't even mentioned the side trip I took to Roger's Gardens on my way to another appointment last week, or my trip to Armstrong to pick up general supplies.  The good news is that I'm reaching critical mass in my backyard border, the new side yard area, and my dry garden.  However, I haven't done much of anything with the front border, the vegetable garden, the garden beds on the other side of the house, the slope...