More New Plants!

It's been 3 weeks since my last new plants report.  It's time for another!  Last Saturday, a friend and I drove north to visit some of our favorite plant nurseries as we do at least twice a year.  Our first stop was Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria.

We were greeted by this Gulf Fritillary upon our arrival

Unfortunately for my pocketbook, the nursery seemed especially well stocked

Pentas and Salvias on this table attracted bees, butterflies and feuding hummingbirds.  I tried to catch a photo of the hummers but they weren't accommodating.

I did get a shot of this Salvia semiatrata with its pink and purple flowers.  I exercised some restraint and did NOT add one of these to my cart.

I almost took home a new-to-me Phormium 'Golden Ray' (shown in the left front section of this stand) but I really couldn't think of anywhere I could put it

We toured the demonstration gardens too; however, I didn't take many photos because the light was harsh.

I was shooting into the sun here but, even if a little blurred, I still thought the scene was pretty enough to share

The grasses were abundant

And of course the Succulent Garden always looks good

I found this plant with its red grape-like fruit interesting.  We couldn't find a label but my friend remembered seeing it at The Huntington Gardens and said the fruits are poisonous.  After a little on-line digging, I identified it as Cyphostemma juttae.

After a quick stop at a garden center down the road, we went in search of lunch as we were starving and our usual haunt was closed for a private party.  Feeling sluggish after lunch and given that I'd already mostly filled my friend's car with plants from Seaside, we made just one more stop.

This is Terra Sol, located in Goleta (near Santa Barbara)

It was late in the afternoon when we got back to my friend's house and, facing close to a 2-hour drive south in traffic to my own home, I got on the road fairly quickly after loading up my trunk.

Here's what my car's trunk looked like before I unloaded it.  For the record, I've done worse - I didn't even have to lower the back seats to hold my purchases this time.

Here's a photo of my haul spread out in my cutting garden

I've done relatively well getting most of these plants in the ground so let me give you a closer look at those I'm most excited about.

This is Correa 'Sister Dawn', which looks remarkably like Correa 'Dawn in Santa Cruz', a plant I've been seeking for years

This is Grevillea nudiflora 'Medusa', a selection from Jo O'Connell's Australian Native Plants Nursery offered by Seaside.  As we weren't able to fit in a separate stop at ANPN, I was thrilled to find this and a couple of other of Jo's plants.  This one's a low-growing ground cover.

This one also came from Jo's nursery.  It's Isopogon anemonifolius.  It doesn't look like much here but you can find a photo of it in flower here.

This is Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny', which produces attractive flower-like bracts (which you can see here).  I needed another Leucadendron, didn't I?  I think this makes 21 now.

I fell prey to a Fuchsia of all things, even though those I have in my shade house didn't do all that well this year.  This is Fuchsia 'Hawkshead', which supposedly can get by on a moderate amount of water.  I've tucked it into a mostly shaded area protected by our front hedge.

This was also an impromptu purchase, although that could perhaps be said for a large number of the plants I buy.  This is Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses', reputed to be a drought tolerant perennial ground cover in my area.

The 2 Lomandra hystrix 'Tropic Belle' on either side of Phormium 'Maori Queen' here came from Seaside.  I use a lot of Lomandra as a grass substitute,  mostly the 'Breeze' variety.  I had 2 'Lime Tuff' in this position previously but I was never happy with that cultivar.

This is one of the few plants I still need to get into the ground but I've selected its spot.  It's Senna artemisioides (aka Cassia artemisioides).

I'd like to say that's all the plants I've purchased this November but that would be a lie.  I got some recent mail order purchases planted in the last week as well.

The Heuchera 'Marmalade' here came from Annie's Annuals & Perennials.  It's supposed to hold up better to heat that most Heuchera.  We'll see!

At least planting and puttering in my garden provides a temporary distraction from the daily news feed, which has become essential to my sanity.  I hope you manage to find pleasant distractions to take your mind off things this weekend.  Best wishes.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party