I went more than a little crazy late last year in placing mail orders for plants. Over the past couple of weeks, they've started arriving on the front porch one after another. Pre-sales are particularly troublesome for me. Despite keeping electronic copies of my orders, as well as handwritten lists, I lose track of what I ordered. On a trip to Roger's Garden last month, I picked up a few new Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) on a whim, completely forgetting that I'd ordered four dozen of the plants from Burpee back in mid-December. That order has yet to ship but several others have already arrived, including two dahlia orders containing twelve tubers I didn't need, as well as an order of twenty Caladium bulbs I'm not sure where I should plant. (Some will end up in pots.) However, I did manage to get three lily bulbs and twenty gladiola corms in the ground last week relatively promptly, and I potted up another order I received as well.
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| These are Alstroemerias from Easy to Grow Bulbs. The 2 in front are 'Inca Coral', which looked a little worse for wear when they arrived. The 2 in the back are 'Inca Lucky', which look better but, as I'm planning to remove a significant number of shrubs in an effort to harden our landscape against fire risk within the next month, I expect all 4 plants will be useful in filling some of the space left empty following that exercise. |
This week, I planted out a recent order of succulents I'd placed with Mountain Crest Gardens.
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the order contained 3 Crassulas, 2 Aeoniums, 3 Echeverias, a bare root Mangave, and 2 Semponiums. The Semponiums are intergeneric hybrids of Sempervivum and Aeonium species. They're supposed to be more cold hardy than Aeoniums but, as Aeoniums grow like weeds in my climate (and Sempervivums do not), they may be a silly purchase on my part. (Note: I'm not sure why the Mangave arrived with a Proven Winners label.) |
As all these plants are relatively small, I'd originally planned to place them in temporary pots to bulk up before planting them in the ground but I changed my mind on that in some cases and found spots to tuck them into the garden.
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| Aeonium dodrantale (aka Greenovia and mountain rose) is relatively small even when mature so it got a home in a small pot in my lath house |
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| Variegated Aeonium lancerottense, shown on the upper left, sits next to a noID Aloe and groundcover Ruschia nana in the succulent bed in front of our garage. It's reputed to grow up to 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. |
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| I'm treating the 3 Crassula nudicaulis (aka devil's horns) as small groundcovers to fill spaces between larger Echeverias on the moderate front slope |
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| The pinkish Echeveria agavoides 'Romeo' should get 6-8 inches tall and 8 inches wide and cover some of the bare space in the same front slope bed |
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| Mangave 'Thunderbird' landed in a pot and currently sits alongside other potted succulents near the back door |
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| I'm trying out Semponium 'Sienna' in the garage front succulent bed |
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| Semponium 'Vortex' received a pot in my lath house, where it can bulk up for a time |
According to my records, there are four plant orders still outstanding. In addition to the Lisianthus I mentioned earlier, these include a mix of plants from one seller (Begonia, Cuphea and Coleus), Geraniums from another seller, and three 'Zeba' lily bulbs I ordered last July after I fell in love with the flowers during the Puget Sound Garden Fling. The latter has been shipped (apparently on a slow boat from Holland).
Meanwhile, the rain total for the water year (counted from October 1, 2024) for my area stands at a paltry 6.17 inches. There's little chance of rain in the ten-day forecast but there's currently a longer range projection of a sixty percent chance of rain on April 3rd. What are we going to do when the sharp cuts to staffing at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) ordered by the current administration take effect, disabling the country's ability to anticipate serious weather events?
I'm hoping your weather is mild and that you enjoy the first weekend of the spring season.
All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
Many of us went a little crazy and absent minded late last year. I blame it on the political climate. As the song goes: 'whatever gets you through the night'... Of the many ways out there to lift one's spirit, plant shopping is a rather wholesome one.
ReplyDeleteThe 'fillers' on the front slope are adorable. I wouldn't know how fast they grow, but it would be nice to get an up date (before and after?) when they do.
Chavli
Yes, I was struggling to distract myself even before the new administration started swinging the wrecking ball. In addition to puttering in the garden, I've currently been reading one "cozy" mystery after another for that purpose.
DeleteI expect the Echeveria agavoides are going to take 2 or more years to reach a decent size but hopefully the Aeoniums and Semponiums will grow much faster.
I do love getting plants in the mail but I have not placed a mail order in years. Fortunately, I can often find a plant nearby but I am noting that more and more nurseries are closing. :(
ReplyDeleteThe only plant I can think of that I want this year is the 'Tara' ginger. I have tried several with nary a bloom but someone told me that 'Tara' was the only variety that would bloom here. One of my favorite nurseries has it but they are at least 45 minutes away and involves driving through Portland which I try to avoid. I may go the mail order route but I dread checking the shipping cost. :o
I hope you find your ginger, Phillip! You have an impressive number of top caliber nurseries/garden centers in the PNW, which SoCal can't claim. Although I should probably travel more broadly on my plant searches than I generally do, Los Angeles freeways aren't much fun to drive, which makes mail order delivery more appealing. When it comes to bulbs, the local pickings tend to be mundane so I almost always look to the mail order nurseries for those.
DeleteI cannot imagine having that many mail orders to look forward to (or forget about). It's very rare that I mail order. Of course as you noted in your reply to Phillip, we do have a lot of great nurseries to shop here in the PNW, but for me I just can't stomach spending money on shipping... that's money I could spend on more plants! Plus I like to see what I'm buying in person. As for NOAA, I am worried.
ReplyDeleteI don't generally order from nurseries that charge a lot to ship, like Plant Delights, where the shipping costs are close to the cost of the plants themselves (which are high to begin with!). I considered Annie's fairly reasonable but a) they were based in California and b) their plants were always in light 4-inch pots. In the past, most of my mail orders have been bulbs. However, late last year I went off the rails in ordering plants. The biggest downside there is the damage inflicted on them during shipping as shown by my Alstroemeria purchase. Although most sellers label their boxes "this side up," I seldom find them positioned that way on the front porch (not that I can blame the delivery people for that).
Delete"One mail order delivery after another," that's the best title!
ReplyDeleteI used to grow caladium when water was (seemed) plentiful. I love their foliage so much. Maybe I should grow a few in a pot?
Mountain Crest Gardens: I have an order being delivered today, all echeverias, including another Echeveria 'Romeo' like the one you have.
The Semponium 'Sienna' I was given has done very well. Honestly, if I saw it without knowing what it was, I'd think it's simply an aeonium.
As I recall, I've only grown Caladium bulbs once before and that was in pots, precisely because I could manage their water requirements more easily. What possessed me to order so many of them (other that they were packaged in sets of 10 bulbs) is the big question. The majority, if not all, will probably end up in pots unless I find an especially damp spot with the right light requirements. I can't really explain my decision to order Semponiums either beyond basic curiosity. I don't need a cold hardy version of an Aeonium.
DeleteI forgot about Zeba ! I was going to orders those too along with replacing Silk Road which never came up last year . I ordered more Dahlias I didn't need as well. The leaf miner situation has gotten so bad I think after this year I might take a hiatus from Dahlias for a year or two to hopefully reduce the population.
ReplyDeleteI have a serious dahlia addiction. I know I don't have spots for all the dahlias I saved from last year's "crop" to start with. As all my new ones come in packs of 2, I expect I'm going to give away a lot of the duplicates. I haven't had any significant issues with leaf miners but, having heard that others have, I applied Neem oil spray once they sprouted last year and I expect I'll do that again this year.
DeleteI wonder if the leaf miner problem on the dahlias is actually virus. It's a pretty bad problem and rampant among the growers. They look kind of similar. After removing all my prized dahlias and not growing any for a year, I started some from seed but even the seed was infected. So I just gave up and enjoy them anyway, and pull the really bad ones. The flowers are generally ok.
DeleteLeaf miner damage is caused by insect larvae and treatable with products like Neem oil but viruses certainly are not. If you've treated your dahlia plants against insect damage and it doesn't accomplish anything then maybe a virus is involved. I've had some damage to dahlia flowers (affecting their shapes and sometimes color) I've attributed to viruses but I haven't seen evidence of damage to the plants' foliage. However, it's entirely possible there's more than one kind of virus affecting dahlias - I just haven't experienced it personally.
DeleteThe leaf miners I have seem to lay eggs into the leaves instead of on the leaves -if I could see the egg cases I would remove them and I inspect closely daily. I think mosaic virus is the most common but I don't think that is my issue. Leaf miner damage is very obvious , as is leaf miner but they look different. Some research I did this winter suggested that in some cases worm castings prevent hatching of leaf miner so I'm incorporating into the first inch of soil after I finish planting my tubers-this was a .edu site so I felt it was worth a try. My flowers always look good but the foliage is so damaged it is likely inhibiting photosynthesis. Of course I'm also growing Dahlias from seed this spring because I am a glutton for punishment.
DeleteInteresting about the worm castings, Kathy. Coincidentally, I've been adding that to my beds when I replenish the soil before planting dahlias in my cutting garden for the last couple of years. All gardens present challenges - it comes down to which are worth facing. Right now I'm obsessing over which plants I should remove - or which I can force myself to remove - in the interest of reducing our fire risks. It's not clear how much the Fire Department will push during their inspections under the new LA County ordinance but I'm trying to get ahead of the game with my own research.
DeleteWell, now you've done it! Haha, I often do the same with bulb ordering. Did the Alsotroemeria perk up? Vortex looks fantastic in the bright yellow pot. You were smart to order the Lisianthus, I tried starting from seed this year. Nope, not one has popped up. I'm awaiting an order from Mountain Crest as well and I couldn't tell you what it contains. :)
ReplyDeleteAlstroemeria 'Inca Coral' looks better but it's still a lot more spindly than 'Inca Lucky' - the former may just be wimpy by nature. I bought some pelleted Lisianthus seeds but I just didn't feel I had the time, patience or equipment needed to grow them from seed. Ordering them from Burpee as seedlings was less painful even though the wait is considerable.
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