Road trip!

A friend and I made our Spring sojourn to our favorite garden centers in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties last Saturday.  I've posted on all of them before but there's always something new to see or admire so I'm sharing the highlights of those visits.

Our first stop was Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria.  We were greeted by the resident cat.

We woke him from his nap but he was very polite about it

I make it a habit to stroll through the demonstration gardens to see what's looking good before I make any decisions on plant purchases.

Rosa banksiae 'Alba' was in full bloom in the cottage garden

The California poppies were just getting started in the California native garden

The dry creek bed was bone dry

The Echiums were perhaps a week or two away from taking off

As usual, the succulent garden looked great

I didn't get a good shot here but the combination of Agave 'Blue Flame' and Euphorbia milii was wonderful

Osteospermums had taken over the Mediterranean garden

Fuchsia arborescens was in full bloom in the Central/South American garden

I made the rounds of the sale tables.

I made a bee line for the Grevillea table as I was on the look out for 'Moonlight'.  At long last, now that I was no longer looking for it, I also found reasonably priced Yucca 'Bright Stars' in among the succulents.

I was intrigued by this new-to-me Melaleuca incana but, at $120 for the pot and with no idea where I'd put it, I left it and Yucca 'Bright Star' behind

As usual, I spent most of my money at Seaside but, on this occasion, my purchases actually included one plant that had been on my shopping list, Grevillea 'Moonlight'.  I picked it up in a 1-gallon container and it'll probably be a year or more before it blooms but, after killing my first one, I'm hoping I've found the right spot for this one.

'Moonlight' gets taller than any of my other Grevilleas but I'm going to try to keep it pruned to an 8-foot height

After a lunch break, we stopped at Island View Nursery, which is perhaps a mile from Seaside.  When we were there in October, we discovered that they were under new ownership and expanding their greenhouses, purportedly with the intent of developing a significantly larger collection of bromeliads.  That was still a work in progress.  The plant inventory hadn't changed much.

My only photo from Island View

Our last stop this trip was Terra Sol in Goleta, not far from the UC Santa Barbara campus.  It's much smaller than Seaside but it always has a nice selection of healthy plants.  And, on this visit, I found another of the plants on my shopping list.

They have a nice selection of succulents but, this time I didn't buy any of those, although I did check out the pots.  The trailing jade plant (Kleinia petraea) in the pot on the upper left impressed me.  If only mine developed that rosy color.

My friend came home with two small succulents.  I came home with 18 plants.

This is my Seaside haul.  On the left are Justicia rizzinii, Grevillea 'Moonlight' and Eriophyllum lanatum 'Siskiyou'.  On the right are Begonia luxuriens (a gamble as it may struggle to survive even in my shade house), Plectranthus argentatus, and Fuchsia 'Autamnale'.

My lone purchase from Island View was another noID Rex Begonia

From Terra Sol, I took home, on the left, Stachys lavandulifolius and ornamental clover Trifolium repens 'Red Stripes' (2 plants) and, on the right, Gazania 'White Flame' (8 plants)

I consider that a productive trip, especially as I checked both Grevillea 'Moonlight' and Gazania 'White Flame' off my shopping list.  More remarkable still, I've already got all my purchases planted in the garden or their assigned pots in my shade house.  The prospects for rain that weekend aren't all that good, ranging from a 20% chance early Saturday morning to a 40% chance during the early morning hours on Sunday but the odds are better for Monday through Tuesday.  Hopefully, my new plants will benefit from a good soak - eventually.

Best wishes for a peaceful weekend.


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Fall Plant Shopping

Fall is prime planting season here and, with swaths of my garden trashed over the course of our ongoing home remodel and other areas showing the usual stress imposed by our long dry season, I'm anxious to get to work.  I probably should hang back awhile yet but as the Australian Native Plant Nursery (ANPN) in Casitas Springs scheduled a fall plant sale last weekend my friend and I decided to move up our usual fall plant shopping trip.  For me the drive each way is 3-4 hours, depending on traffic, and half that for my friend.

ANPN was our first stop.  Jo O'Connell, the owner/operator, isn't generally open on weekends anymore, which makes it difficult for us to visit.  A weekday trip would put me on the road during peak commuter hours on both legs, adding hours.

There's a plaque at the entrance in the shape of the continent of Australia, decorated with koalas.  We were met by Wallaby, the official greeter, who asks for a tummy rub as the price of admission.

I didn't have an opportunity to ask for an ID on this gorgeous tree-sized shrub but it reminded me of my own Leptospermum 'Copper Glow' - on steroids

Some of the sale offerings (left) and the cashier's shed (right).  That's Jo O'Connell in the orange shirt in the background.

O'Connell and her husband lost their home on the nursery's grounds to the Thomas Fire in December 2017.  They're currently living in what was a guest house at the back of the property but plans are in place to start construction on their new home.  As a resident, Wallaby was exempt from the no trespassing request.

Next, we stopped for a leisurely lunch in Carpinteria about a half hour further north.

Our usual lunch stop in Carpinteria is Garden Market.  We eat on the patio and enjoy the sunshine and plants, like this exuberant Leonotis leonurus.

We also checked out Porch, just a few storefronts down from Garden Market

Our next stop was nearby Seaside Gardens, a garden center we try to visit at least twice a year.  In addition to offering a broad selection of plants, it has a large area devoted to demonstration gardens.  (You can view photos from prior visits here.)

I've picked up numerous Leucadendrons and Grevilleas here but most grow into large plants and I'm running out of room for more

They have a great selection of Phormiums and Cordylines too

These 2 horses mark one entrance into the demonstration gardens

I was somewhere between the California Native Garden and the Central/South American Garden here

This and the next photo were shot in the Succulent Garden

This and the following photo were shot in the Grasslands area

Our last stop was Island View Nursery just one mile away.  This nursery is in the process of changing hands for at least the second time within the decade or so we've included it in our regular run.  While the nursery has a fairly broad supply of outdoor plants, our focus in shopping there has generally involved the succulents, bromeliads and indoor plants it offers.  It's our understanding that the nursery's offerings in that category are about to undergo a major expansion.

Two views of the indoor plants area, composed of 2 huge quonset hut-type structures

As these exterior photos show, the nursery is in the process of adding 3 more structures of similar size.  We were told that they would be used to house an expanded selection of airplants and other bromeliads

So, I had a list of plants I was looking for.  I found none of them on this trip, although I came close in one case at Seaside.  (Right species, wrong cultivar.)  Do you think I came home empty-handed?  Don't be silly.  Here's my haul:

On the left, are Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane', purchased at ANPN, and Cordyline 'Can Can', purchased at Seaside.  In the middle, all purchased at Seaside, are: Plectranthus cordifolium 'Caroline's Citrine', Daphne odora 'Leucanthe' (yes, I can be nuts sometimes!), and 2 Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses'.  On the right is Begonia 'Escargot', which came from Island View.

I'm glad we made the trip last weekend.  Our Santa Ana winds are blowing again and there's another major fire burning to the north of us, relatively close to my friend's home, as well as my brother's house.  We could smell the fire here this morning even though we're a good 50+ miles away.  Wildfires have been a fact of life here but they're definitely more frequent and more vicious than those in my childhood years.  The current fire is still only 13% contained with 7500 acres burned.  Twenty-five homes in the valley I grew up in have already been destroyed.


All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

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...