Headed home, plants in tow

Plants!
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

We're headed home from GWA with a van full of plants. Counting all of the larger plants and small 4-inch pots, we must have close to 75 plants in the van with us. And miraculously, we still had room for our luggage. We're hoping to get home by mid-afternoon so that we can start getting them in the ground. Right now our ETA is 3pm, but the rain could slow us down.

Plant Delights Nursery

Plant Delights Nursery
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

Today we visited Plant Delights Nursery as part of the Garden Writers Association symposium. Holy cow--it was amazing.

I tried to exercise some restraint and ended up buying five plants: two cannas (of course), an agave, a river oats, and a funky goldenrod.

I took a bunch more photos on the regular camera and will post them later.

It's that time of year...

Kim and the incredibly tall cannas at Cistus Nursery outside Portland
Originally uploaded by Gardening in a Minute

Admittedly, I've been a lackadaisical blogger for most of 2009. Sorry. I've just been busy. And speaking of busy, it's time for me to hit the road to the annual Garden Writers Association symposium which is taking place in Raleigh, NC. You may recall that I went to last year’s symposium in Portland and took a lot of photos and also blogged about it.



Last year we visited some amazing nurseries likeCistus Nursery and Joy Creek Nursery. As you may recall, I fell head over heels in love with Cistus. This year it could be even more dangerous for me – we’re going to Plant Delights Nursery!

For those of you who don’t already know, Plant Delights is the gardening catalog that true plant geeks salivate over because it has such an amazing array of hard to find plants. Some might even go so far as to call it “hort porn.” And the catalog itself makes for an amazing read. The narratives are witty and remind me of the J. Peterman catalogs in that they’re just as fabulous as the items themselves.

The special treat is that we get to see their on-site garden, which I’ve heard is absolutely amazing. And did I mention that we’re driving a van up there? I would loooooove to pack it full of plants to bring back, but sadly, my budget is super tight right now. I’m telling myself that I can bring back one plant. I’m leaning toward an agave or a yucca, since they’re probably the twp plants that I have the least chance of killing. I’m especially fond of Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard.’** But holy moly—if I wasn’t afraid of killing it, I’d buy a Colocasia gigantea!



We’re also up for three GWA Media Awards. Last year we won a gold award for the “Gardening in a Minute” radio show in the category of “On-Air Talent: Radio.” Fingers crossed that we’ll win gold again this year!

I’ll be sure to take plenty of photos again this year and will try to blog a little bit from the road. Emily’s bringing her laptop and said she’d let me use it.



And just for fun, here’s a shot of a gnome I spotted during one of the garden tours last year. Think we’ll see gnomes in North Carolina? I’m hoping so.



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** The funny thing is that I bought three plants at the Kanapaha Garden Festival this spring that I thought were a cultivar of Y. filamentosa, but it looks like they might be Y. aloifolia ‘Variegata’. I wanted to put them in the new front bed, but the trouble is that they can get up to seven feet tall. Yikes! Sadly, they've been sitting in pots waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. I think I'll put them in the backyard since it's the only place I can think of that gets enough sun and would have enough space.

What's old is new again

Banana in container at Chinese Garden in Portland
Originally uploaded by Gardening in a Minute

Okay, so it's no secret that I've been a blogging slacker. The bottom line is that I've had a lot going on at the office (translation: other stuff that's more pressing than blogging) and I really haven't been doing much in the yard other than trying to keep the grass/weeds from growing into a jungle. It IS summer in Florida, after all!

Those things being said, I figured it was about time that I posted something on this blog, so here goes.

When I was at the Garden Writers Association conference last year in Portland I spotted this clever container. It's actually not a true container -- it's just a section of reed fence wrapped around a basic black pot. How easy is that? I always love it when something can be both good looking and affordable.

Fast forward a few months to the Friends of the Alachua County Library book sale. I was browsing the gardening section (naturally) and found this great book.



Once I got it home and started flipping through it I was amazed to see this project, which was essentially the same pot treatment that I had spotted in Portland. How funny is that?





In case you're interested, I'm posting a few other shots of the book. I think the mid-century interior shots are too cool not to share. As always, you can click on the photos to see them larger (via Flickr).

More office shenanigans

Googly eyed cones in Georgia's car
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

The cycads in front of our office recently produced cones, which meant that it was time for more office pranks.

Last year Georgia discovered one of the cones during an after-work weeding party and was pretty grossed out by it. Naturally, I absconded with it and then put it on her office chair for her to find the next day. She wasn't exactly pleased.

I figured that I needed to step things up a little for this year's cone prank. Given our collective fascination with googly eyes (see my post about another related prank), I figured I couldn't go wrong with adding googly eyes.

Plus, I thought that it would be great to plant the cones in Georgia's car, where she would least expect them. She's been trying to beat the Florida heat by leaving her windows cracked, so it was pretty easy to finagle my way into the vehicle.

Needless to say, she was surprised. In fact, I think she actually kind of liked it.

Now the only question that remains is what prank can I dream up next?

Papaya goes home

Papaya
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

My papaya plant recently made the journey from my office to my house. My co-workers had been very tolerant but it was getting waaaay too big to sit on my desk any longer. Poor Jen could hardly see out the window any more.

So far it's adjusting well. I think it might be getting a little sunburned (see photo), so I moved it into a spot where it only gets direct sun in the morning.



The good news is that it hasn't dropped the fruit that was already forming, and there's now another fruit on the way. In fact, the first fruit is getting pretty big -- about the size of a small lemon. Maybe I'll eventually have a ripe papaya that's big enough to eat!



And speaking of big, the plant itself is now about three and a half feet tall and three feet wide. Wow! It's so much bigger than it was here and even here. It's amazing that it fit in the back of the SUV. One month more and I might've had to resort to renting a flatbed trailer.

Slowly but surely...

Slowly but surely...
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

The mulch is finally spread! I couldn't have moved that giant pile alone and am incredibly grateful for the help I received. (Thanks!) Doesn't the bed just look great? I couldn't resist plopping a few plants on top of the mulch just to see what the final result might end up looking like. I can't wait to get the plants in the ground!

Of course, now I'm realizing that I should redo the bed that runs along the front of the house. It looks pretty scrappy in comparison to the new bed. One step at a time though, right?