Mid City Nursery Purchases…

I stopped by our local nursery, Mid City Nursery to see what Coleus they had in stock. As I was walking by, I could smell something fruity and looked around to see what it was. It was a Banana Shrub (Michelia figo). It smelled really good and as I moved close to the plant to smell it more, an employee came over to me and commented how good it smelled.

I then remembered the Strawberry Tree that I saw in the Vallejo Garden Tour and asked her if they sold it. She was really nice and showed me the ones they had. One was in the shrub section, another was in the young fruit tree and another was in the taller landscape tree. She told me it was related to the Manzanita which explained the red bark. She even showed me one that they had in the demonstration garden that was really big. I asked if she ever tasted it and she said that it didn’t really taste good; it’s kind mealy.

I then look for the Coleus and bought two more:
Coleus ‘Black Dragon’ Folia
Coleus ‘Kong Mosaic’ Folia

Coleus 'Black Dragon' Coleus 'Kong Mosaic'

I also purchased this light yellow Daisy-type flower. When I got home I realized it didn’t have a tag, so I don’t know what it is. The brand is Blooms of Glen Ellen and the bar code reads 7-81282-00002-4. I sent an email to Mid City Nursery asking if they can tell me what it is, but I haven’t gotten a response. [Update] It is a Marguerite Daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens). [Update 2] I went back to the nursery and found the tag. It’s Argyranthemum frutescens ‘Madeira Crested Primrose’ Folia.

Unlabeled Flower

3 Ornamental Grass Plantings

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

I planted three of the Ornamental Grasses seeds that I found:
– Purple Fountain Grass (from Costco) ( seed photo )
– Unknown California Rush-like Grass (from shopping center on Mini Dr. & Sonoma Blvd.) ( seed photo )
– Unknown Japanese Rush-like Grass ( from Sears parking lot at the Tanforan Mall in Daly City) ( seed photo )

I also cut down my Coleus ‘Dragon Black’ because it was getting too top heavy and infested with mealy bugs. I’m rerooting the two tops it had in water and will repot once I see roots.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

I wanted to take the day off but my boss already took the day off, so I went to work and it was so dead. I spent a good part of the day going through some of my unorganized photos, deleting duplicates and blurry ones… I usually take multiple shot per subject to ensure at least one being focused correctly.

Once I got home, I went through the whole garden and took a whole lotta photos since it was still fairly bright outside. I noticed that the flamingo flower and siberian iris have started to bloom.

I then did some maintenance, pulling up weeds and overgrown plants being careful to to get the newly emerged ladybugs.

I hope I can take half a day off tomorrow so I can start preparing my bed for new borders-not a task I’m looking forward to doing, but something I really need to do so I can start planting in them.

5 Day Weekend…

Friday, July 1

Today was the start of my 5 day holiday weekend. I had a lot of errands to do so I was only able to do a little bit of maintenance gardening and everything is looking good.

My mom and I went to Mid City Nursery in American Canyon. Even though this nursery is less than 10 minutes away from my house, I’ve never been to it because it closes before I get home from work.

I was very impressed. They had a lot of plants that I normally don’t see in larger garden centers, including some Fuchsias, Coleus and Euphorbias that I liked. I ended up buying 4 plants (I’ll post photos later)

Euphorbia Mozambique
Fuchsia hybrid “Golden Marinka”
Fushsia triphylla “Firecracker”
Coleus “Velvet Lime”

Saturday-Monday, July 2-4

My friend Darwin and I are going to Reno to take a mini vacation and visit my friend Michael. Michael introduced me to Coleus last year and actually gave me my first cutting (unfortunately it didn’t survive). Michael is starting his “Garden Design and Installation” business and I was looking forward to seeing him and his work… So I packed some Coleus I rooted and brought it along with the business cards that I designed for him.

We visited several nurseries and I did buy some plants (I’ll post photos later):

Coleus “Pat Martin”
Coleus “Jade”
Coleus “New Orleans Red”
Coleus “Stained Glassworks Burgundy Wedding Train”
Coleus “Gay’s Delight”
Perilla “Magilla”

Michael also gave me a cute little hypertufa pot that he made planted with a succulent.

Tuesday, July 3

Since this was my last day of the long weekend I wanted to visit the Berkeley Horticultural Nursery again… just to see if they had any new Coleus…. and they did… so I ended up buying five more… I just couldn’t resist.

Coleus “Wild Lime”
Coleus “Wild Lime” (I think this one is mislabeled because it’s different than the previous “Wild Lime”)
Coleus “Exhinition Magma”
Coleus “Rustic Orange”
Coleus “Trailing Rose Frost”

I also noticed another nursery on the way home. So I checked it out and OMG they had a Coleus sale. Buy 3 get one free… So I got four more along with a Euphorbia species. The Coleus were old and already flowering, but I’ll just take cuttings of them and make new plants.

Coleus “Dragon Black”
Coleus “Tabasco”
Coleus “Sunshine Burgundy Sun”
Coleus “Kong Green”

With all these new plants, I stopped by a local store and got a couple of cheap 18 inch pots. I also got Mondo Grass Ophiopogon and “found” some detached baby succulents.

Once home, I did major potting. All in all, I potted 5 succulents, a hanging Fuchsia pot and 3 large pots with Coleus.

I’m sleepy, so that’s it for now… I’ll post some pictures soon…

[edited June 8, 2005: Added missing plant names]