Stop me before I buy more!


It could have been inspiration brought on by chatting with Sally Cunningham, our local guru, on her radio show. Cunningham advised a listener who wanted late summer flowers to go to the garden center and see what’s blooming now.

Or maybe it was just lazy Sunday boredom. I finally had enough of puttering around in the yard and needed an outing. A couple of Buffalo-area nurseries are just as good or even better than visiting a botanical garden; they have acres of healthy plants, both outdoors and in the greenhouses, while the area near the cash register is like a gift shop.


First, I visited just one garden (tiny bit of it above) on the Ken-Ton suburban garden walk—these are inner-ring suburbs that lie close to the Buffalo city limits. Mentee Ron had clued me in to this massive garden last year and I had to see it. It was everything he said it was, and I plan to post on Garden Rant about it Wednesday.

So, after the garden visit and lunch, fully primed for plant buying, I hit Lockwood’s, arguably our best nursery. There I found some fill-in shade plants: I am still tinkering with a couple front beds. I also got some tall purplish meadow plants that I hope will give all the other giants in the sun corral a run for their money. Any plant in this space must be at least 5-6 feet high and must be able to attain that height quickly, before being vanquished by its neighbors. So I bought a filipendula (meadow rue) and a vernonia (ironweed). The shade plants are great blue lobelia, a white Japanese anemone, and a black mondo grass (put out by Hort Couture, a grower I’d never heard of before). And what the heck, how about some annuals for one of the street planters that didn’t make it. There was a three-fer sale on the Proven Winners.

That’s a lot of purchases for August.

Comments

Kylee Baumle said…
That-a-girl! You buy plants because you can't NOT buy plants. I know, because ... well ... I just know. ;-)
Sounds like a perfect Sunday to me. Plant buying...aaahhhhhh. I think in need some plant buying therapy too. I would love to find some Ironweed around here to purchase.
~~ Melissa said…
LOL. I came here for strength. I leave here with a planting buying scheme in mind.

It's been such a great (moist) planting season (Ontario, Canada), I can't resist. This is the first year I can recall where all my newcomers have flourished. Since I'm on a roll, I feel I must get more.

:-)
JGH said…
This time of year, people are always asking me what I want for my birthday, so I just started asking for bulbs and nursery gift certificates. Helps alleviate the guilt of overspending on plants!
McReyes said…
Hi Eal,
I'm Eric from Thailand. Just wanna ask if you are good at identifying flowers? because i have quite a few of flowers and cactuses that i photographed but don't know their names. I think it'll be nice to know so that i can tag my flower photographs. You have a nice blog, i'm glad i discovered it. Thanks in advance Eal. Happy gardening!
Eric

melcrey@gmail.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26754391@N06/
Annie in Austin said…
Instead of stopping you, Elizabeth, I'd rather cheer you on and feel a vicarious thrill while watching you buy prairie plants in August.

It was 105°F here yesterday - the only thing I can buy is more mulch!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Sounds great! I have a cautionary tale for you though. Quite a while ago, I planted Japanese Anemone. It was nice, & it bloomed well. Every year it got bigger. That was nice. Then it started to get a bit too big, so I divided it & gave lots away. Then next year, it got even bigger & started popping up in the path. This year it's a monstrous nightmare that I can't stop. I keep digging up errant pieces & it keeps resprouting from them. I think I'm going to have to dig them all up next spring & replant them inside some kind of barrier.
Anonymous said…
This is going to reveal my ignorance...You can plant stuff in August? I feel so liberated! I've been waiting for inspiration to do some serious weeding. No excuses now. It's good to know it's not too late.
Anonymous said…
Did you buy filipendula or thalictrum? The latter is meadow rue, former usually queen of the prairie, no?

My ironweed probably goes 7 or 8 feet before it flowers. It's a little slow to get started in spring. But once it's established, it pretty much breaks through everything around every year once it decides it's time to get moving.
EAL said…
Craig, it is confusing for sure. I think though you are right; I bought the thalictrum, not the filipendula. I get these tall prairie plants mixed up, big time.
My garden looks so beautiful in my mind's eyes.
I do wish I had green fingers and more of an outdoor personality.
Esmeralda
Chahya said…
Pretty flowers!
Love for shopping..be it for flowers or anything..it's like in the gene..how can we ever get rid of it?*sigh*
CiNdEe's GaRdEn said…
I love to find things that are blooming late in the summer too. It is always fun to have some pretty color for this time of the year. Before th Mums kick in and the Asters. I have Japanese Anenomes and they are not blooming yet. They will bloom in September.
Lulu LaBonne said…
I'm so envious, I'm just gardening vicariously at the moment - I want to buy plants

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