How Am I Going To Get This All Done This Weekend?

It's the most exciting time of year...nope, not Christmas...time to buy the 2010 plants!  First up a trip to North Guilford Nurseries.  I've written about my previous trips there here and here, but today was just as nice.  As usual I found decent prices (about $.50 less per container than a big box store), good quality, and better selection.  I fell in love with this funky coleus:

Other annuals purchased include 2 purple fountain grasses, dichondra silver falls, and another coleus.  I know impatiens aren't very exciting, but they do a great job of adding color to my shady garden and at $10 for the entire flat...well you can't go wrong:

I love that they have unusual vegetable plants for me to buy.  Lots of tomato containers came home with me, probably too many - 2 Purple Cherokee (no idea why I ended up with 2), Brandywine Pink, Hillbilly, Green Zebra, Black Russian, Soldacki, and Roma plus each has container has two plants in it.  I took a lot of photos of plant tags today to help me remember what I bought like these Ivory and Lilac bell peppers:

I stopped home to empty the car and headed over to Home Depot for their perennial sale -- 5 for $10.  Now I am not one of those shoppers who will only buy perennials from a local nursery.  I know how to identify healthy plants (well I guess there's always some element of risk) and if the price is right I'll buy from any vendor.  At $2 per plant, the price was definitely right.  I came home with a purple, pink, blue, and white creeping phlox (phlox subulata), an English daisy (bellis perennis 'Habanera'), Palace Purple heuchera, two Snow HIll salvias, Europa astilbe (astilbe japonica 'Europa'), and Coral Bells Purple Palace (heuchera micrantha):

 

Some will go into the large new container on the stump and some will go into containers along the fence in the driveway.  I'm trying to purchase fewer annuals from year to year.  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the phlox yet since I completely forgot it only blooms in the spring, but maybe evergreen foliage in a pretty pot will work.  Or perhaps I'll go back and get something different instead...like I need an excuse to buy more plants:

I made one more stop at another local nursery, Vaiuso, for calibrachoa and habanero peppers.  All together I spent less than $100 on plants for 2010 including the eggplant and cherry tomatoes I already purchased:

 

Lots of planting to get done this weekend, but no rain in the 10-day forecast either.  I am going to be so tired on Sunday.

Comments

[Debbie]

Heather,

You will be busy this weekend, won't you? I have a thing for coleus too and always try to buy a few different ones each season. I don't think I've ever seen the ivory peppers before...do you know if they are sweeter than the green ones? I grew purple peppers last year and almost hated to harvest them because they looked so good on the vine.

Happy Planting!

[mummer]

Coleus have a long and honorable history, particularly in Victorian times.
May I have a seed-head from your 'funky'
one? It will be a happy perennial here.
Also, I'll trade you very sweet Marconi pepper seeds for some of your Ivory ones when the time comes - I've never seen them before.

[Heather's Garden]

Debbie -- Ivory peppers are new to me, but I'll be sure to post on them through the growing season. I had the same problem with purple peppers!

Mom -- If it grows well I'll probably take a few cuttings this year to grow inside over the winter for next season and if so I'll bring one down to you at Thanksgiving. I'll try to remember to save some seeds from the ivory peppers.