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Plant Sale!
Apr. 24th, 2005 07:37 amToday is the VanDusen plant sale in Vancouver.
I'm volunteering at it (I try to support the botanical garden with my time, if only because I learn so much cool stuff in return but, of course, there are other reasons) so I got first crack at the plants yesterday -- all volunteers get to choose six plants before today when the sale actually opens.
I ended up with an acer palmatum 'versicolor' (this has the coolest leaves ever, it's one of those virused japanese maples with purple and white, curly leaves), a little little phyllostachys nigra 'Henon' bamboo (this is a big bamboo with black stems that have sort of a grey powder on them, but it was cheap and little, so it'll take a long time to get that big. I'm not sure if it will actually get that big in the tub where I'll plant it, but we'll see), a whole bunch of baby clematis (Duchess of Edinborough, Countess Lovelace, Victoria's Secret, Guernsey Cream, and Blue Ravine - I feel bad for liking double, foofy flowers), and two azaleas whose names I can't remember, but one has a flower that looks exactly like an oriental lily, and the other has random white striping, with the flowers being white, pink, OR white and pink striped).
I may also snag a 'Reliant' grape today. They had a ton of cool tropical sorta-fruit plants, like strawberry guava, but I'm renting right now and tropicals seem a little chancy. I already have all the native fruits they offer except for 'twinberry'.
There are some fantastic hellebores there, too, and a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, and the whole thing is just really exciting. I'm working in the rhododendron section and it's neat to see what is new this year from last, and really just to see what's available. Rhododendrons are dead common around here as landscape shrubbery, but when you look at flora plena or 'Amadeus' or 'Vincent VanGogh' or 'Franklin Roosevelt' or 'Black Satin' they become interesting again (yeah, I have a thing for bicolours and variegation too).
I love volunteering, as well, because when they open the gates in the morning the die-hard looking-for-something-rare gardeners are all lined up outside and they have their wheelbarrows (to carry their plants) and they run in over the horizon to get their favourite stuff before anyone else. Things settle down quickly, but the morning is always entertaining to watch with all those gardeners running towards you.
If you're in Vancouver come on down between 10am and 4pm. :)
I'm volunteering at it (I try to support the botanical garden with my time, if only because I learn so much cool stuff in return but, of course, there are other reasons) so I got first crack at the plants yesterday -- all volunteers get to choose six plants before today when the sale actually opens.
I ended up with an acer palmatum 'versicolor' (this has the coolest leaves ever, it's one of those virused japanese maples with purple and white, curly leaves), a little little phyllostachys nigra 'Henon' bamboo (this is a big bamboo with black stems that have sort of a grey powder on them, but it was cheap and little, so it'll take a long time to get that big. I'm not sure if it will actually get that big in the tub where I'll plant it, but we'll see), a whole bunch of baby clematis (Duchess of Edinborough, Countess Lovelace, Victoria's Secret, Guernsey Cream, and Blue Ravine - I feel bad for liking double, foofy flowers), and two azaleas whose names I can't remember, but one has a flower that looks exactly like an oriental lily, and the other has random white striping, with the flowers being white, pink, OR white and pink striped).
I may also snag a 'Reliant' grape today. They had a ton of cool tropical sorta-fruit plants, like strawberry guava, but I'm renting right now and tropicals seem a little chancy. I already have all the native fruits they offer except for 'twinberry'.
There are some fantastic hellebores there, too, and a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, and the whole thing is just really exciting. I'm working in the rhododendron section and it's neat to see what is new this year from last, and really just to see what's available. Rhododendrons are dead common around here as landscape shrubbery, but when you look at flora plena or 'Amadeus' or 'Vincent VanGogh' or 'Franklin Roosevelt' or 'Black Satin' they become interesting again (yeah, I have a thing for bicolours and variegation too).
I love volunteering, as well, because when they open the gates in the morning the die-hard looking-for-something-rare gardeners are all lined up outside and they have their wheelbarrows (to carry their plants) and they run in over the horizon to get their favourite stuff before anyone else. Things settle down quickly, but the morning is always entertaining to watch with all those gardeners running towards you.
If you're in Vancouver come on down between 10am and 4pm. :)
