This tuberose is the poster child to remind me that I live in zone 4. Not only did I not get any fragrant flowers, but the plant barely got started growing when it was time to dig it up and move it inside. Three plants from the five bulbs may be great success in zone 4, but I want fragrant flowers!Actually the weather today is a vivid reminder that I live in zone 4. You know it's cold when we look through the binoculars to see if the flag is down on the mailbox before we suit up and trudge down there . No extra trips are being made outside today. It's blindingly white and bitterly cold out there .
We intend to settle down and order seeds,and we did make some progress today, dropping some of the catalogs we know we won't be ordering from into the recycling. With all the catalogs we get, there are way too many choices.
This year one catalog in particular captured my imagination for some reason. High Country Gardens : plants for the water wise garden and beyond is the name of this piece of temptation. This catalog comes from Santa Fe, NM. Something in me balks at ordering plants and having the poor things travel that kind of distance in a cardboard box. Still there is an agave on the front cover that is just sooo BIG!
Something needed to be done so I got a big old black marker and black marked all the plants that were zone 5 and up. Most of the really tempting plants were eliminated. Checking the rainfall map I discovered only non-Xeric plants are recommended for here. Now the temptation is nearly gone. At least it's down to a level where I can move this catalog into the recycling. Oh there is one other thing. The is the only catalog where I have ever seen Ribes odoratum, clove currant, for sale. Of course I have that so I don't need any more, but they do have it.
4 comments:
Hi Becky, You mentioned your clove currant to me in a message on blotanical, then I forgot about it. Now that you bring it up again I went to High Country Gardens online and found it. They say zones 4 to 8, I'm in zone 9. But... my handy Sunset Western Garden Book says it will grow in my microclimate. I'm tempted!
I've gotten the High Country catalog for years, but have never ordered from it; however this year I will... they have a dynamite selection of grasses at very nice prices.
don
I sent my sister a gift certificate to High Country last year. She lives in Baker City, Oregon Zone 6 but it's pretty dry in the summer. Many of High Country's plants grow easily from seed, agastache, salvias...but probably not that stunning agave! Stay warm!!
You know, I had never thought about my gardening spot not being dry enough for particular plants. I get the High Country Gardens catalog, and am always salivating over the offerings, particularly the hyssops and salvias, but I'll have to check a rainfall map for my area now, too! Thanks for this post.
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