I'd start with about a dozen of those pricey epimediums, especially ones with spiny foliage.

I imagine I would change my mind every ten minutes or so - but right now I think I would spring for larger camelias. I love the ones I have now but they are growing sooooo slooooowww. I'm impatient, want big ones now.

It would have to be a LOT of money! I lust after everything that blooms! I've wanted a yellow peony for some time, but they seem to always be in the $100+ range. For me a $20 plant is prohibitively expensive, and I'm not sure I could ever pay that much for one even if I hit the jackpot. There's plenty of other pricy items in the PDN catalog I'd love to get as well.-Ais.

I'd condense my slow schedule for adding foundation shrubs to a time frame I can live to see! Two ÂKaleidoscope abelias, 5 dwarf red barberries, 7 'Limemound' spireas, 5 variegated lirope, and for the mixed beds at the edge of the woods, 7 vareigated privets, 7 'Autumn Twist' azaleas, a 2 good sized forsythias.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

I'm still searching for that perfect Japanese Maple, that I can afford and a nice sized tea camellia.

i'm right there with ais and john. it'd have to be a jackpot. i change my mind after each new catalog or nursery visit. i know i could do some serious damage at pdn or camellia forest, for starters. i'll have to think long & hard about what would be top of the list. mmmm- i know one- magnolia seiboldii. oh, and 'tiger eyes' rhus. some of the cooler jap maples, for sure. and lady slipper orchids. oh my.

alicia what gives with you starting the thread and then playing coy? what are you lusting for??

Probably loads of shrub roses for around the yard.

OK I'll dig out my lists. I always make lists of what I want over the winter when I get bored at night. Very therapeutic, or maybe it means I need therapy.

There's a bunch of roses that I want: Crepuscule, Fortune's Double Yellow, Bayse's Purple, Rock Hill Peach Tea, Triomphe du Luxembourg, Climbing Devoniensis, Baronne Henriette de Snoy, Gilbert Nabonnand, the shrub Old Blush (have the climber), Souvenir D'Elise Vardon, Victor Veldian, Lamarque, Madame Plantier, Felicia, Clotilde Soupert, Frau Dagmar Hastrup, Dart's Dash, etc., etc.

More dahlias. I grew dahlias from seed procurred in a trade with a Canadian GardenWebber and was very pleased with the results. I think I got almost every color of the rainbow -- my favorite was a pink suffused with yellow. Yummy. I hope some of them make it through the winter.

Iris. There are at least 30 other cultivars I'd like. I like collecting ones with different fragrances -- pallida, root beer... DH's grandmother had a white which I have now which has a wonderful fragrance. One cultivar I got as an extra in an order smelled like lemon cake. I think I lost that iris, I'll have to re-order it.

A flashy marsh pink that I got from Niche one year. I have a wild one growing here that has the same fragrance, but it's a different species and the flowers are much smaller.

One of my problems is that I have the collectors inclination but a short attention span. OOH, love those, want ALL of those... what's that?! ohhhh, I want more of that... what is THIS???!!! I must have more of THIS!!!

I've always said that even if I won the powerball multi-million jackpot I could be flat broke by the 15th of the month!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I imagine I would move to the mountains (sorry Raleigh) which has been a life long dream. It wouldn't take long for me to race up to western Virginia and buy a farm in a cute valley farming community called Burke's Garden. The area is also known as God's Thumb print. You'll have to google it to get all the details. If I couldn't get what I want there I would look into property near Lake Jocassee in South Carolina on the NC border south of Asheville, or maybe something in Maggie Valley or Black Mountain... the list is long.

I'm pretty sure I would become a full time farmer/vendor at a local farmers market. That's something I do now part time and totally enjoy, just wish it made more money.

The difference this year is that I KNOW I am gonna win the lottery. How you ask? Up until now I saw the lottery as my only way to get ahead financially - it was the only conceivable way to solve all my money problems. I bought tickets whenever I had a spare dollar. In my entire life I have only had ONE number match up to the winning list of digits. One number!!! And now, this year, I will make the final payments on a massive credit card debt load that I have been chewing on for almost 20 years. Life crippling credit card debt. Debt that has had me working two jobs for most of my life. But within months it will all be gone and I will be completely debt free!!!! (see kids, hard work really does pay off). That is as long as the truck doesn't break down, some sort of health crisis, meteor strike, ufo attack... the list is long

john, congrats! that's awesome. maybe you will win your lotto now. :) then you could just have fun with it! not a bad thing at all. and so auspicious paying it all off when you're turning 50!

ais, that's hysterical. if i was hard pressed to name 1 favorite group or kind of plants i'd start with 5 and within 10 minutes probably be up to 15 (oh, wait, but then there's that one...). i think i'm ADD when it comes to plants and your description is sooo on the money! that's why i haven't even attempted to do the blank slate thread- that's way too much temptation for my little brain to handle. i'd fry my circuits.

I am lusting after too many to mention. I want everything I see! If it grows and doesn't die on me, it is on my list.

I've been doing a lot of daydreaming and planning this month and my "short" list consists of: lilacs, a Fringe Tree, more Spirea as they are drought tolerant,pink muhlygrass (so beautiful swaying in the breeze), more Hollies and peonies. Do you suppose the moles/voles love these plants? They ate everyone of my phlox!!

In general any of the new hybrid Helleborus. In specific, some of the things I had in my garden in TN that I haven't seen for awhile - things that are suddenly reappearing in the catalogues.

I want some winterberries - I tried this year and my male died. Am going to try again. I've seen several planting and they are to die for. I need hostas in my shade garden (as my mother-in-law says "less lirope grass, more hostas").

I want to try dahlias again. I tried this summer, most of them fell over and did a remarkable imitation of a ground cover. Next time - supports.

I want more camelias and hydrangeas. And I always want more roses. I want an Amsonia (anyone grow a good one in this area?). I want a kiwi vine or two, a passion vine. I want that new tri-colored confederate jasmine. I want all the new Echinacea hybrids in the new colors. I want a Corydalis. I want the Crocosmia "Coleton Fishacre". I want a helianthus, preferable "Lemon Queen". And so on and so forth.

Amsonias thrive here. I've got one growing wild on my farm which is probably A. tabernaemontana. I also have A. hubrectti. I grow both species in moist areas, but they do well in dry areas too.

Jody I've got winterberries growing wild on my place and their fall fruit display is always impressive -- better than most of the hybrids in commerce.

I want natives that I can't propagate myself, either because they're difficult or I don't have the starter material -- more fringetree, a Carolina silverbell, a hickory that has good fall color, more sassafras, one of those beautiful hawthorns that's growing in the coastal plain section of the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill (already have parsley leaf and green hawthorns growing wild down by the creek), a sugar maple, Rosa virginiana and purple Hepatica.

jody- sometimes i have seedling amsonias- remind when the swap thread starts and i'll see if i can dig one up for you. i have lots of seed, but it takes along time to germinate and longer still to bloom. they start slow like baptisias and then get going good 2-3 yrs in.

speaking of baptisias, that's something i'd like to add- some of the newer cultivars of those, like purple smoke. alicia- i feel the same way about some of the natives. i'd love to get bigger sizes than i can get on swaps or digs and in varieties i can't find there or are too slow to propagate. parsley hawthorne is so pretty- you're lucky it's growing on its own. we have a really pretty, large winterberry with gorgeous bark and some smaller ones as well. was the longest time before i knew what they were. i'm still learning about natives, esp shrubs. i feel like a babe-there's so much to learn.

Tammy, I may have a parsley leaf hawthorn to bring to the spring swap, if the seeds germinate this spring.

Nothing to do with $$$, but there's a plant on my property that I'd like to try in the garden but 1) I have to find it and 2) I have to find it. It's soapwort gentian I think. It grows in one of our fields that we mow 2X a year down by the creek. I saw it blooming one year in Nov. DH has seen a large patch by the pond, which I did not see this year.

There is one gentian, Gentianopsis crinita, that is a biennial, but it should reseed, just not necessarily where it was before. It is found in NC. Soapwort is not listed for NC, but then, sometimes common names get us all confused. I had to double check this info with one of my favorite books, Cullina's GROWING AND PROPAGATING WILDFLOWERS. We found some white gentians, maybe G. villosa or g. flavida, on a rescue. Since the last one is supposed to be in the midwest, maybe somebody planted it years ago; this rescue was around a house that had lots of landscape goodies such as camellias...not native, of course.

Thank you ncrescue, I think I need to do some more research before I have an ID. This plant had a closed flower, powder-violet-blue, and bloomed very late in the year. I thought this flower was Gentiana saponaria based on a picture and description I saw in Wildflowers of North Carolina by William Justice and Ritchie Bell. The description states that this is "a rare plant, native to the eastern US, that occurs in bogs, marshes and low ditches at widely scattered localities in a few counties in each of our 3 provinces". Bloom time is listed as Sept- Nov.

There are several other plants that grow wild on my farm that I am working on getting more of -- highbush blueberry, swamp cyrilla, American snowbell, and a very heavily fruiting American holly. I have managed to transplant 2 small bushes of the blueberries so far and that's it. I have a lot of blueberries growing wild here but I want even more, to put beside the ditch that runs beside the old house site. So far I have failed both with cuttings and growing from fruit. The fruit is small but sweet and produced in abundance, and the fall color of some of these shrubs is truly spectacular. I have a few American snowbell seedlings that I planted this year, crossing my fingers that they make it. That's one of my favorite small trees.

Oh, cool, I was just leafing through PD's catalog when I saw a picture of soap gentian -- that's definitely what was blooming in one of my fields! I will have to keep an eye out for it next fall.

thanks in advance alicia for the seedling parsley leafed hawthorne. hope i don't jinx it by saying that. very cool to find a native gentian growing on your prop! how many acres do you have anyhow? it sounds very spacious!

I make a list as I think of stuff. When I get a giant yard I will plant these. I love trees so they are kind of one sided.

American Beech "Fagus grandifolia"
Anemone
Asiatic Lilies
Black Tupelo/Black Gum Nyssa sylvatica
Bleeding Heart dicentra spectabilis
Blue Flax
Chickasaw Blackberry
China Fir "Cunninghamia lanceolata"
Coral Bark Maple
Delphiniums (will not grow in Raleigh ï)
Deodar Cedar
Franklinia Tree
Japanese Fir (Momi Fir) "Abies firma"
Jerusalem Sage "Phlomis russeliana"
Katsura Tree "Cercidiphyllum japonicium"
Magnolia, Saucer Magnolia x soulangiana
Narcissus "Tahiti"
Oriental Lilies
Red horsechestnut "Aesculus x carnea"
Resurrection Lily, Surprise Lily, Magic Lily, Naked Lady Lycoris squamigera
Shagbark Hickory
Sourwood "Oxydendrum arboreum"
Stargazer Lilies
Sugar Maple Acer saccharum

Tammy I have 54 acres, a lot of which will remain undeveloped because it's wet.

wow- no wonder you can't quite find things! that's a lot of land! in this droughty year, have the wet areas dried out? is it swampy or springs? guess you could have a great big bog garden. do you have areas of neat wildflowers down by your streams? seems like the best plant saves in terms of variety & quality i've been on are areas like that- a bit wet, down by streams that prohibits all but certain kinds of trees growing.

A lot of the property is in the 100 year flood plain, and about a third in the floodway. Everything now is relatively dry except for the drainage ditches, which always have water in them in winter and in times of normal rainfall. I'd say more than half of the property is forested. The forest has been logged before, probably more than 20 years ago.

We have swamp and springs. We have springs above where the house is now, and swamp where the beavers have dammed up the natural drainage to the creek. The creek is one boundary, and a slough created by beavers is part of another. The wildflowers do occur all the way to the creek wherever there is enough sunlight. I found the gentian in one of 2 fields that we keep open by mowing once or twice a year. In those fields I've also found Amsonia, a meadow rue with cream-colored flowers, bellwort, sundrops, Atamasco lilies, beautyberry, white turtlehead, gerardia, ironweed, Joe Pye weed, Hearts a Burstin, Hibiscus moscheutos, lyreleaf sage, Barbara's buttons, Cardinal flower, blue lobelia, cutleaf Rudbeckia, wild ginger and wild ageratum. Further away from the stream coastal pepperbush, Va. sweetspire, winterberry, Scutellaria integrifolia, Geranium maculatum, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Rhododendron viscosum, Swamp cyrilla, American snowbell, and reduds. A lot of young sourwoods just out of the floodplain, seedlings from the neighbor's parent tree. Also, out of the floodplain but at a springhead, a clump of Turk's cap lilies.

In the border slough created by beavers we have swamp tupelo that turns a brilliant red in the fall. No cypress. But I gathered seed from a bald cypress and now have 3 seedlings growing in one of the floodway fields.

The 100 flood plain has been underwater for 10 days in the last ten years. The water isn't deep but comes up fast.

I knew I'd forget some. We also have a lot of sweet bay, a couple of wild crab apples, and at least one fringe tree. Also some sort of Sabatia, 2 species of meadow beauty, Viola palmata, touch me not, a species of fall-blooming Spiranthes (unfortunately not fragrant), and lots of Lizard's tail in the sloughs.

This is the pasture in front of the old house site, as it usually is:
{{gwi:555536}}

A view of part of the front yard and that same pasture after Alberto in 2006:
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Wow! You don't need to lust after anything new! You have so much already. Oh, I did check Bell's book, and you are correct. I was thinking when you mentioned that they were in different places that maybe they were those biennials. I have G. clausa in the mts. but cannot get it to transplant here and bloom. It lives, but obviously is not happy. Of course, without any rain here, most plants are not too happy. Thanks for the photos and the wonderful list. Glad to see that some places in NC still have lots of great wildflowers.

A WICHITA BLUE JUNIPER.IT'S SO BLUE.I SAW 5 OF THEM LAST YEAR AT LOWES IN GREENVILLE NC AND HESITATED. FIRST ONE I SEE IS MINE!!! LINDA

thanks for explaining all that alicia and detailing out your wildflowers. that is one impressive list! i bet it's a wonderland. you need to do the alicia estate tours sometime! :)

spiranthes is another native i'm lusting after. the blue juniper wish made me remember that the arboretum has an evergreen that's a gorgeous blue and smells of oranges in winter. it's near the top of the path that intersects with the roof path on the far side of the new building. i had to drag my kids away from it one day- i swear they were getting just about high off the scent. it was really neat. can't think right now what kind it was, but i do have it jotted down somewhere.

I'm lusting for huge Rhubarb/Lilacs with heady fragrance. Guess I'll have to go visit DH's relatives in Ohio to eat/smell them but not to bring them home to plant out.

I want a 6' tall Witch Hazel. I bought a small one last year and even with diligent watering, crooning, and gentle patting, it croaked with our heat/drought in August.

I want a huge winter Daphne that doesn't cost a week's pay and will live next to my Eastern-facing, rest of the day shaded deck. Hah! Fat chance.

I ordered weird fruit seeds from Baker Creek. I'll try anything that is a fruit. I am mystified why we, with our hot and humid climate, can't grow papayas and mangoes and avocados and all those yummy citrus thing-ey's. Must have something to do with winters here? Not fair!!! Why should we suffer with that and not be able to grow "Southern" fruit? I am happy though that I have strawberries, blueberries, figs, grapes, watermelon, muskmelon, and feijola. Maybe next year we won't have an Easter freeze and I can get some peaches, plums, and cherries from my trees. Maybe I just have to go to the drug store and buy vitamin C tablets.

Nancy the nancedar

actually, nan- there's a thread about hardy citrus and there was a talk about it at JCRA recently. i met a guy in VA beach who's growing some hardy type citrus up there without protection. so there's hope- you just have to be kinda hard core to discover it. ask john about his adventures in growing papayas! there are some dwarf cultivars of mangoes that supposedly do ok in pots- i killed one so far, and hope to get another to try again sometime. as to the avocadoes, again, there's one that's supposed to maybe fruit- but they really need the room to grow, so i have my doubts about that. they do make pretty houseplants, tho.

yeah- if it says fruit, my mouth starts to water. i was known as the fruit freak in elementary school 'cause i would trade everything on my tray but the fruit for other people's fruit and eat nothing but. not the healthiest diet....

i'm still hoping i can get rhubarb going as winter annuals. i have seed, and just didn't get them going at the right time this summer. i think there's a whole bunch of us here that would love to have some way to grow it. i get my mom to freeze some for me and use it that way.

i'm totally gaga over 'jelena' witch hazel. and 'dianne'. they are soooo pretty. sigh... someday....

So far I still have one tiny Rhubarb still alive from last spring!! how it survived the super hot summer I don't know. I need to move it again so I am worried that it may not recover enough this spring to make good stalks. I did have one plant live long enough to make two pies - BUT - the stalks didn't have a strong rhubarb flavor. Maybe some of the things that aren't commonly grown here don't have the right flavors if you can get one or two to survive.

I have some baby lilacs. I brought some to the fall swap last year. The ones in my yard are looking good so far. They are big enough to bloom and they are covered with buds but I don't know if they are flower buds or leaf buds. These are a white one from my parents yard in Oklahoma. I know my dad bought it years ago. Lilacs do ok out there (where winters are colder - a key factor in lilac blooming) but they still suffer in the summer heat. This white one is the best performer I've seen for heat and humidity. Records show a white form developed 20 years ago that did well in trial gardens in the deep south.

I am lusting after plenty of new stuff but mostly I am rethinking my flowerbeds and plotting out where to plant everything I already have. If the drought continues I probably won't really plant much - I'll just move stuff into larger pots and keep them in a holding area where I can hand water more efficiently.

john- the flowering buds on lilacs are a lot bigger and rounder and tend to be at the tips of the branches. look for them, and i bet you'll be able to tell the 2 apart. i'm sure somewhere on the web it has pix of both side by side.

kudos on your rhubarb! maybe if it keeps surviving you can tissue culture it and have a heat tolerant cultivar! 'course if it doesn't have much flavor, what's the point, but...

I still long for the lilac from Witherspoon that I rooted and then lost. Sigh. Well I did get a lilac from you John at the last swap, so here's hoping it does well.

I want Clematis crispa and pitcheri too. Also Monarda bradburiana, Baptisia minor, Baptisia "Carolina Moonlight", Powdery Thalia, Sea Holly, Nodding Ladies' Tresses (the fragrant one), and a bunch more Virginia Bluebells. Not much. I'm trying Va. bluebells from seed for the first time this year.

I really enjoy thumbing through garden catalogs and magazines just like most everyone. However, the last time I actually purchased a flower from a garden center was 2 years ago when I found a Alternantherum called "Party Time." I just could not live without this beautiful foliage plant in my garden. My joy comes from starting my garden from seed each year. Living on the coast I usually go for drought and heat tolerant plants. I try to grow plants which cannot be found in the local nursuries. This year I am growing various Tithonia, Marigold, Nasturtium, Zinnia, Sunflower, Basil, and Hibiscus varieties from seed. As well as trying my hand at several Japanese Maple varieties. Most I plant in my garden, but manage to sell quite a few after I run out of planting space. This year I am also growing a large variety of tropical canna and coleus. Being a bachelor who doesn't cook, my kitchen is now a custom made greenhouse. I will be posting pictures soon. Happy gardening to all.

I have some 'Party Time' and it has overwintered as cuttings for its second year in my "just-above-freezing" hoophouse. It loves the heat of summer but comes through winter much better than coleus for me. I have to keep coleus cuttings inside the house in a window (and even then I lose most of them). Another one that overwinters with little protection is the large Irisene or Bloodleaf.

I want a meyers lemon tree....anyone got a extra?...lol

Rosa virginiana. I have R. carolina, R. palustris, R. palustris scandens (probably a hybrid) from Antique Roses Emporium and R. setigera. I'm growing R. arkansas from seed this year.

Personally, I am lusting after a few things:

Red Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus avellana 'Red Majestic')
Lily of the Valley - Variegated (Convallaria majalis ÂStriataÂ)
Azalea 'Gibraltar' (orange)
more Japanese Painted Fern
and tons of Lavender

Have been lusting after clematis 'Mary Rose'for several years now. It is not yet available in the US. It does pay to have friends overseas though as just a couple of weeks ago she arrived bareroot and has since been potted up! Now the wait for the blooms this summer if I am lucky!

{{gwi:555537}}

Alicia7b - I have some Sea Holly seeds... are you coming to the seed swap on Sat?

Yes, I'm planning to.

The talk of camellias on another thread reminds me of another plant that I really want -- Camellia sasanqua 'Mine-No-Yuki'. There's a small hedge of them in front of what used to be the Ag Extension building in Johnston County. They were beautiful -- and FRAGRANT.

If I had an unlimited supply of cash for the garden, I would certainly be in heaven. I want, desperatly, to get a Wollemi Pine. They are 100 dollars now. I think it'd be great to have a plant of a specie which only has about 100 known to be in the wild. The mystique draws me... I recently visited the botanical garden in Rome, where I was able to touch one of these beauties. Theirs was about 4ft high and flourishing. I have been waiting with abated breath for them to be available here in the US.
I would also like a yellow peony and camelia. There is a new begonia available called "bonfire" that looks like it will be making an appearance in my garden whether or not I win the lottery.
---Keith

Some that I'd like I can't have because I'm running out of room, but I'd like these:

more roses
blackberries
blueberries
a vegetable garden
a green laceleaf Japanese maple
clematis
pink honeysuckle
caryopteris
lion's tail
blackberry lily
a blue lg growing agave
lots of coleus
pink muehly grass
guara
campanulas that would like it here
more foxgloves
more single hollyhocks
Steve siberian Iris
coneflowers
Tropicana canna

Linda