Ooh, that's always exciting, Rita! I'll be interested to see pics as your new things bloom.
I had 2 exchanges this week and that has been so fun so I've been popping in little pieces of plants. Very fun :)

You know a gardeners work is never done. Portulaca is such a hard working little plant, isn't it? I just love it. Nice red zinnias! Such big blooms on such little plants. I love hollyhocks too, but don't plant them anymore. I still have two or 3 plants around. I can handle the rust, but those Japanese beetles seem to like the flowers of hollyhocks too :(

I do love Portulacas. They had them in flats blooming and I had to stop myself from buying more as I have already planted two flats here.

I forgot to mention the POW WOW WILD BERRY coneflowers that I bought five small pots of. POW WOW WILD BERRY is a new variety from 2010 and I wanted it since I heard of it last year. I was hoping I would find it locally this year and lucky that I did. Don't know how I could forget to mention them :-((

I have those FRUIT PUNCH poppies I bought mail order but did like these I saw today so bought them also. Going to put them in a different area of the garden from were I have the others. Those two hollyhocks I am planting in back of the new Delphiums I got this spring by mail order. Fortunatly I have no more mail order plants coming so I might get done with the planting yet LOL!

Looks like great minds think alike. I went Portulaca shopping too and they are now sitting in their pots being drenched by all the rain that has inconveniently shown up today (but much needed rain, so I'll take it). When I went shopping for it, I had the age old communication problem with the minimum wage seaonal help. When I asked for Portulaca he just starred at me. Rather then waste my breath further I walked around until I found what I wanted, which in this case was Portulaca Grandiflora. I called the kid over and asked him what he called this plant. He said it was "Moss Rose", turning to a hanging basket similiar to yours Rita, I asked him what he called that plant with the flat leaves. He replied "Purslane" (Portulaca Oleracea). He'd never heard of the name Portulaca before even though he had two types of it.

I have two flats of the Portulacas planted already begining of this week. I just looked today and the first flower is almost open. I do like them because they are just so colorful. I try never to have to ask the nursery help questions as I have found they mostly don't know the answers. Better to wander around like you did.

Oh Rita,I love that Red Zinnia'sThats very pretty.I like your basket too.I made my self a basket a couple weeks ago with Portulaca, and another Basket with Purple Verbena. I have a Patio Tomatoe Plant in a pot and it has grown so pretty.The leaves and stems are so much thicker then regular tomatoe plants, also I have a couple of them, too.I will be glad when they are ready to eat.

Jean

I do my own baskets and planters also. My other hanging basket is double impatients that I just bought and put into the hanging basket.

I figgured those portulacas would bloom all summer and they wouldn't be harmed if I let the basket get drier than it should which I do every summer in spite of trying not too.

I just couldn't pass up those short fire engine red zinnias. Couldn't pass up those strange dwarf tomatoes either. I have never seen such short tomato plants. I am going to put them in a container on my driveway.

Rita, regarding your Pow Wow Wild Berry Echinacea. I work at a garden center and this is the first year we have had this plant. Totally gorgeous, and they all sold before I could get one. The color darkens until the petals look like velvet. Also, have you ever grown profusion zinnias? They are superb. The plants are covered in flowers all summer and grow in neat little mounds.

OK, I promised myself to use the word daylily at least once in every post.

Christine

What a coincidence! I just worked out a trade for some Pow Wow echinacea. I was a bit hesitant because it looks in pictures a lot like my Kim's Knee High. What I looked up said that it reblooms all summer without deadheading.

The Pow Wow Wild Berry is supposed to be much better than the Kims Knee High (which I have had for years now). Supposed to bloom much more than any other Echinacea. I didn't know about the color turning darker, that is good to know. I thought I was very lucky to find them and bought the last five plants they had. From the looks of the display, it doesn't look like they got in too many to start with. Also, the pots are small compaired to the size pots I am used to buying Echinaceas in but at least I have them!

I forgot to mention the porofusion zinnias. I have grown the profusion and last year I grew Zahara both the double and single forms in orange. I love the Zaharas over the profusion though both are short. Mostly I grow the taller forms of zinnias and had no plans to buy these, just that I couldn't resist once I saw them.

I made a small planter bowl out of the zinnias and put them right on my back stoop were I can always see them. I will post a picture later.

It's Saturday and the sun is finially shineing which hasn't happened for about a week with all our rain. I decided to go to two local nurseries in my town just to see and because I felt like going out.

First stop was this nursery out on the highway that I have watched to see when it might open for 3 years. I kid you not. It used to be a boarding stable and has a large property. I don't see how anyone could carry the taxes without opening for such a length of time but its finially open. They must not want anyone to notice as there is just a very small sign by the gate that said open 9-5 which is new. The grounds and buildings are stunning but there is a small amount of plants for sale. Not even a third of the place looked used to me. I bought a black eyed susan vine and just looked around.

Went to another local nursery that I have been too many times before but they didn't have anything I needed so I am back home.

Guess I will go outside and plant stuff I bought yesterday.

I think its so disappointing when you have some thing special you want, then go out to find it,and no one has what you want.Bummer.Maybe next time, they will have what you want.

Jean

I wish I could find red zinnias in a 6 pack. All I ever see are large single pots for about $3 a piece. That's why I grow all mine from seed. But I'd much rather buy a flat or 6 pack in various colors. Rita, send me some of your rain, please!
Kathy

Here are the zinnias planted in a planter bowl and on my back stoop. They will just fill in. I didn't even really know were I would put them when I bought them but just had to have them.

So far I have looked at lots of my regular nurseries and never seen cosmos in flats yet which I do buy most years. Still looking and I figgure they will get more in.

I went out and planted my plants from yesterday and today. Just after I was finished we had another rain shower. Now it's clear and sunny again. Oh well, I got my planting doine.