A lot of people say to go to garage sales to get containers. Personally, i hate garage sales, but if you don't mind them, it might be worth it to look around.

Didn't think of that, Marcia. I'm not big on them, either, but it's worth a shot. I occasionally stop at one if I have to wait somewhere to pick up one the kids. Biggest problem I find is that I have a houseful of my own junk. I don't need anyone else's. But, you do find some good deals once in awhile. My oldest DS asked me for a juicer last year and I found a brand new one, worth about $100 for $2 - never been opened.

Shauna

At Walmart this morning i bought my Easter lily, 6 seed geraniums and a Primrose Lilac! I'd been eying one of those up for awhile, and it was a bargain at 6.98. It has two branches and at least one sprout that i can see. I potted it up this afternoon to await milder temperatures - and, of course, until i figure out exactly where it will go. I've just about got dh convinced that we'll have room for the tomatoes and peppers in the main garden now. That way i can take over that garden for flowers.... :) Method in my madness!

I went looking for a heater for my greenhouse today in one of our local stores. Found a heater that I liked but while I was there I found a 'Marie Bugnet' rose. I bought both and brought them home. Rose is potted up and under lights until I get my greenhouse ready.

I also got my cannas from Guildwood Cannas and all I can say is 'wow do they go the extra mile'. The roots that I recieved were excellent and two out three are already growing. I also recieved an e-mail from them when they shipped the cannas. Part of it goes like this:

By the way Alan, I noticed a post of yours regarding your concerns of getting a variegated canna cleopatra while I was on Garden Web recently. The canna cleopatra is a variable canna that can have foliage ranging from all green to all red and sometimes variegated also. The flowers are also similar, and can be solid yellow or red and many combinations in between. I just wanted to reassure you that I personally selected a rhizome for you that appears to have a strong indication of the variagated foliage. If you examine the rhizome closely you will notice some red pigment in a few locations on the rhizome. We pride ourselves in delivering unique, authentic, specialty plants that are true to type and hope to take the guess work out of mail order. I have personally been on the receiving end of a few bad mail order experiences and would go out of my way so this is not duplicated for any of our clients. I hope the cannas bring you lots of enjoyment by putting on an amazing flora display in your garden. If you have any questions regarding caring for you plants please feel free to contact us. We included an information sheet with some cultural information regarding growing cannas. Have fun in your garden and have a great summer!

These days where do you get service like that!!!!!!!

Cheers Al

Wow Al, that is awesome service! That is a rare company indeed, and it's wonderful to hear that good personal service can be found out there.

Ok, I'm jumping on the caladium band wagon and picked up a bag of 3 at Home Depot today, as well a Red Robusta rose. Does anyone have this rose and can tell me it's hardiness?

Laurie

Wow Al are they going to come pot it up for you too? And water it all summer? LOL

Shauna, you were asking about good deals on containers - I got this beaut at Walmart for $18. It's nice light sturdy plastic and doesn't look half bad. And it's big too, hopefully it won't dry out in 1/2 hour. I picked up 2. They had 4 sizes and 4 colours. And check out my rampant indoor sown babies!! There are 2 other lights on the other side now :-> oops how did that happen?

Laurie which caladium did you pick? There were new roses when I went today - lots of nice ones... drool... 1 1/2 grade bodybags for $3 & change O-M-G how will I resist?

Gil, Thank you for letting me know. That is a nice one and matches, colour wise, some others that I bought last year. Was it in the regular plant section. My Walmart didn't have much of anything yesterday when I was there. Not even any potting soil.

Shauna

Has anyone seen the 3-tier pineapple fountains they have at a '(Canadian) large-chain grocery store' right now? Not sure if I can say the name of the store since my posting isn't exactly a rave review? I got pretty excited when I saw it at the store on Friday (it's lightweight resin), and bought one.

Got it home, set it up, and was pretty disappointed with it. The tiers weren't level; plus it leaked! It definitely wasn't worth the $ I spent on it. I brought it back to the store yesterday for a refund. Anyone else buy one of these; and have better luck than I did?

Northspruce- Nice looking bunch of plants!! I see that you have a water tap right in your planting area. How convenient. I hope your water is better than the water from our taps. It is so full of sodium that plants don't grow well when I use it. I usually melt snow or collect rain water.

Cheers Al

Gil, i wish my plants looked like yours. I've had really poor germination in some flats - don't know if it's the seeds or what. I'm going to be really upset if it's the seed-starting mix - that's the stuff i got all the mold on, and i used quite a bit of it for winter sowing. None of that seems moldy, though, so far. Anyway, that's the job du jour.

Had to go to Walmart for gardening gloves yesterday...they have their garden center almost set up.....they had a few tender roses, strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus. But that was it so far.

They also had large plastic pots that looked like stone, I think 18 or 20 inch for 12.98.

I picked up a couple 20 inch plastic barrels at Costco for 19.99 the other day. They are a bit fancier but I had to drill a hole in the bottom.

Sierra

Dee Can, we talk about stores all the time. Haven't had a problem. Too bad about your fountain, thanks for the warning.

Al, thank you - yes I think it would seriously hamper my efforts if I didn't have water right there. Actually that is the water main for my house, but a faucet comes up again 2' away. Very handy. I'm on city water which is chlorinated but seems to be working fine.

Marcia, how awful about your poor seedlings. Wish I could help but I don't know. I bought about 6 different soil mixes this spring and didn't keep track of which was which, but some were better than others.

Shauna, those pots were in the seasonal section near the lawnmowers and grass seed. Maybe your WM doesn't have summer seasonal set up yet. They also had red and gold and something else I don't remember, might have been black. I don't buy black pots, they get too hot.

Gillian, what a lovely bunch of seedlings you have there! The type of caladiums I picked up are the red & green 'Buck' variety. Will have to get them going tomorrow hopefully, as it's been a crazy weekend for us.

Marcia,

Back to your question on greenhouses. We have a potting shed (with a basement) attached to a greenhouse. When we moved here the greenhouse was covered with glass. Many of the sections of glass were sliding down, cause they had been siliconed on many many years ago. The greenhouse is probably about 35 - 40 years old. Some of the glass panels were cracked or simply missing. Three years ago we wanted to make the greenhouse part usable. So, my DH took it all down, repainted the framework and purchased Lexan (looks like corrugated cardboard) for the covering. I love it. It will last for many many years. He did not want to work with the greenhouse covering every few years like he would if we purchased a plastic covering like the ones made south of Winnipeg in Winkler. It was a lot more expensive though.

Here is a picture of the greenhouse/potting shed about 10 days ago.

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Brenda

Body bags $3.93 at TSC
(All roses)
I got Queen Elizabeth & Pink Peace

I just got home with my newest gardening accessory. A 2 wheeled auto dump wheel barrow. They are on sale this week at Canadian tire.....reg price $179.99, on sale for $99.99. We lucked out too and got on that was already put together!

Brenda, a potting shed with a basement! Do you use it as a cold room?

Dh once talked about getting some of those panels for a greenhouse, but i think we're going to go with the plastic covering. It's the easiest way, i think - if i dither over what to use, it'll NEVER get done!

To answer your question, Marcia,

The basement in the potting shed...One winter we did build a little box, lined it and put a heat light in it just to keep the temperature above freezing. It worked great for the potatoes...until the hydro went out and so they froze...we had forgotten about checking it.

One year I put all the Christmas decorations down there...but since there is no air circulation to speak of...the artificial Christmas tree in a cardboard box (about 15-20 years old) had a little mold on it. That was a good excuse to throw it out and purchase a new one. The decorations were fine 'cause they were all in rubbermaid containers.

Now...I only place all the empty pots, planters, nursery pots, etc in the basement. Things that are plastic. No peat pots. I figure that if anything goes moldy at all, no problem with the plastic, just javex them. It is wonderful to have a basement that is that big. It is amazing over the years how many pots and containers a person can collect.

In the potting shed I have peat moss bales, all the tools (hoes, rakes, etc) standing upright in a large wooden box, garden ornaments that come in for the winter, roundup and other chemicals, chemical backpack sprayers, assorted terra cotta pots and glass vases, cactus soil, sunflower seeds, 2 miniature wooden staircases(that I want to paint and then varnish many times before they go out in the landscaping), wicker baskets (hanging from the ceiling), burlap, etc, etc. I have a sink that could be used but the drain goes to a bucket, so I don't use it.

The only plant things now in our house are chemicals that should not freeze and houseplants. I really treasure the potting shed and greenhouse. Every gardener needs one!!!

Brenda

I have a small metal shed that dh rescued from somewhere - i'm not asking too many questions but i have a feeling it once housed an outhouse for the Dept. of Highways! It's pretty small and all i have in it are garden tools and tomato cages. One year, heavy snow warped the roof so the door no longer closes. Not a whole lot of use, really, except for keeping the tools out of the wet. I'm hoping that i can use the greenhouse to store things like that, plus all my containers. Those are under the deck now, and it's a real pain to try and find something now. I'm also planning on getting a small metal cabinet to store things like bonemeal and granular fertilizers.

Dh screwed up his shoulder last week (falling on the ice while ice fishing) so there won't be too much building going on for awhile yet. There's always something, eh? Now the weather has been so nice, he's talking about getting the boat ready! LOL Good-bye....

Marcia,

My DH goes ice fishing also. How was the haul this year?

At the end of our lane we have a 8' fence surrounding our vegetable garden. My DH offered to set up his ice fishing shack this year right beside the garden inside the fence. It is 8' x 12' and so it will have lots of room to park the garden tiller and place a few tools in it. So tired of walking the tiller to the garden and back to the house each time I use it. We have 10 acres and the garden is on the opposite side of the acreage from the house.

Under the deck is probably where I would also be storing empty containers/pots if I did not have a greenhouse. Hope your deck is high so you do not have to crawl on your tummy to get out your pots! :)

Brenda

Brenda, he only started going fishing in the last month and it certainly wasn't as good as other years. Granted, he gave most of what he caught to the old guy who went with him. We did have a feed of fresh fish on Sunday, though, and the cat got her fish tidbits that she demands every time he goes fishing. :)

We also have 10 acres, but most of it is bush and everything we do is on a few acres at the front. Nothing is too far away. I was thinking that we should move the shed down to where the veg. garden is to keep all the implements in (and the small tiller).

The deck is quite high - i just have to worry about bumping my head. There would be no crawling on my tummy if it was that low - i'd be afraid to get stuck in there! LOL

Canadian Tire has several of the shelf-type mini greenhouses on sale right now (just because I bought one last week at full price...)

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Cdn Tire Greenhouses

So, this thread is to do with new acquisitions...so...here are a few of my purchases this year already. They are all in my greenhouse ... I think they are all hoping that I will put the heater on for them today.

I was in the Greenspot in Brandon today. They were using last year's prices on the small round pots...3 for 8.97 so I got a Ginger Fushia and a Mona Lavendar Plectranthus and a Fragrant Blue Heliotrope...all of which had 5 or 6 branches each long enough to pinch and use to start more plants from. The plectranthus is in the red pot on the right, just about ready to bloom.

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The Ginger Fushia

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Using our local garden club membership card (for the Westman Gardeners) I received 10% off the regular price of the other plants I bought.

Pink Lemonade Scabiosa (a pink Zone 3 scabiosa). Does anyone else have this perennial and how does it bloom for you?

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I bought six pack of plugs of easy wave petunias. The plugs were $6 for a 6 pack container and then minus the 10% discount. Last fall I purchased wrought iron half baskets planters with coconut liners (at HD for a weekend special sale for $2.99 each) to place on fence posts around our acreage and I thought 2 wave petunias would be great in each basket for this summer.

All plugs are $1.50 each. All kinds of plants are still available.

Last week HD had an assortment of begonias...for $5.99 each so...I bought 3. The escargot begonia is the center one but does anyone have the names of the one on each side?

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At a hort day the other day, the Vanilla Megilla Perilla was on for $2.99. I already had the regular Megilla Perilla and I thought the two of them in the same pot would look nice.

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The also had the Blood Leaf for $2.99. I liked the red foliage and thought it would look nice in one of my pots somewhere on the acreage. You can see the little A&W mug where 2 slips off the mother plant are in water to start for new plants.

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Does anyone else have a nursery close to them that sells the extra plugs and what price does yours go for?

Brenda

Wow Brenda nice aquisitions! Can't help you with the names of the begonias but they are stunning... wow I just drooled the keyboard. Oooh I keep scrolling back up to look at them again! :0)

My mom grows Scabiosa and it does great for her. Hers is blue I think but it's the same thing. I have tried several times to buy plants and start it from seed, and it just never really goes anywhere for me, then it disappears after awhile :0( Too bad because I really like it. I'm growing Sea Thrift now because it looks somewhat similar and seems to like me better.

I bought a Fragrant Cloud rose from HD yesterday, along with several bags of cow poo to help fill up my new rose garden.

Okay, i'm jealous! :) I haven't been into a nursery yet, and i don't think either of ours are even open for business. And neither of them will give discounts to Hort. Society members either. I must remember to bring my card when i go to Thunder Bay....

Anyway, nice acquisitions! :)

With our new garden club, the 'Westman Gardeners', I just asked at the various nurseries/garden centers in the area if they would be willing to honor our membership card at their place of business. Most of them jumped at the idea, offering a percentage or asking what others were doing and then doing likewise. At the next meeting in May, I will be handing out a list of all the garden centers within about a one hour radius of Brandon (that I have contacted already) for all our members. It supports the small garden centers and also is good for us as gardeners. I am planning on doing so each year.

I also love the begonia planter. Another good sale/acquision...the planter the begonias are in was a $1 planter at Shelmerdine's this winter at their clearance sale.

I have a few scabiosa here already. I have the giant scabiosa. It has the same size flower as the blue scabiosa, just in yellow instead and the plant must grow about 8' high with its long slender flower stalk.

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Then I have the blue Fama Scabiosa, which blooms and blooms and blooms.

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Brenda

Okay I did it....I went and bought some millions of millions of millions bells. :-)) They were plugs so I only paid .99 cents each. I also got bacopa and two other things....I don't know the names of....one was a yellow leafed plant that I bought for the foliage color...was told it would get long if I didn't keep pinching it back and the other has little yellow flowers and was told that this will get really really long with lots of flowers. The plug trays were not labeled and the lady didn't know the names. These are the plugs that they plant in their own planters.

Not sure if this is considered a bargain or just new plants. LOL!

Sierra

That's an awesome deal Sierra, 99 cents for zillion bells? I got ripped off hard last year, I think they were like $3.50 for a pot. Whew, that still smarts. Good find!

Sierra, you lucky girl!!! I don't know if any of the greenhouses that I haunt actually sell plugs because I've never looked for them, but I'm going shopping to find out. Now is certainly the time to do it before the greenhouse pots them up and I do know, from working in the greenhouse last spring, that this is when all the plugs for Proven Winner's, etc come in. Good, no, GREAT suggestion. Thanks much.

Let see . . .osteos, bacopa, million bells, lotus vine . . .

Shauna

At our last horticulture meeting a week ago we had Dr. Ieuan Evans out to speak about fruit trees. He is also a breeder of Martigon lilies. He brought several bulbs out with him along with some fruit trees. I bought two martigons (a pink and a white) for $10 each. I wish I had more cash with me that night as he had a perennial geranium that produced double flowers the first one that I have ever seen.

In his talk about fruit trees he really put emphasis on the idea that when planting a fruit orchard to plant the trees as high up on a hill as possible as this allows some air movement around them and when it freezes the colder air always goes down to the lowest areas. He had lots of slides of his orchard just west of Edmonton and showed trees full of apples, plums, cherries, apricots, and pears.

He also grows asiatic lilies, in which he develops new varieties . He told us to come out and he would name one of his new varieties after our horticuture club. An amazing man.

Cheers Al

Sounds very interesting, Al. Hmmm, apricots...
If you crave a double geranium, you may want to keep an eye out for Geranium himalayense 'Plenum', also called 'Birch Double' - very pretty. Double-flowered selections of some other species have been around for a long time too (though I've only picked up 'Birch Double'). Anyway, something to watch for at the nursery.

Ohhhh I guess I should tell yas....I picked up 6 full size Osteospermum in 4 inch pots for $1.66 each. I'm thinkin' thats a good'un too. hee hee.

Sierra doin' da happy dance.

Gee Sierra dats a fine ketch! LOL

Superstore has (in addition to all the wonderful barberries Glen was unkind enough to make me go drool over) some 10'+ Cutleaf Weeping Birch for $35. I think I will go back with the truck and buy one if not two. They have always been a favourite tree of mine.

Now, where would you get osteospermum for $1.66?? Do tell!

Yah, where would you get the osteospermum for $1.66? I tried to get a few in plugs at a nursery here in Brandon but they had them all planted into larger pots and wanted a lot more for them then, of course.

Brenda

OK, Sierra, you'd better tell us by the morning. I'm wanting to go shopping tomorrow. With our luck, it's probably your local greenhouse and it's an early-bird special loss leader or something. (Do greenhouses ever have such things?) I haven't even been out looking yet, what with this bad, bad cold. Now I'm all excited and I'm just itching to go greenhousing tomorrow.

Shauna (who still feels awful but a greenhouse will fix me right up!)

Yeah, Shauna, that moist earthy air will be great for your sinuses! LOL Breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeathe in! :)

The local walmart here had osteospermums in their basket filler section. I didn't ask the price, but I was assuming that they were around the $1.99 mark as per usual. They even had the whirlygig type like the one I overwintered. Yup, man am I happy I spent countless hours watering and caring for mine so that I saved myself $1.99! Sigh.........

Haha...I didn't even realize that I didn't say where I bought the Osteos. LOL!!! I bought them at Costco.They came in trays of 6, 4 inch pots for 9.99 which works out to $1.66 per plant plus tax. They just opened up a new greenhouse here.

Hmmm Laurie, I can't say I have ever seen anything this fancy at Wallys. They have basket fillers, but they are petunias, marigolds and stuff like that.

Brenda, I got the plugs, because I went to visit that one particular greenhouse early. It just happened that they had their shelves filled with plug trays. I have been dealing with this particular greenhouse for several years...this is where I buy my 6 fuchsia baskets every spring..... The Osteos, were just another find....you have to be at the right place at the right time...thats all.

Sierra

I'll have to check out Walmart next week before the selection is gone. I love osteospermum and am planning another yellow and orange container with them this year. I've already bought yellow and pale yellow/pale orange glad bulbs to try again in that combination.

Marcia, I got three colours of Osteos, yellow with yellow centers, light purple with blue center and dark purple with blue center. The yellows I think were called 'Sunny' the others were called 'Flora' and 'Mary', not sure which is which but they are all labeled.

Sierra

Yes, Sierra, I was surprised to see osteos at walmart too. They also had the yellow and orange ones along with the white. I think it all depends on what greenhouse they get their stuff from as to what they offer in each city. I've always been impressed with what the walmart has to offer here in Brandon. Now that they have a new, larger store there could be even more to choose from......hmmmm maybe it's time to throw the visa in a block of ice!!

I usually buy the "Symphony" osteos - Orange, Yellow, Peach or Vanilla Symphony. Maybe there's a white one too - i know one year i had one that was a "dark" white (not bright, like most whites) with purple on the backs of the petals - mmmmm, it was gorgeous! The ones i have from seed again this year are "Passion Mix", in purples. I also managed to start a couple of the "Giant Mix" that Shauna sent me last year. They were really frustrating because they're so spindly and gangly and they tangled up so bad that we both threw them out last year. This year i have them staked in 4" pots! I don't know what colour they'll turn out to be. No matter - i'll probably love them!

I love the white osteos with the purple backs - they are what addicted me in the first place.

I went back to Superstore and bought that Weeping Birch for $35. I wonder when it starts weeping - it seems pretty happy and straight up and down so far.

Gil, plant onions around it. :>

LOL! For a second I thought I was getting some kinda companion planting advice.

I was weeping when I realised I was planting it in a former driveway - I thought all the gravel was gone but no, it had just gone down 4". Directly below that was a very interesting layer of bricks. Then hardpan. Good thing birches like gravel (I think???).

Today I recieved my orders from Lindenberg and Botanus. I'm really quite happy with the quality. I ordered alot of lilies, a couple daylilys, 3 roses, some iris, monkshood, a clematis, and aloestromeria. Botanus goofed up on the aloestromeria though. I had ordered 2 different pkgs of 2 roots. The one pkg had 3 and the other had ...peat moss. I couldn't believe it. I'll e-mail them tomorrow after I have a chance to take a better look at everything else. Last week I recieved lily bulbs from Veseys and Lily Nook. I've done a bit of shopping at 2 local greenhouses and came home with 2 martha washington geraniums, 2 blue veined double wave petunias,1 Ernest Markam clematis, a pink coneflower,
2 yellow and 1 pink osteospermum, and a couple of other basket fillers. I spent around $70 at the greenhouses. Thank goodness that I started alot of my plants this year as I haven't found any bargains.
I still have an order to come from Dominion House and the bulk of my roses from Cedar Hollow and Valley K Greenhouses will be coming in a couple weeks.

Home Depot has 16 packs of annuals for just under $7.00!! I got a pack of petunias, and a pack of "midnight blue' lobelia. They are really nice, full, healthy looking plants, with really good root systems...I restrained my self and only bought 2, but I think I'll be back again in the next few weeks...

Yes I bought a pack of Marigolds from HD too. I was almost as excited about the 2"x3" cell pack with a handle they came in! :0) I used to always complain that HD never carried annuals, only $8 perennials. But this year they have a bunch of nice annuals. I also picked up a large bale of Sunshine #4 for next winter and it was less than $20.

Our Extra Foods has an ad for the Black Lace Elders too, and i'm going to town tomorrow! Now comes the dilemma - of course i'm going to buy one (if they have them), but where will i put it? :>