Well, I have to say, walking into a nursery with the intention of buying ONLY TWO cucumber plants...that's just ASKING for trouble ;-)

My advice is to be realistic and plan to buy at least $xx of plants when you go in...then buy just a bit less, then you can feel smug that you overcame your addiction :-)

Ellen (who has it all worked out)

If you want to read some funny threads search for 'CHAD' on this forum and others - Compulsive Horticultural Acquisitional Disease. Many people suffer from this here!

Sue

Oh yeah, and one pack containing two (2) slicing cucumber seedlings

See, I would have forgotten those! *G*

narc-
Can you check the tag on your Delph. Blue Butterfly to see if it says Annual or Perennial? I bought those gorgeous things last year, and they didn't come back. Thought (P), but maybe not. Thanks.

mmqchdygg, it is listed as a perennial, but from what I have read it is a short-lived perennial that might or might not come back. Bluestone's description is that it can 'bloom itself out', which is an acceptable death in my garden. It is reported in a number of places on-line that it will reseed, if given the chance. I guess you have to be careful weeding in the area the next spring. Other sites report that you can save the seeds and start them indoors in the winter.

Were yours in a moist or dry location?

narcnh

Don't you just love Edgewater?? We must live nearby each other. I'm in Unity.
Edgewater's perennials in four packs are great.
Yes, this has happened to me many a time, altho I know by now that a trip to almost any "green grocer" will put me back. Also, my problem is where do I put these things? My borders are getting pretty crowded.
Yesterday I picked up a Hydrangea quercifolia "Snowflake" at homedepot in Clareville.
I walked around today wondering where to put it.

Welcome to the club, narcnh. The 12 step meetings had to be discontinued, we were holding them at some local nurseries and ... you can imagine how sucessful they were.

Yours doesn't sound like an especially bad case, you didn't even buy any trees or shrubs. And, you went to the vet first. This is a good indication that you can get this under control, though it might be October or November before you see any real improvement in your symptoms.

see, now, i applaud all the foursies on your acquisition list ... shows spunk.

i'll meander through a nursery, humming a little tune & filling up a radio flyer wagon or two with goodness-knows-what, but i'm too cheap or too in denial to actually commit to buying four of an impulse purchase.

so i end up with a garden filled with mismatched, ill-considered onesies.

i heart every single one of them, don't get me wrong, but i bet your garden looks much more planned.

how's that for enabling?

:0)

Sounds like I'm in with a group of hardcore addicts. :)

gato, IÂm in Claremont. I used to go to Longacres all the time, when I lived in Lebanon, since they were literally three minutes from my house. I like the folks at Edgewater, very helpful and more into flowers than selling. I think they have a larger variety of perennials, too. Most of my shrubs I scavenge in the Wal-Mart lot, when they mark down everything. I figure if they can survive into July on blacktop, then they have a shot in my yard.

DITD, the only problem is that by November IÂm already planning next yearÂs purchases.

marieor, my main garden started out quite planned. ItÂs about 80 feet by 10 with shrubs on either end and a trellis in the middle with a path. In the beginning I planted four rows of flowers - low, ,mid, mid-hi, high, with a row of shubs behind as a backdrop. ThatÂs the 80 x 10 part. Behind that is a row of raspberries, behind that a row of blueberries, behind that a row of ancient honeysuckle bushes that were already there and behind that a row of fruit trees. The flowering garden section was divided into four main sections, each about 15 feet wide. Each section initially was planted identically  same plants same order. It looked like a giant cookie-cutter had come down onto the ground. Over the past three summers some plants have spread, some plants have died and been replaced and LOTS of plants have been stuck in between rows and sections. I was just looking at the garden today and it is finally starting to lose the military row formation. I started that way because the whole thing was lawn, when I began, and I didnÂt rototill. I just turned over the grass in rows with a pitchfork, planted in those rows and mulched over the grass in between to kill it. Not very efficient. This year I think I've just about saturated that garden. Sounds like it's time to start another one. Where're my catalogs?

narcnh

narc,

I have found bringing another with you can help curb the urge......yeah this worked last sunday...went for one silver mound that needed replacing and another acre seedum....she poked and i poked, damn if we didnt pick out a jeep load, and left pondering the weeping willow and a couple of blueberry bushes...( would have had to be planting them if we had the the pick up with us....( the PPP discount card seems to burn a hole in my pocket)

Hi im Dennis and I cant buy just one......

Yes.

Moist or dry...well, portions of this little 'quarter-pie slice' shaped garden tend to dry out near the foundation, but the DBB was placed about a foot+ away from the found, where it tends to retain moisture a LITTLE better. Right next to it I planted a Malva Mauritiana which is going like gangbusters, plus with all the rain we've had, it's really not LIKELY that it's lacking moisture. It was gorgeous when I bought it last year in bloom, then peetered out and well, maybe it DID die, cuz it was pretty pathetic looking in the end. Hummers loved it.

since trees and shrubs have become the focus of our gardens,(with PLENTY of space filled with perennials and bulbs and tropicals) we have learned to 'always take the van'.
Not the station wagon. the VAN. !!
best, mindy

Some of these posts have me laughing out loud!! Of course, you find humor in things that are familiar...
Last week, I stopped at a favorite nursery, just "to see" if I needed anything else since my prior visit a week before...when I spent 50 dollars on annuals. Of course, I bought several more things, came home, and realized, "I don't have enough yellow!!" Quite pleased that I have yet another excuse to return.
50 dollars doesn't sound like much (to this group anyway!)...but, this is on top of many other purchases. And, did I tell you that I also grew about 450 plants (about 30 different varieties) from seed indoors this winter?? One might think that would be enough...noooooooo...

I used to own a two seater convertible as my main transport, with an old beater pickup as my usual nursery transport. More than once, I made the mistake of visiting the nursery when I was running errands - how many shrubs can you fit in a Miata? 8 was my record, but my favorite was the time I bought two Kousa dogwoods - great price and I was afraid they'd be gone when I had time to go back. So I put down the top, situated them in the passenger seat, and drove home at 25 MPH. In Concord I got some really funny looks, but in my own little town, they just waved. I guess they know me too well!

.....its another rainy weekend, and im having thoughts that a trip out to the garden center is just whats needed.....where did I put the keys...and where is my sponsor?

When I bought my house seven years ago (from a couple that didn't garden) I had a clean slate to work with. All lawn! I could buy anything I wanted and find a spot for it rigth away. Now that my yard is heavily gardened I can't just willy-nilly buy something and expect to find a spot for it. Does that stop me? No! It's worse because my job has me driving a lot and I pass a lot of sales. I garden center/farm near where I worked closed recently (Capasso Farms in Southborough) and sold off everything for 50% off. I have a driveway full of plants and no place to plant them....yet.

Dennis- I think I'm your sponsor, and I'd love to help you, but I spent the day at Annie's plant swap, then stopped at Tanglewood Gardens to buy an ornamental oregano to replace one that croaked recently and came home with several other herbs. They had to go in the back seat because the bed of my truck was filled with swap plants.

I'm one of the sad people who replaced my last vehicle with a pick up so I could load more plants when I go shopping. Not to mention mulch, compost, manure, etc.

(silently snickering) WHO ME!!???/
NOPE I have NEVER done (ehem) that this week anyway......... hey I COULD be a gambler, I suppose.

I'm on Step 2 but have been there for about 20 years. After admitting I have the problem, I discovered that if I leave plastic at home and Bring Only Cash it adds the inconvenience of needing to go back and pick up what I have on hold.

Then, of course, with the admonishment to myself that I really don't NEED that gorgeous tropical that just arrived I break. Step 3? Don't even know what that involves. LOL

Also LOL the Miata. My Focus sun roof has been opened many a time with plants stuck out the top. The trick is to always have a "back roads" way home. Makes for interesting excursions when the nursery is 60 miles away. And, of course, one always needs to leave room for the undiscovered gem that those backroad nurseries always seem to produce and then LEAP into the car.

To help overcome the glut of homeless plants, I resisted catalogs a lot this year, relying instead on local nurseries. That hasn't helped, as the workers have gotten to know me and have kindly held out special stuff knowing full well I'll be back within a week.

Other problem is time in the garden to get everything planted when one is running around buying. This is resolved by succombing to being "sick" on particularly gorgeous days. The large corporation I work for instructs its managers on how to recognize addiction when it influences one's work. Easy to get around that as my bosses wife is a begonia collector and she and I have been known to simultaneously come down with a mysterious illness at the exact same time.

Don't get discouraged. The addiction can be broken as evidenced by my mother who at age 74 forewent all in-the-ground gardening this year in anticipation of having her kidney removed. Several hundreds of dollars of containers later, she's quite content :-)

Martie

Martie, I believe step 3 is "Rip out whatever lawn is left to make room for more plants" and step 4 is "Go back to step 1."

LOL! You folks are making me almost ckoke on my coffee! I pretty new to gardening...have to use containers. But I've resorted to using my alotted weekly "lunch" money to feed my addiction to herbs and annuals. Hey what's wrong with penut butter and jelly anyway!