Hello everyone! Happy New Year to you all 2010 WOW, I never thought this far ahead as a kid LOL. How time flies!! anyhow, I've been reading through the recent post and noticed that Mahoney's Nursery (way too far out for me in southern connecticut) is having a great sale and wondered if anyone knew of perhaps something closer to me that also is having a good clearance sale? I'm in Ansonia about 15 minutes from New haven/Yale campus ,I have a completely new garden so I need everything, trellises, planters ( really would like two huge ones and they are sooooo ridiculousely expensive ) statuary, supplies , yep everything. I'd love to hear about which nurseries in the area are well stocked with nice plants too! the only one I've visited has been Barreta, nice stuff but never seen them have a sale all year. I can't wait to start this year, last year I was so busy with my husband renovating the inside of the house that the outside ended up looking like a waste land with rocks and dirt, so sad. I can't wait to have photos of my own garden!!! :))

Yes Chip and Judine are still kicking at least last I talked to them in mid January. Jose is taking over most if not all of the nursery care and propagating. I am sure he is busy. They have talked with me about setting up a community garden in a part of the nursery and have I've yet to get back with them. I am hoping someone with the Comal Master Gardeners will step up as I am about 30 miles north of there and can't commit to the time and travel at this point to get it off the ground. It is always a good idea to call ahead and yes they have always closed down over the holidays and still are closed on Sunday and Monday. They were propagating for Hoffman's Nursery and have on and off done quite a bit of biz with them. I haven't been on garden web for sometime and just stopped in to say hi y'all and hope you all keep growing whatever makes you happy and enjoy. Happy Growing David

Thanks Carol and SJN. Yes, it was getting very little sun, and I think it was TOO wet (if that's possible, because they love wet spots). My other one up on the hill doesn't get enough sun either, but it isn't dying back, so all I can think of is it was kept too wet. Neither have bloomed, so I definitely have to find a sunnier spot this year. My fall-blooming hibiscus (H. acetosella, H. radiatus) are doing great and I can't wait for them to bloom. Funny that it says they only go dormant in z8. That must be old info before they changed the zones, because my friend has one in Z9b (he sent me the seeds) and his goes dormant as well. Even when I was in Z10a, my perennial hibiscus went dormant in the winter, and some didn't come back if we had a freeze, but the Texas Star always did. I had it in z7a in SC, and it came back every year and bloomed like mad all summer long.

Good catch, Hillary, If I'm not too late, pls do not cut anything off, you're liable to cut too much off & the plant will collapse if you cut into its crown. Looks like you got it just in time. Rina gave good advice, I was going to suggest the cinnamon too. I don't usually wash the roots, I crumble the soil off dry. But washing it here actually allowed us to see you DO have some viable roots there; seems all is NOT lost. Sprinkle the Cinnamon on the roots, then pls pick the plant up & shake off the excess. Then pot it up DRY & pls do not water it for 3-4 days at least to allow the roots to heal any injury from them being handled. Perlite will definitely work in place of pumice, don't know abt the gravel, it may be too big. After all is done, just as curiosity, wash off that netting thing & pls see if you can spread it open btwn your fingers. I think it's some kind of synthetic mesh; they don't usually degrade over time. I don't know what these nurseries are thinking; but I'd be curious to see it clean, splay out btwn your fingers. Its presence would explain why the pups are pushing up & out thru the center of the plant, instead of the regular coming out from nearby or underneath the mother plant. I recently repotted a ZZ plant plant, only to find a large piece of screen stuck to the bottom of the plant's roots. One never knows what one might find. Great save!! We look forward to updates in future.