Wow, you guys make me feel lucky! I thought everyone had something similar nearby. And it is nearby, it is actually within walking distance from my home and conveniently/dangerously located between work and home. It is a great place and as there are times when I stop in at least once a week, they know me there -so I do benefit from the occasional, unexpected regulars discount. My wife usually works Saturdays, so that is when I often go and when I am there by myself, it is very easy to spend at least 3 hours there. The problem is in trying to go home with only one plant. Of course then I obsess over what I did not buy and usually end up going back the next day for just one more plant. As a non-big box, locally owned store, they are a little on the pricey side. But, it always feels good to "buy local". Plus, as a non-big box, they actually take good care of their plants and actually know something about what they sell. They do usually have a great selection of 2" and 4" starter plants that are priced right, so that is usually what I go home with. Also, the quick pics I snapped were just of the houseplant area. They have quite an extensive selection of outdoor perennials and annuals as well. Mike: To contribute the jungle feel, there is a large green parrot that has free reign of the place. I was actually able to Google Image search a 2 pics of him/her: greybird: The name is Sturtz and Copelandhref>. They are located at 2851 Valmont in Boulder. If you are going to drive from Denver to Boulder and want a real treat, you should make time to stop at the Butterfly Pavilionhref> in Westminster. Yeah, the butterflies are cool, but the tropical conservatory is amazing! -Derrick

Two years aqo I bought two little 4 inch plants at the grocery store, I thought they wer posssibly young cordyline australis. They grew well as house plants and I eventualy planted them outdoors. They are about 2 feet tall now, with short, dark green, rounded leaves with purplish new growth. It turns out that they are a sport of C. stricta, (which I have a lot of as well) called glauca, but they are much better looking than the parent species, almost like miniature ti plants. Now if they have purplish new growth that means that it should be possible to produce an all purple leafed variety and maybe other colors. Maybe there is hope for a colorful, hardy, small scale cordyline suitlable to grow as a house plant or in gardens to zone 8. Is anyone else growing C. stricta glauca?

I live in the UK and see Cordyline australis everywhere. Indivisa isn't so common though, I know there are some in very wet parts of the UK like some gardens in Northern Ireland and Devon. Occasionally we have a cold winter and there's a mass die off inland, but it's no big deal really. Most come back very strongly from the roots, especially if they were a large, mature plant before they died in the winter they reach their former size in a couple of years and come back very fast from a strong root system with fresh, new growth. What actually kills them is when you see well-meaning but misguided people wrapping them up in winter with bubble wrap and frost fleece. It's the worst thing to do in my opinion, these things hate to be soaking wet in winter and the frost protection people put round them just makes them rot. I don't protect my ones that are in the ground. If they die back they dieback, the soil doesn't freeze deep enough in Britain to kill them in most cases. Container ones i just put in a cold greenhouse to keep them from dying from the damp of winter which is the real cause of death. I have noticed a lot of variation in the plants grown here. Some are very narrow leaved, but mature plants are usually wide leaved, not sure if the leaves get wider over time or different varieties are tougher. I suspect the narrow leaved plants are the "Atlantic green" variety whereas the wider leaved ones are generic australis with maybe some indivisa introgression, although according to something i read somewhere the narrow leaved varieties are meant to be hardier. I've also never seen a mature, large plant of the red, pink or variegated varieties though i know some examples exist, they're probably less hardy and were perhaps selected from stock from the North island.

Thanks Alison - I agree that you can take a lot away from the efforts of others, and I devour every article I can get my hands on. I'm hoping that GA's Gerry Coleby will return to segments on his efforts to establish his subtropical garden in Brissie, but they seem to have moved away from tropicals lately. I'm in Brissie for a week in early May, but my time will be taken up with the course I'm attending (work, I'm afraid). Ideally, I'd like to see the Birkdale garden, and Suan Sawan in Bray Park, along with Dennis Hundscheidt's 'compound' on the southside. If only more landlords were like Dennis - planting a tropical wonderland and making maintenance a condition of the lease ! I lived in SE Qld for many years, and never once made the effort to visit the Ginger Factory at Buderim : now that I am 5 hours drive from the Sunshine Coast, I'm really kicking myself over that little oversight. Cheers, Artie