"turpentine mango- the mango from my childhood. Used to be plentiful around here but has been replaced by more commercial cultivars. I know i one time heard it called a hog mango as in it was only good as pig food."

Decades ago I spent a summer on the island of Saba. There they called what you are talking about "hairy mangos". Different trees had more or less fiber and different taste. They all had a degree of turpentine flavor.

Pea, I love this thread!

As I've said before, I'm convinced that vendors and growers watch these forums so maybe this will help bring those plants 'round to retail?

Here are a few from my "want list":

1) Mockorange (mock orange), also known as English dogwood, Philadelphus. I want the highly fragrant, double-flowered variety. Very hard to find, as chronicled in this blog as well as the Fragrant Plants forum. I have this one - got it at a Master Gardener plant show - not in bloom at the time - and I kept my fingers crossed. But the blooms came last spring and this is not "it". Single blooms and I put my nose to so many of those white blooms, willing them to put out a scent, but nada.

3) Banana shrub, Magnolia figo, Michelia figo . My sister gave me cuttings yesterday from her old home she is getting ready to put up for sale. She is trying to root some for herself, too, for her new house. I started them in a Forsyth pot but I don't have a lot of hope. I think maybe she'd had the cuttings for a day or two before they got to me?

Carol in Jacksonville

They used to grow turpentine mango in Ft Myers, not for fruit but because the leaves are used as food for rhesus monkeys in labs. I don't know if there is still anyone down there in the business--nowadays it's probably cheaper to have branches sent by air from Malaysia, but you could try.

I think that most of the mangos are around here are grafted on turpentine rootstock. If there is a nursery around you that sells mangos, maybe they could order one if you asked?

There are people who sell unusual mints at festivals around here. I just saw them at the Greenthumb Festival. They will be at the Manatee Rare Fruit Sale next month if you are willing to drive to Palmetto.

To get the special or unusual things you do have to try a little harder to find them. Big box stores and even nurseries sell things that most people are interested in buying and that are the cheapest to produce in mass quantities.

Pea, I JUST saw some white Mexican heather (as well as the purple) at either Home Depot or Lowes here in Ft Lauderdale...can't remember which, lol. It was sold in a flat tray of little cups with a large tag that served as a handle for about $13 . The purple was sold in larger plastic pots. Maybe you can order it online and have it delivered to your local store?

Hey thanks, i am just getting ready to head out to do some errands perhaps a stop by my HD and i will find some white mex heather might have arrived. The white will look wonderful with some of the pink flowering plants i planted last weekend.

Sadly no white mexican heather...and the clerk was clueless and beside i noticed while there they had a caution tape around the citrus trees. I asked, she said the county came and put a quarentine from selling it. I wish i had known, i would not have even stepped foot in the garden center. I do not want to bring back anything to my trees. She could not tell me what the county suspects is wrong. IMO those trees should not be on the sales floor til they are given the all clear.

Pea they did the same thing at my local walmart. Came in and taped the citrus off. Turns out they were bringing in citrus for out of state.

Pea, sometimes it depends on the staff at the big box stores. I remember there was a wonderful manager at the Walmart in Parkland, FL. It was 30 minutes further than my local Walmart but that manager would order a smorgasbord of different and unusual plants. It was almost as much fun as a plant sale!

Pea, I saw white Mexican heather this week at Ace Hardware & Nursery in Jacksonville and thought of you. (All of the Aces in Jacksonville have really nice plants and interesting/unusual ones that you can't find in the Big Box stores. I love to shop plants in all of them!) If you have one in your area, you might check there.

Carol

Our ace is so small. I have seen some bedraggled herbs out front now and again but i don't think they carry many plants. I will drive by tomorrow and see tho. I have to take a kitty to the vet in the morning and plan to fill my morn with errands til they call and say i can pick her up. I need to pick up a couple of washers and a screw to fix my cabinet anyway. Thanks for thinking of me.

i just picked up a bunch of purple mex heather cause it was on the 'i'm dying please save me' rack at the garden center for cheap.

No luck with the white mex. heather at ace. Just the usual sad selection of forgot to water herbs and a very sad petunia.

Oh, darn, Pea. I'm sorry. I hope you'll just bump into it somewhere.

For the first time ever, Home Depot had the most common varieties of bromeliads in their $5 bedding plants and annuals table. I couldn't believe it! $5 for a brom is a real deal, in Jax.

I wonder if they're following this thread? :)

Carol

Pea, I had to run into Home Depot for just a minute this morning. It's a rule that you always go into Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc. through the Garden Center, ya know.

No kidding, there it was: white Mexican heather. Pint size - I think it was $2.98.

Maybe you can call Home Depot on Monday when they're slow and ask if they have it before you would drive there?

Should I just stop posting on this thread now? I keep teasing you!

Carol

I second plant/garden festivals. I saw coral porterweed on earth day at the Greenthumb festival in St. Pete

They need a plant festival in charlotte county, dang it. I've not heard of one.

i might stop by hd tomorrow. I was planning on heading to the beach for mom's day and home depot is on my way.

As for bromeliads, i received a couple way back at a in person garden web plant trade. They were 2 different ones. I planted them in two different pots. But when i went to divide them for the first time the one had over grew the other and i only had one variety in both pots. Its now growing happily under my oak. It covers a huge area now, like maybe a 10' x 6’ area. Its the first plant to bloom after winter.

No white mexican heather at the home depot on my way to the beach. But i did speak to a knowledgable clerk...i can't order them and the reason they don't carry them is cause they don't sell well here. Sigh.