Another Two Ticks On The 'Wants' List

15 comments

I have a ‘wants’ list. It’s a list of plants I must have in my garden. Whether I have room for them or whether I can get them to grow is another matter. But I have seen them in other gardens, on TV programs or growing in the wild and I want them. It comes with being a plantsman and plantaholic.

Yesterday I visited some of my less-favoured Garden Centres, further from home and now part of big chains, more in hope than expectation. The sort of place that is full of run-of-the-mill plants you can find in every outlet and DIY store but which just might have changed hands and be selling something to tempt me. The first was selling gentians on one display (many of our local Garden Centres are stocking them now), their impossibly blue trumpets ‘sell’ the plants on sight. But among them was one with a demure little white flower I had seen growing on the side of a mountain in New Zealand – gentiana saxosa. These are not long lived in cultivation but if you can give it the right conditions, it will self sow. I hope I can give it the right conditions in my new alpine bed.

There was nothing on offer at my second stop and my third port of call looked equally disappointing. But among the shrubby potentillas was the variety ‘Vilmorniana’. Not a name to sell a plant (like ‘Red Ace’ or ‘Goldfinger’), but to those in the know, a distinctive plant with pale grey-green foliage, pale yellow flowers and an upright habit. Two down and not-quite-so-many to go on the ‘wants’ list.

29 Sep, 2009
10 likes

Comments

Louise1

Ah, well done. Worth the trip after all !!!

The run-of-the-mill GCs are okay for just that but usually pretty hopeless for anything different i agree, you were 'so' lucky :)))

29 Sep, 2009

Moon_grower

OH lucky you Andrew finding the Gentiana saxosa. Hope it thrives for you!

29 Sep, 2009

Terratoonie

Well done, Andrew, on your purchases...
If you bought everything on your "Wants" list, just how many acres of garden would you need ? Lol.

29 Sep, 2009

Lily2

Lucky finds Andrew, it just goes to show that it's always worth a look. You might even find something that hasn't got as far as your "wants" list, or don't you do impulse buys? :o))

29 Sep, 2009

Mad

Its so true about run-of-the-mill garden centres, they all stock what they're supplied with and b----- us. Whenever I happen to see, on a journey to somewhere a sign which reads 'Rare and Unusual Plants' and its a nursery rather then a G.C. I want to go in. Still been disappointed sometimes, but occasionally have found something I've seen in a book or somewhere. It would be useful if there was some publication listing such nurseries.

29 Sep, 2009

Motinot

I have that little Gentian Andrew...page 12 of my pics...its a bit blurry...Its been in my 'sink' for about 2-3 years and is doing good....:>)...I dislike the local garden centres so much...you know what you are going to see before you enter the place....

29 Sep, 2009

Moon_grower

Mad there used to be a book listing all garden centres and nurseries, came out each year. Sadly they stopped producing a few years ago.

29 Sep, 2009

Andrewr

TT - a lot!

Lily - yes, I do occasionally make impulse buys but then have trouble placing them in the garden. If they are on the 'wants' list, it usually means I know where they can go

29 Sep, 2009

Lily2

I know what you mean Andrew, it happens to me all the time!

29 Sep, 2009

Wagger

Luck comes to those who look hardest!

Mad and Moon grower - what about the RHS Nursery Finder, on line in conjunction with Plant Finder?

29 Sep, 2009

Sid

I have a want list. It never seems to get any shorter....

29 Sep, 2009

Andrewr

Neither does mine Sid <sigh>
But it's so rewarding when you track down something you've been after for ages. Earlier today, I posted a photo of amicia zygomeris. I saw it in an Open Garden one year and went back the next year, hoping to buy some. But the garden owner had recently died and the garden was closed. It took me four years to track down another supplier!

29 Sep, 2009