Shopping for plants

Any pics of your purchases to follow???

Nah, they're all outside in the freezing rain, waiting to be planted up in tubs! When the weather improves (say end of August), if there are any left, I'll post piccies!.

For once Gattina we are basking in a clear blue sky.......if you ignore the nasty east wind.......

I,m hoping frosts are a thing of the past and am eventually trusting my plants to the great oudoors......and maybe a wee visit or two at the weekend to....well... just look.....:0))

I recognise the scenario from your garden centre. I visit a friend in Cyprus regularly and we always do the tour of ’garden centres’ while I am there. Wonderful plants, no names, no prices ........
But, the most fabulous pots, all sizes up to gigantic! One can only drool.

........and take out a second mortgage!

You must look like an experienced gardener Gattina, you`ll have to start charging for advice, lol...

Oh, your experience does ring a bell with me! I was back for my third visit in eight days (a different nursery this time) It was only to buy a couple of pots, but I came back with a whole load of plants again! There are just too many nurseries within easy distance!

Nice to spend money in a garden centre. We're going to one tomorrow :o))

I'd say "Keep your pockets locked" Hywel, but where's the fun in that? GCs are compulsive, aren't they?
Lincslass, maybe next time I shall go without the hessian apron, the soil-caked fingers and the wellies - it does rather mark me down, doesn't it? ;-)

Oh, for a decent GC here! There is one we visit, but the larger outside plants have been there for yonks and their pots are bursting with hairy bittercress! They occasionally display tables with herbs or a few annuals, but I think word spreads quickly and, by the time we get there the best has gone. The weekly market is our next best bet ... if all we want are pelargoniums in various colours or petunias! Come on Spaniards! Diversify!

I have to say that things here have improved a lot since we first came here 7 years ago, but the Italians themselves don't get much help from a lot of GC staff, and the level of ignorance is startling.

The main 'level of ignorance' I come across is that nothing is ever properly or completely labelled - if at all! I bought a lovely fuchsia last year labelled 'Fuchsia.' OK then!

We get roses labelled (if at all) "Rosa - red", "Rosa - yellow", "Rosa - white", and if you're really lucky "Rosa - rampicante" (climbing)

I won,t tell you about the new guinea impatiens for 3.99... it would just be rubbing it in....

What you want is an enterprising gardener.....

I saw rather a beautiful one the other day, Pam - granted it was quite big, but when I asked the price I had difficulty not gasping - €18!!!!!!!

Good gracious!!!......are there no nurseries there, or people selling off unwanted plants.......did you want a sideline?

Yes, there are nurseries, but mostly not very well or knowledgeably run, and most stock in garden centres is bought in from Holland. There are some huge nurseries down over the Tuscan border, but these are mostly full of unbelievably expensive, big, architectural shrubs and trees and aimed at the professional landscape gardeners with silly budgets. I have found one online, up near Brescia, that does mailorder, and are open to the public by appointment - but I don't like being ushered round by staff who are only after selling you as much as possible, and without prior knowledge of prices, that makes me nervous. I like BROWSING by myself. We've only got a little garden and an even smaller budget. Gardening is not the passion and pastime it is in the UK, and I would say a big majority of people have, at best, a balcony as outside space. Tubs and windowboxes are good though, so bedding plant sales are relatively high at this time of year. Tempting, but I don't think, as a sideline, it would be very remunerative, Pam!

Lol.......do you grow from seed, its fascinating, my calla lily set seed and I,ve got pots of babies, and double petunias & antirrhinum from last years 50p sale.......(maybe we could post some seeds to you)

I have tried from time to time with various levels of success, Pam. We bought a little plastic greenhouse, and filled it with compost and seed trays, and I have been known to be in there at dawn, still in my nightie, to see if anything has germinated overnight. Some seeds are better than others - T & M being notably bad where germination rates are concerned. I'd think it was my fault if it weren't for the fact that every single Sarah Raven seed I have ever sown has popped up perfectly.
OOoh yes please! What seeds have you got? Actually, maybe not - we're swiftly running out of space, and OH would go crazy. Thanks for the offer, though.

If anything interesting sets seed later we'll have to see

Oooooh, Lovely!

I've grown a magnolia, its still a baby, a hammamelis ( my friend 'borrowed' a seed for me.!) and some cordylines that did remarkably well when one of the plants went to seed and promptly died from the cold!

Its fun seeing just what will grow.......ooh I forgot the Cersis a member fom here sent me.......

I'd never heard of one of those before, Pam, so I've just looked it up: Oh it's a Judas tree! Well done you!

I'm a bit of a seed obsessive too , Pamg , I love to see what makes it through .
Gattina , you must have got off lightly in that quake at the weekend ? It looked dreadful .

We did, Driad. It woke us and shook the bedroom a bit, but quite gently. We thought about getting up and going outside, but it was very cold and raining hard, so we just went back to sleep. It wasn't until Daughter 'phoned the next morning to find out if our house was still standing, and OH tuned into the BBC news that we found out quite serious it had been. A friend's son who lives in Ferrara had to grab his young family and run for it: they spent a horrid night camping, with all their neighbours out in the roadway in the freezing rain. More shocks were felt later, and even now, public buildings remain closed because the authorities say more quakes are possible. Dangerous part of the world this! We were very shocked at the death toll, but the injury toll is really bad. We don't think much about it because we get small jolts and judders quite often.

Didn't realise it had been so awful, Gattina! We never seem to catch up on news from anywhere, so were completely unaware of it until you mentioned the rattling wardrobe doors. So sorry to hear it was so serious! Those poor people!

I know. The friend herself was in her house alone. She lives down nearer the plain than us and much closer to Bologna, so the effects were far worse. She admits to shrieking and sobbing with fright. She tried desperately to 'phone her son, but in the rush he had left his mobile 'phone behind. The tremor only lasted for about 20 seconds, but when you are in the middle of it, that can seem quite a long time. (Unless you are Japanese, when it's peanuts)
All new buildings in Italy have to comply with (very expensive) "anti seismic" construction regulations, but those of us who live in old, artisan-built, foundationless stone houses seem to be better off - relatively they seem withstand quakes remarkably well. (fingers crossed - don't want to tempt providence!) It was a lot of the mediaeval brick buildings that suffered the worst, and that has been the worst part of this quake (apart from the deaths, of course) - so much of historical importance has been lost. It has been similar to Assisi a few years back.

So sorry when I heard about it, Gattina.

How worrying for you....:0(

We've just been chatting with a neighbour - just a few hundred metres away up the hill they apparently felt it much more strongly than we did - either that or he's a bit of a drama queen. He says he has a bag packed and ready by the door in case of aftershocks. Goodness!

Gosh Gattina, are there organisations to say what to do, it does sound as if he likes to create a stir!. (hopefully!)

Certainly in the towns there are. Not sure about up here - everyone'd ignore them anyway.