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alpharaposaWe hit the Botanical Gardens later than we would have liked, but still got out. The rose garden is in full bloom (best months to see it - May and October), and the plant sale was just past the rose garden.
We spoke to a couple of people from the Virginia Native Plant Society and found out about some natives that will survive our lousy soil. We didn't buy anything today, though, because money is short and anything we'd plant this time of year would have to be watered daily to get through the summer. We did write down the common and scientific names of the plants we were interested in. If we have money this fall, we can order some from a nursery and plant them when Virginia is not trying to dehydrate everything along the coast with the heat.
I got a bit overheated, so I chugged some water in the visitor center, and then we took the tram tour around. The magnolias were blooming, which I've never seen in person before. Lots of flowers.
Going out to see John Lovitz at The Funny Bone tonight. I guess that's the Mother's Day event for us. >.>
Plant list for those curious:
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) - blooms red and yellow! I've never heard of a honeysuckle that didn't bloom yellow and white. This would go in the back, on the trellis we want to put in instead of fence.
Obedient Plant/False Dragonhead (Physostegia virginian) - red blooms late in summer. Good for full sun, lousy soil, foliage spreads well.
Butterfly Weed/Orange Milkweed (Ascelpias tuberosa) - orange and yellow blooms, supports monarch butterflies. Good for full sun, lousy soil.
Blue Wild Indigo/False Indigo (Baptisia australis) - blue blooms. Good in full sun, lousy soil. They had a white variety there as well.
Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata "Emerald Blue") - early, sort of lavender blooms. Good in full sun, lousy soil. Pretty ground cover.
Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata "Creme Brulee") - yellow blooms, sort of tall and grassy. Good in full sun, lousy soil. In fact, the growers said that anything in the Coreopsis family would be very happy in our lousy, clay and sand soil.
Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana) - blue blooms, grows into a big shrubby ball. Attracts butterflies. Full sun, okay for lousy soil.
They didn't have any Inkberry Holly plants. We did find out that yes, you need male and female to get berries, but the male and female are hard to tell apart on Inkberries. Also, while they can survive full sun, they do better with some shade. Which means we can still put them where we were thinking to put them, which is a part sun area.
There were many vines that we could also use. Another native honeysuckle, some wisteria, and even a native muscadine grape. But we want to start with one plant and work our way up, for the backyard trellis project.
We spoke to a couple of people from the Virginia Native Plant Society and found out about some natives that will survive our lousy soil. We didn't buy anything today, though, because money is short and anything we'd plant this time of year would have to be watered daily to get through the summer. We did write down the common and scientific names of the plants we were interested in. If we have money this fall, we can order some from a nursery and plant them when Virginia is not trying to dehydrate everything along the coast with the heat.
I got a bit overheated, so I chugged some water in the visitor center, and then we took the tram tour around. The magnolias were blooming, which I've never seen in person before. Lots of flowers.
Going out to see John Lovitz at The Funny Bone tonight. I guess that's the Mother's Day event for us. >.>
Plant list for those curious:
Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) - blooms red and yellow! I've never heard of a honeysuckle that didn't bloom yellow and white. This would go in the back, on the trellis we want to put in instead of fence.
Obedient Plant/False Dragonhead (Physostegia virginian) - red blooms late in summer. Good for full sun, lousy soil, foliage spreads well.
Butterfly Weed/Orange Milkweed (Ascelpias tuberosa) - orange and yellow blooms, supports monarch butterflies. Good for full sun, lousy soil.
Blue Wild Indigo/False Indigo (Baptisia australis) - blue blooms. Good in full sun, lousy soil. They had a white variety there as well.
Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata "Emerald Blue") - early, sort of lavender blooms. Good in full sun, lousy soil. Pretty ground cover.
Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata "Creme Brulee") - yellow blooms, sort of tall and grassy. Good in full sun, lousy soil. In fact, the growers said that anything in the Coreopsis family would be very happy in our lousy, clay and sand soil.
Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana) - blue blooms, grows into a big shrubby ball. Attracts butterflies. Full sun, okay for lousy soil.
They didn't have any Inkberry Holly plants. We did find out that yes, you need male and female to get berries, but the male and female are hard to tell apart on Inkberries. Also, while they can survive full sun, they do better with some shade. Which means we can still put them where we were thinking to put them, which is a part sun area.
There were many vines that we could also use. Another native honeysuckle, some wisteria, and even a native muscadine grape. But we want to start with one plant and work our way up, for the backyard trellis project.
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Date: 2010-05-08 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-09 02:19 am (UTC)