I love Alach-U-way. As opposed to Alachua, as in county It is growing, from both sides but my favorite food is there
There are also some good farms that have yummy southern veggies. Okra, all kinds of southern peas, butterbeans, that kind of thing. Heaven to me. You call, they pick, shell, you PAY and pick up. Almost green peanut season, come to momma boiled peanuts. Lord, what got me on this...oh, it was Alachua.

Happy Easter weekend.
We had a hell of a storm last night. Never have used that word on line, but that is just what it was. Molly, did you make the festival?

Yum! Why am I suddenly feeling hungry!?!

Happy Easter to all!

I think Pam is definitely hungry. Yes, I saw that nasty storm going by you on the radar. Lots of red and orange on the map. Good rains, though I hope?

Just throwing in a pic of my pretty 'Cardinal' basil with big, dark red flower heads, and the last of my Yellow Pear tomatoes.


Coleus is recovering from the cold, and ground orchids haven't stopped blooming all winter!

The storm, I knew it was raining, but probably the worst came during my evening nap. Never heard a thing. Went to bed at 1.

Yes Pam, I made the fest. Took my little dock cart with me, filled it up and went home to figure where I was going to put things. 2 plants I bought were rated zone 9, Nun's Orchid and iachroma. The fest was Sunday, and you may recall we had temps down in the 30's Monday or Tuesday? Crap. Plants were in the ground by then and I had to make mini makeshift houses over those two when the prediction came on the alerts.

And then I shopped some more on Wednesday and today. Went to the Greenhouse Nursery on Newberry Road, then today Garden Gate. I seem to be quite hungry for some color out there. And it's working.

I have 1 flower bed by the guest house that is actually almost civilized. Primary plants are roses, that I recently learned to properly prune, with ground cover of dianthus, salvia, gaillardia, gazania and even threw in a coneflower today.

I say civilized because most of my beds are full of native plants being overtaken by blackberries and goldenrod, not to mention smilax and other annoyances.

I have a teen that comes to help every few weeks. I set him up to come tomorrow, but there is rain and a job popped up that MUST be done this weekend. (Gotta feed the bank to support the plant addiction ya know.) So he will have to come next weekend.

We had rain late yesterday afternoon and some last night. It was still sprinkling a little this morning. It is too mushy and too hot (80) to go outside today.

Glad you got some plants Molly. The teenage helper is what i need...bad. I was over at garden gate myself last week.

You probably know about this, but this is the earth day sale at the butterfly museum. If anyone else sees this and lives close, you might be interested as well.

https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/eart...

Pretty day...everyone have a great one.

Don't forget you can add events like those to the Gardening Calendar of Events! Help other gardeners and get five acorns for yourself! http://garden.org/apps/events/

Thanks for posting that link, Melanie - I didn't realize we had a Calendar on the site

You're welcome! It's hasn't been on the site all that long, but I think it's a good feature and I hope everyone contributes to it. I try my best, but sometimes I forget! I just try to remember when I get emails or see stuff on Facebook from the different plant societies or botanical gardens to post the info over on here.

Not only are plant shows and festivals a great place to obtain plants, but it's a great place to take pictures to submit to the database and get more acorns! Plus, it's always nice to get out of the house! Last year, I was really depressed and my doctor and I were trying to find a medication that worked. During that time, I went to a few plant shows for plants I don't even grow, but it really lifted my spirits. I went to a Daylily show, which is kind of funny because I like to poke fun at the "Daylily cult" on here. I love them; they're super dedicated gardeners. But sometimes the site feels like All Things Daylilies! But it was fun to take pictures and find my own appreciation for them, even if I'll never grow them. And then to share the pictures on here and excite the Daylily folks - that was great! I even added a few that we didn't have photos of! I also went to a Rose show with my mom on Mother's Day weekend. That was a lot of fun, too. Roses are hard to grow in Florida so I like to appreciate other people's efforts.

Of course, just wandering around the many botanical gardens we are fortunate to have in Florida is also great. We can grow a lot of plants here that most of the country can't. So you can often find rare plants that aren't well represented on here. I know last time I went to Selby Gardens, I came back with a lot of photos for plants that didn't have any photos on here yet. So it's good for the soul, and it's good for the site!

Pam, one of the vendors at the plant fest told me of the the sale in April. Thanks for posting that, cause I had already forgotten. I am on campus almost everyday and when I see their sign on the corner at 34th, I have to force my steering wheel not to turn in there every time.

Well, I have no shame. I have stopped for plants 5 times over the past 10 days. I hit both Home Depots
both Lowe's (and their distressed plants racks), the plant fest and Garden Gate.

I've been sharing some with @Pinkbud so I am not a total plant hog. Her dh works with me and rides with me to work. He gets to help pick out flowers, load them into the car and if he's lucky, there might still be room for him. Yesterday it was questionable since I also had to buy dog and cat food. It was crowded. He's learning a lot of plant names.

Jeremy (son) is supposed to come today to dig some wild black-eyed susans and spiderwort. He needs them to deter sand erosion in his old driveway. It's a plus-plus. I need to get those hogs out of my gardens and he needs a "wildflower meadow".

In the meantime, I have some new plants I need to get put in the ground.

Headed to lowes and HD myself this morning. Want to see what the 'weekend' trucks brought. I dont like getting in and out of the new lowes, but have to go to joanns. Heck...its right there At least the new Sams and Walmart are not open...lord Marshalls and Dicks sporting good right there with it too. Its not going to be fun, thats for sure. I cant wait to see how gainesville is going to support all of this. Its sure not on there high paying jobs. Then the giant bass pro shop. Seems iffy to me. Ok, rambling, sorry everyone.

Have a great day all, Im still waiting and waiting for my first daylily scape. Usually have a sdlg. bloom around Easter. No so this year.

A new bass pro shop is coming to Gainesville? Oh no, I guess we'll have to go see that one too Those are like huge candy stores to hubby!

I haven't been to Lowe's or to the nursery in about 2 weeks, and I'm starting to go through withdrawal. I'm sure there's something out there that I must have.

I just planted some more caladiums this past weekend. Every day I take a peek to see if they're coming up yet

Ibis, up here, I rarely expect to see a caladium to show its face until early May, longer days, warmer nights.

A year and a half ago, I re-did my bogs by the pond. After that my LA Iris did not bloom. Live and learn. The iris are doing very well now and hope to see them bloom in April. After that, I need to re-do the bogs again. I found my medium sunk and so did the plants. So after Iris blooming, I plan on hauling some of that decomposed tree mulch over to fill the bog areas. But I have to lift the plants to do this.

I have LA Iris, cannas, umbrella plants and some other varieties of moisture loving plants.

Pam, so far I don't mind the new Lowe's. I pull in and park at the garden end. So handy for getting in and out. Most of what I am getting there are annuals since I need that color/bloom fix right now. They sure do brighten up the gardens while we wait for the perennials to come back. A couple weeks back I did go in there for something having to do with work. Had a $100.00 bill. They had to round up some cash to make change and the manager said I should use my debit or credit card. Really? When was cash no good in this country.......... No daylily scapes coming up here yet, a bit early.

No daylily scapes here yet either.
I am excited though. Down south you can't grow hostas. I got one late last fall. It's actually an African Hosta. It has BUDS!!!!!!

We are packing up here for a trip back to AR to take care of business there, and then back down here in May. My daylily bed is in shambles and there are no scapes on the ones that are very early and are usually in bloom by this time.

Pam! It would be fun to have these new stores in Gainesville. I have friends here and they are so eagerly waiting for them to open.

Ann, I gave up on hostas long time ago.. Congrats on that beauty that you got.

I bought some 'Sun Hostas' last summer at a local nursery. They did great last year, and some of them are coming back this year, but they don't look very robust yet. Love Hostas, but they don't love Florida. I think I'll start replacing them with peacock ginger. That's a nice substitute but they're always so late coming up.

I had a bunch of "baby" hostas last summer, apparently growing from seed from really large, mature plants. I dug those tiny plants up and potted each one. I left all those pots outside during the winter (we got down into the 20's numerous nights and several nights were in the teens). All those plants are now growing. I don't think I lost a single one. Perhaps hostas need some cold temperatures to do well, Gigi and Ibis.

Ken!

Hostas do need the winter cold spell to flourish. I have had a few, most perish in the heat. Had one that was supposed to do well here. It lived maybe 3 years, even bloomed, but stayed small and hasn't come back for 2-3 years now.

Sidney was growing hostas over in Jax. I gave her a small cube sized fridge so she could over winter them in the refrigerator. Not sure how that went.

Overcast here today, but that is good. All the plants I put in won't be so demanding for water on a day like today. Looked at them all when I got home from work today. None seem depressed.

My teen guy is coming on Sunday for more garden work. It's a never ending thing.