I am incredibly good at rationalization. I can rationalize practically anything, I’ve never been sure if it’s a talent or a curse. In this case the inspiration for my rationalization is my inability to make it to the NW Flower and Garden Show in Seattle next week. Here’s how it goes…
Gas to Seattle and back home = $40 (ish)
Ticket to the show= $18
Parking = free (having lived there I know the secret spots!)
Lunch = $15subtotal = $73
See I’m already at $73 and I haven’t included the cost of any plants yet! So … (here comes the rationalization) I can do a little online plant shopping and not feel guilty!
Last year at the NW Flower and Garden Show was where I found my first Echium. It performed all summer long. Its foliage was gorgeous…

The blooms electric…

And it got big, really really BIG!

But since it’s only hardy to zone 9, (20 degrees) it’s dead. I was hoping to acquire another one at the show this year; I’ve never seen them for sale here in Portland. Since that opportunity was out I decided to go looking for them online.

I found several companies selling seeds, and while I can certainly appreciate the economy of going that route I wanted instant gratification. That’s when I found
Annies Annuals & Perennials. Now I’ll admit the design snob in me was a little put off by the
Mary Englebright-esque look of their website, dangerous plants are not supposed to be cute! But once I got to looking through their offerings I was amazed. They have great plants at great prices, and if you’re on the West Coast their delivery charges are very reasonable.
The best feature of their website is something called “wish list” this is a handy feature where you can keep track of all the plants you want to buy. They also allow you to save things that aren’t currently available to your wish list and they notify you when they do become available. Perfect!
So here’s what I bought…two
Echium fastuosum “Pride of Madeira”...

An
Aloe reitzii 
Whose bumpy spikes coordinated nicely with the punctured air-holes on the box don’t you think?

And after seeing all of the amazing Puya on our
California vacation I knew I needed at least one. So I went for
Puya alpestris “Sapphire Tower” I doubt I will ever see it bloom since it will remain a container plant but just in case I got the one that has the amazing turquoise green metallic blooms.

I thought the foliage on my Puya would be silver and it’s not, this plant is obviously green. I hope the sunshine and a little age will bring out its promised silver coloring.

And last, but not least, I fell for the
Dasylirion longissima “Mexican Grass Tree” after all I really wanted to add to my Dasylirion collection and the price was right at $9.95, but it is going to be a long long time before this…

Looks like this…(photo from
San Marcos Growers website)

I can whole-heartedly recommend
Annies Annuals & Perennials they were a pleasure to deal with, packaged their plants very well and shipped extremely fast. And for all 5 plants and shipping charges I still came in well under $73. Not too shabby!