Friday, February 14, 2014

Xera retail reopens tomorrow!

I originally planned to post this last Friday, February 7th, as Xera Plants was scheduled to open the next day. However seriously frigid weather and a couple of snow storms blew through town and everything changed. Opening was (wisely) postponed until tomorrow, February 15th.

When I visited a couple of weeks ago they were working on improvements to the space. It will be exciting to see what they have in store for us!

So in the spirit of their reopening tomorrow how about I share a couple my recent Xera purchases, to whet your appetite? (I had need to visit their growing facility a few weeks back and they let me buy a couple of things). I've been mildly obsessed with Azara microphylla for a few months. I think it was this lovely specimen I saw at Celestial Dream Gardens last September which finally pushed me over the edge.

I've been spending so much time thinking about the Azara I almost started a new, re-occurring feature on the blog called "The plant I don’t yet own but currently am obsessing about…" in fact I had so much fun thinking about it and writing a bit that who knows, maybe I'll still start it up. I won't how ever be featuring the Azara because I now own two!

Don't you just love those first two sentences on the tag?

I am very excited about these!

I also came home with a Leptospermum lanigerum. I had been planning to add a Ozothamnus 'Sussex Silver' to the garden but I've been watching a neighbors plant and I just don't think it's right for me. So I think this is my substitute.

I just love saying "wooly tea tree"...

And the powdery grey/blue foliage, heavenly...

One more, a purchase made before the store closed last fall. Grevillea australis...

The label reads: "The MOST cold hardy Grevillea is a lovely, informal, evergreen shrub that sports intensely fragrant flowers in early spring. Small, olive green leaves are lined in orange/brown indumentum that also covers the flower buds. In mid-March to April powerfully fragrant flossy white flowers. Rounded to 4' tall and as wide, in FULL sun well drained soil w/ NO fertilizer or amendments. Drought tolerant when established. Neglect is its friend."

So I bought "the most cold hardy grevillea" last fall. I guess I was more in tune to what Mother Nature had in store for us than I realized.

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

34 comments:

  1. Ah, stop! Every time I read one of your posts I see another plant I want for my front garden. I'm already running out of room. I want that Leptospermum lanigerum. That closeup of the leaves and the bark and the buds...Aaaaahhhh!

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    1. Yay! It's all part of my plan Alison, good to know it's working.

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  2. Oh, that beautiful Leptospermum - the foliage is to die for. As for a very cold-hardy Grevillea, my winter kill rate says "bring it on!"

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  3. Yay for Azara! I have 2 little ones, but am thinking of getting at least one more. Leptospermum is great too. And yay for Xera, delayed their opening until my birthday -- how can I not stop in? --Julie

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    1. Exactly, it's your destiny! Hope you have a wonderful day and your family spoils you!

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  4. As always, your plant finds have us salivating. Leptospermum lanigerum - so blue, so gorgeous! A grevillea that is cold hardy AND has fragrant flowers? I'll be looking for that one! Happy V.D.

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    1. If you visit my bloomday post today you'll see that grevillea is blooming. I can't detect a scent though!

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  5. I've been thinking of the same kind of re-occuring "current obsession from the lust list" post. You should do it! Heck, I could make that my entire blog, since my lust list is so much longer than my have list. The plight of a young plant geek. I love your choices. Azara and Leptospermum lanigerum are both current obsessions of mine. Great picture of the Azara at Celestial, by the way. Really shows it's features well. I didn't know Grevillea australis is fragrant. Another for my leviathan lust list.

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    1. I'm still hoping to detect a scent on the grevillea, so far I get nothing. Maybe more blooms need to be open.

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    2. Hmm, maybe it needs a sunny day to warm it up a bit, too?

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  6. Here's another poor report …my Azara , has suffered in the freeze and lost many leaves…still alive though ! I still love it

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    1. Linda your poor garden! I hope it makes a quick recovery (the azara and the rest of your garden).

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  7. They all look great, but that first one really caught my eye!

    I will have to do a bit of googling and see if I can find it for sale over in the UK.

    Has your snow gone yet? We have had a couple of light falls this week.

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    1. Snow is all gone! Bits stuck around through Thursday but now it's just a bad memory. Good luck finding the azara.

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  8. I was so bummed last week about the snow getting in the way of Xera! I'm there this weekend for sure. I love Azara microphyla and have grown it before (it can be quite substantial and in time hide your new view of the bi-color garage). I just wish I could find the space for it here. I have also grown Azara dentata - a lovely shrub/tree. My Leptospermum lanigerum came through this winter just fine. I think I'm hitting all the nurseries this weekend - rain or shine and see you there!

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    1. Have you seen Azara lanceolata? Those crazy double leaves!
      http://plantlust.com/plants/azara-lanceolata/

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    2. Oh my, that's one that tips the lust meter enough to try even though it's only just hardy.

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  9. They have a very elegant and flattering way of describing their plants Gerhard, but it seems well deserved! The hardiest Grevillea, note taken!

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    1. I remember laughing out loud reading a Xera plant tag at my local Garden Fever (Xera is also a wholesaler who supplies plants to other local nurseries). People stared, until they read it too and we also laughing.

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  10. Oops sorry Loree, I just called you Gerhard!!

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  11. Yay! yay! yay! I will be there a.s.a.p.
    YAY!

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    1. Have fun! Hey did you end up going out to Cistus on Thursday?

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    2. No, I just went to Garden Fever. Saving Cistus for another day.

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  12. Great plants! I wonder what it takes to get a job writing plant descriptions on tags - that's something I think I'd really enjoy!

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    1. At Xera I believe it's one of the owners who writes the tags, he's also just finished a book which should be out next year (I believe) from Timber Press. Here's his last one:
      http://www.timberpress.com/books/black_plants/bonine/9780881929812

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  13. I love those Azara, and hardy to zone 7! wohoo! Have you heard of Tamarix ramosissima and Erythrina x bidwillii?? I just discovered them on the Plant Delights website and have become mildly obsessed with them much like you were for the Azara, they are very "Desert-esque"/tropical looking in my opinion. - Branden.

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    1. Branden you just solved a long standing mystery! There's a Tamarix ramosissima I drive past several times a week and I've never been able to identify it, thank you!!! It's not a Erythrina x bidwillii but I was given an E. crista-galli last summer, it didn't bloom for me but has the most amazing spikes on the trunk and branches. You found some good ones to obsess about!

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    2. So glad to have been able to help out, p.s. i like the looks of E. crista-galli too!

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  14. I too have succumbed to Azara microphylla; we'll have to see which climate it likes better. Likely yours. The one with water.

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  15. Thanks for the reminder! I love Xera plants. Got to get down there and check out the store.

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  16. Your leptospermum lanigerum look so much better than mine. Do you have any advice on how to care for them please? I've planted 20 8 weeks ago because I fell in love with the blue foliage and some appear to be dying- dry, brown or very pale leaves. They were planted in clay mixed with good soil. They get a lot of sun in the arvo. I've added gypsum and native fertiliser. My Pauciflora deb. Is also in bad shape- deep purple spots all over and stopped growing part way through spring. Really sad.

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    1. Well it needs to be noted these photos were taken shortly after purchasing the plant, so the nursery is responsible for how it looks here. That said it looks pretty much the same today, and I've done nothing other than plant it and make sure it got some water over the hot, dry, summer. Where do you live?

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