Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving, 2015

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all ! We hope that everyone enjoyed a day of relaxing, great food, surrounded by family and good friends.

For Mitch and I, it was nice relaxing quiet day taking care of the nursery but enjoying our own garden. This weather that we have been waiting for so long for, is truly a blessing and today especially, we are very thankful to Mother Nature for providing sunshine, low humidity and cooling breeze across our yard.

Tomorrow, we look forward to some new customer friends coming by to pick up special Succulents for their wedding in a few weeks !  They will be planting them in Conch shells and decorating the wedding area with them, then will have them to enjoy in their own garden to celebrate their union.  We are blessed to be a part of it.

Going forward, we are looking forward to the Holiday season.  The Saturday Morning Market especially gets lively this time of year as everyone comes out, and Snow Birds will be descending into our area.  We have one special event coming up this month, the Annual Holiday Plant and Gift Show at Florida Botanical Garden in Largo, Sunday, Dec. 13th.  One of our favorite shows, this one day event is very popular for people to come out to the Sale plus the evening Light Show in the Garden every night.

If you have never been, we encourage you to visit the garden this month.  The whole garden area is lit up with thousands of Holiday lights and the lights really show off the beautiful plants throughout the garden.  It begins at dusk, but we encourage you to get there about a half hour before to see the botanical wonders in more light, then, as dark descends, the place comes alive with twinkling lights and displays. It is a great event for all ages and the walkways are well lit, and it's just so much fun walking through it.

 

They have live music, local artisans during the evening and tons of fun to enjoy. Even Santa shows up !  Entrance is by donation and there is plenty of free parking in the gardens to make it easy on everybody.

This weekend at Market, we are looking forward to bringing more fabulous plants including more Lavender, Herbs, Air Plants, Succulents and perennial color for the garden and home. Hope you can stop on by, it's going to be a beautiful Saturday and there is lots of fun stuff going on downtown St. Pete to come out and enjoy.  This weekend also celebrating "Buying Local" so we encourage you to come out and support all the fabulous vendors at market as well as local businesses in and around St. Pete....take care of your Locals and you take care of your community and yourselves !

Hey Plant Man, How ya feeling ?

Greetings all, a couple of things have been happening to us lately.  If you look at the picture at left, this pretty much sums up the week for both Mitch and Annie, who came down with that pre-Fall crud thing which has laid us very low ! We are recovering but we hate to lose time tending to our nursery business. Luckily, Mother Nature has been kind and things have been low maintenance lately.

Luckily, we have our super crew of Jeremy, Susan and Larry to help us through these tough times and be our ambassadors at market.

The second thing, Mitch has some recent stress with his Cell phone since the time of the Mt. Dora show a few weeks ago.  It is all straightened out but we did lose some messages etc, so, if you have called regarding plant things etc, please forgive our delay, and please call us again so we can be there for you !

Last weekend at Saturday Morning Market was just crazy crowds, for which we are grateful for.  Our succulents, Air Plants and everything flew out out of our booth, plus we all actually had a glorious weather day in which to be feeling great. This coming weekend, we expect the same, with great weather and great plants !

One of our favorite plants this time of year  is the Panama Rose plant. Very reminiscent of the common "Penta" plant, this super hardy, super bloomer just loves this time of year. It will provide great color all Fall and Winter. It is also fragrant !

 

Our "Lady Margaret" Passion flower continues to be hugely popular...one of our favorites, as she bloom all the time, and added bonus, she is a Butterfly host plant.

Our "Purple Possem" Passion Fruit vine continues to awe everyone, with it's gorgeous blooms and its prolific production of yummy Passion fruits.


Self pollinating, and a butterfly host plant, is a great addition to any tropical garden.

This weekend at market, we have gorgeous Bougainvillea bush plants in assorted colors. Loving sun and heat and cold hardy, they are a great addition to any Florida garden !









Speaking of Butterflies, our rare White Milkweed aka "Hairy balls" is starting to produce their wacky looking seed pods ! Heat and cold hardy, this milkweed is more of a host plant than a feeder plant.  Growing close to 6 feet tall, they make a very cool addition to any butterfly garden.

These, along with new special goodies will be in our booth at Market this weekend, so stop on by and check them out - here's the scoop !


Saturday Morning Market, downtown St. Pete
Every Saturday, 9am-2pm
Al Lang Field parking lot, corner of 1st street and 1st Avenue north
Look for Armstrong Nursery on the very back East row
www.saturdaymorningmarket.com

Mitch Armstrong Nursery is a licensed Tropical Plant Nursery with the state of Florida. We do not have a retail location, our "store" is the Sat. Morning Market, area Botanical Shows and Special Pop Up markets around the area.  Keep up with us and our schedule at:

www.heyplantman.blogspot.com

contact us at:  marketannie@aol.com

727-742-9265

heyplantman1@juno.com

727-542-9951

Holiday Cactus - Got to Love It

Tis the Season......yes, we have all seen, for many years now, the Holiday season starts a long way before the actual event.  While the prevalent thing you will see is Poinsettias, my actual favorite for the season is Xmas Cactus.

It's really an amazing plant and something that Mother Nature provides naturally for the this time of year...so, you ask, where the heck do they all come from, and why do they flower this time of year?

Well, this is another plant family that originally comes from South America. And the secret is, the flower when days are shorter, light is low.....nurseries all around the country put in shade covering and contain the amount of light the plant gets..and soon, waalah, they sprout buds and, if timing is correct, they are in full glory right around the holiday season.

Liking shade outside or indoors, it is about the perfect plant to supply wonder and color. Easy to maintain needing very little water, it is an example of the plant world that gives us joy and color during a time when we all celebrate various holidays.  It's one of those things that "hides out" during most of the year and then, produces a memorable display. How many of us have had Xmas Cactus passed down to us during the years?!

We returned this week from the Mt. Dora show, a treasured place we love and as the plant business as sometimes goes, it was a trying weekend, very hot and humid so it was challenging. We survived it, we treasure the customers that came out, we treasure our dear friends that we stayed with, and came out of it through rainy storms on the road, safe and sound, and maybe not big in pocket, but filled with the joy we know of Mt. Dora....

So, back to Market ! Our Fall shows are done (except for the Largo Botanical show in December, see previous post) and we enter the sweet spot of market time, as we call it...the weather will bring a bit more coolness, our supportive Snow  Birds will come and of course, our loyal followers will continue to come out and support us, and all our fellow market vendors.

This week as market, we are restocked on fabulous succulents and Xmas cactus, Air plants and foliage plants to delight. When we are away, we always are thankful for being back on our "home base" and look forward to seeing everyone !

It's time for Fall in Florida..or is it? November starts !

Welcome to Fall in Florida....or is it? Hard to tell with record breaking heat this past week ! Hopefully we will start getting back to being a bit cooler soon, but for now, the plants are loving it and thriving and many that would normally go dormant by now, are keeping strong. So I guess there is an upside to enjoying our beloved longer for special specimens.

This weekend, we will be out of Saturday Morning Market, downtown St. Pete and off to our annual Fall show up in Mt. Dora, FL for their annual Fall Plant & Garden Fair.  Mt. Dora is one of our favorite towns and actually a very do-able day trip for people who like to check out shows not far from the Tampa Bay area.

It is amazing how Mt. Dora, only about 2 hours north and a bit East of here, can feel so different from the St. Pete area....rolling hills (and even some big hills), beautiful lakes abound and the feel is almost of a small New England Town.  The show is centered in the middle of the Historic downtown and one of our favorite ones to do.

And, if you are still in the mood for Hollyhocks, you have to come to Mt. Dora ! Yes, we got a late season crop, in 4 different colors (Pink, Purple, Crimson and Peach) and we are taking them to the show and expect them will zoom out of our booth !

We will be back to Saturday Morning Market, Sat. Nov. 14th as usual, and we have some great plants coming along for your Fall gardens.

Also, make note on your calender, the annual Christmas time plant show at Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo, takes place Sunday, Dec. 13th.  This one day show is a popular one with plant enthusiasts and holiday gatherers.  Day time, you have great vendors and night time, you can enjoy their super light show throughout the gardens.

Here's the info about Mt. Dora if you would like to make the trip :
The show runs Sat & Sun , 9am-5pm, Nov.  7 & 8th . Entrance to the show is free and there is plenty of parking in the nearby downtown community. 

This show is very unique in that they have 75 of the best growers from Florida and the SE United States and we all have our specialties, so there is lots of great plant offerings. They also have yard art and other plant-related specialist.

Mt. Dora is an easy drive from many counties around the state. We have customers come in from all over the state as they love the plant show, and they love the unique atmosphere and shops that Mt. Dora provides. It's definitely a great One-Tank Road trip if you haven't been there before. 

You can google Mt. Dora to get  maps, and the garden show is located right on the historic downtown streets.  Bring carts, or, you can pick up your purchases at the their official pick-up spot, or from the back of vendor booths along the main drive.

Enjoy November gardening !