HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK !

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO all our great customers, friends and families !

We hope everyone is enjoying a little time off this week for the holiday and those of us in the Bay area are enjoying some much needed rainfall, which is going to usher in some yummy Fall time cool weather!

Look for more gorgeous Bougainvillea at the St. Pete Market this week ! The beauty pictured here is the Giant Milkweed Plant, very exotic and different type of milkweed than what most are used to seeing. This is host plant for the Monarchs, but unlike regular milkweed, they don't seem to totally chow down on this and you will have a nice looking plant all the time, not to mention, the lovely lavender blooms. It's also pretty cold and salt hardy!

Thanksgiving Day, Mitch and I are headed down to Ft. Myers to take part in the Edison Estates Fall Plant Show. This is our first time doing this show and we are very excited to set up in such a wonderful and historic area. If you have never been there, it is definitely worth the drive to see the estate and the gardens and it's free entrance this weekend! Can't wait to take some shots of the gardens to share with you! The show runs Friday from Noon till 5pm, Saturday from 9am-5pm and Sunday from 9am-3pm.

We hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving, and as always, we are very thankful for such loyal customers and supporters !

New Palms this weekend!

At market this Sat. Nov. 21, we have new inventory of QUEEN Palms, EUROPEAN FAN Palms and CARDBOARD Palms ! All cold hardy, and great additions to any landscape !

Gorgeous November Florida days!

This month has finally brought the gorgeous weather that all of us Floridians look so forward to after such long hot months!

Last weekend was busy, everyone loved the new Bougainvillea at St. Pete Market, and we also spent gorgeous days down at Anna Maria Island doing an event there. Beautiful little island down there and the people are always so welcoming.

This weekend, Mitch and I will be doing the St. Pete Market, while we send our crew down to Venice for a show there. We look forward to being at market as we have not been able to be there ourselves much. We are looking forward to seeing all of our vendor friends and checking out the new additions of food and stuff that we have heard about.

Looks to be another weather weekend so get outside and do some gardening, and if you need some beautiful Bougainvillea, we will have more this weekend, along with some other special offerings !

Back to Market and Anna Maria this coming weekend!

Mitch & I are back from our weekend in Mt. Dora for their Fall Plant show. The town and our hosts, Sherry and Stuart were wonderful, unfortunately, we had 30mph winds in our faces all weekend which meant for a trying set up and sales. Thanks to the many customers who braved the elements to come out!

Our crew at the Roser Park Show this past weekend had a great time. Interestingly, we had better turn out on Sunday than Saturday, but there was so many other events going on in town. Customers were very happy to see us have some Bougainvillea available!

The picture above is the gorgeous bloom on the Purple Passion Fruit Vine we have right now. Although all passion vines bear fruit/seed, most are too seedy to eat....this is the exception, with a very tasty fruit that can be enjoyed as-is or we have heard of many that make yummy blender drinks with them !

This coming weekend, Sat. Nov. 14th, we will be back at the St. Pete downtown Market. We will also have our beautiful plants at Anna Maria Island for their Fall Arts & Craft/Butterfly Festival, so if you are in that area, come on down and see us.

We will have more Bougainvillea available this weekend along with some great Fall hanging baskets, passion vines and we are running a special on lush Areca Palms, along with our other rare and uncommon offerings. Weather looks to be great this weekend, so get out and get some fresh air and enjoy the events !

Roser Park Update--New Plants !

We have a gorgeous load ready to go up for the Roser Park show this weekend! The pic at left, is the yummy Cassia Bicapsularis..a gorgeous Winter bloomer that butterflies love and one of the few plants that gives you gorgeous color during the Winter time. These are gorgeous specimens in 3 gallon pots for a great price of only $15.

We also some gorgeous orange/yellow Dwarf Poincienna , large Bougainvillea, Hanging baskets of Red/White Euro baskets, and also, finally ready..one of our rarest plants, the Excoecaria, commonly known as "Chinese Croton" which we will have in hanging baskets and 6" pots. We also still have some of the great edible fruit passion vine "purple possum", and, another great fruit for the season-- Brown Turkey Figs in 3 gallons with baby figs growing on them! The load will also include quite a bit of special 1-gallon plants like the Butterfly Wing and Perennial Peanut. For some holiday color, we will have deep red Diplodenia and lovely pink Mandavilla. Also, one more special thing is our new crop of Strawberry Guava bushes. Rounding out the cast, among other things, is our last bunch of the very popular Gator Orange Hibiscus, and the "Cheri" Hibiscus.

All in all, a gorgeous load that our crew David and Donna are bringing and we are sorry we won't be there ourselves, as we head up to the Mt. Dora show in the morning, but we have a trusty, knowledgeable crew that will be happy to assist you. As always, thanks to all of you for your continued support during this trying economy. We hope you make a point to come and visit the beautiful Roser Park area, enjoy the show and the cooler weather that is promised !!

Don't Forget! Roser Park & Mt. Dora Festivals this weekend !

Oompah ! Tarpon Springs and Upcoming Events

We had a fun show at Tarpon Springs this weekend and met many new friends! What a great community and great atmosphere.....although the show was another bit of disappointment on customer turn out (another hot weekend, but much cooler on Sunday) , we enjoyed being there, along with really enjoying some great Greek food ! Our customers loved the Dwarf Poincienna, Gator Orange Hibiscus, the lovely delicate Butterfly Wing, and much more.

Coming up this weekend.....Mitch and I are off for one of our favorite shows in Mt. Dora..this is their big Fall Plant show with over 50 plus specialty plant vendors, set in a gorgeous park over looking the lake. What makes it very special for us, is we get to spend the weekend with our treasured friends, Sharry & Stuart, who have a darling carriage house for us to stay in over the weekend. I talked with Sharry tonight, and Mt. Dora, like so many places, has had it's challenges with the economy and always welcomes special events. Encouraging to hear though, that their big Fall Arts and Craft show that took place last weekend had record turn-out crowds, so we are hoping those crowds are in the mood for some great plants this weekend! Also, checked the temps forecasting and looks to be a beautiful Fall weekend with cooler weather..yahoo!

Roser Park Festival! Our backup crew will be bringing our plants to the 2 day Roser Park Arts & Craft Festival in St. Pete. Roser Park is a gorgeous old historic district just south of downtown St. Pete. If you are in the area, you don't want to miss this..great offerings of high quality Arts & Crafts, as well as our plants, and they will have garden tours etc..check it out at the Roser Park website!

Is Fall coming ? ..you betcha....we may just have a few more warming days but we think there is definitely a change in the air. Many people ask about planting this time of year, and we know from experience that yes, it is still a great time to get things planted and established. Everyone wants some nice color and new additions to their garden every season, and this time is no different. If anything, the heat and stress to plants is much less, needs less watering to maintain, and we are so lucky in Florida to have a majority of the year where we can enjoy foliage in our gardens and homes. Also, plants will thrive during this time, although they may go into a bit of slow time as far as growth etc, but if you get them established now, just think how things are going to really spring up, come Spring of 2010 ! Mulch your gardens well and they will be protected during cooler times and you won't have to battle the ever-present weeds that that give us all a challenge in summer time.

As things cool off, this is the perfect time to be able to sit out in your garden, in your favorite patio chair and read a good book, do the Sunday Crossword Puzzle, have friends over etc while watching the butterflies and bees flit about ...as they say, it's good therapy........nature !!

Ommpah!