Although, like Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit, I seem to be running late for everything recently, I took off on a whim on Monday morning for Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey in response to notice of a flash twenty percent off sale. Halfway there, after getting a late start, then getting caught up in traffic delays related to construction projects I encountered everywhere, I decided to stop in at Deep Roots Garden Center in Manhattan Beach instead. I'm currently focused on finding multi-petaled Osteospermums to fill in empty spots in my back garden and I thought Deep Roots was more likely to have those than Flora Grubb anyway. As it turns out, I didn't sacrifice on a sale offer either.
Here's the sign I saw as soon as I stepped into the garden center:
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| The garden center is scheduled to move early next year. It'll reopen in the new location nominally closer to my home on a date TBD in March or April. |
Deep Roots is small but generally well-stocked (except during the lead up to the year-end holidays starting in mid-November). And, like Floral Grubb Gardens, it emphasizes waterwise plants.
Despite their ongoing sale, most areas were still relatively well-stocked.
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| The bedding plants on display included some Osteospermums but not the multi-petaled varieties I was looking for |
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| A wide selection of succulents in both small and big sizes was available |
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| There were plenty of shade plants too. I've been on the look-out for more coleus and they had a couple of varieties that are hard to find. |
The forty percent off sale on all plants was compelling but I still talked myself out of several plants.
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| Clockwise from the upper left these included: Aeonium 'Pink Witch' (hard to find but priced at $40 before the discount for plants in 4-inch pots), a Lophospermum (not well suited to the conditions in my garden), Veltheimia (I already have 3 bulbs that haven't proven themselves), and Cereus forbesii ($48 even after the sale discount) |
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| as well as a mature Beschorneria in bloom (I couldn't find a price tag and decided not to bother asking) |
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| I brought home a Cordyline 'Can Can', 2 Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Lime Shrimp' (coleus in the 'Under the Sea' series) shown with 3 Gazania 'White Flame', and 3 Crassula 'Sea Urchin' |
It's been a remarkably cool and dreary week and I haven't touched most of the items on my ridiculously long to-do list but the sun came out mid-day yesterday and the weekend should be beautiful so I'm hoping to get back to work. The biggest issue currently distracting me are some behavioral problems with Meeko. Other than her continued insistence on using furniture to sharpen her claws, she seemed to be adapting well, until she suddenly went on the attack this past week, turning on me a few times, as well as my husband. I think this is attributable to stress related to a few random incidents involving stray dogs in our unfenced garden and also scent sprayed by skunks near her catio. She actually scared me on two of these occasions, as well as leaving me bloodied.
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| Meeko was peaceful and relatively laid back yesterday afternoon. I lined up an appointment with my vet next week to discuss both additional methods to manage the furniture scratching (already covered with two-sided tape and other deterrents) and the sudden aggressive behavior. In the meantime, I've started giving her Zylkene, a hydrolyzed milk supplement designed to help cats relax in stressful situations. I've also picked up a chewable vitamin-based treat intended to make cats feel more comfortable. |
Hopefully, we can resolve the issues soon. My husband is already in favor of taking her back to the shelter, something I can't even imagine. I've never given up on an animal, even when vets on two separate occasions encouraged me to take cats I'd adopted back to the place I got them. The prospect of doing so this time is heartbreaking.
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party