I'm a-goin' plant huntin'!

I went plant hunting today! Tried to avoid anything big box and visit my favorite mom & pop nurseries. They were packed! Must have been the beautiful weather. While have several favorites, I don't think you can beat Kenny's Place nursery. They just have the coolest plants there! Here is a run down of what I picked up:

2 day lilies (probably Stella D'Oro, but they weren't labeled)

1 angel wing begonia

1 Lily of the Nile

2 1 gallon pots of white butterfly ginger

1 Hedychium coccineum (orange 'Tara' Ginger)

1 Costus Barbatus

And all for about $35, I might add! The Tara was especially wanting to come home with me. It is literally busting out of its pot.

My daughter especially fell in love with the Costus Barbatus and the velvety undersides of its leaves. It begged to be touched. The plant has bright red inflorescence with yellow blooms.

Kenny's Place

Globba Ginger

For ages now, the Nursery Nazi has been telling me about a great nursery across town called Kenny's Place. They are always clean and she's never found a pest or disease problem there. Better yet, they employ mentally handicapped people in the community and teach them job skills in horticulture. She says they assist customers with their plants and are very friendly and smiling. (I joked she only likes the place because its the only nursery in town that has employees actually happy to see her.) They also have gingers and other exotics galore. Yesterday, we finally made the trip.

The nursery is small and unimposing from the outside, but once you get out and walk around, you quickly realize it has a huge amount of plants you can't easily get anywhere else.



And, (cue the angels singing. . . ) this is the GINGER SECTION! It goes on forever! I was a kid in a candy shop and wanted one of everything. From what I've seen, this is toward the end of their inventory of the year. I would have died to have been here back in August.


Another neat thing about the nursery was it was also an inadvertent butterfly garden. They where everywhere, and monarchs, which I've never seen in Florida before. They had more butterflies there than I've seen at many "butterfly exhibits" I've been to.


Now for the stash:

Here is what I got: 1 Blood Lily, 4 Globba Ginger, and 2 Hedychium coccineum 'Disney' gingers All for the amazing price of, hold on to your hats people, $23 dollars! Including tax! (If you don't think this such a great price, go ahead and price one tuber of the Disney ginger. Even on Ebay it is way more expensive. And each of these pots has several tubers.) A trip to Kenny's Place may become a weekly pilgrimage.