I Found a Lot of Cool Plants at The Farmer's Market!

[Music] Oh, there they go. Fish are having a good morning. Are you having a good morning? I hope you're having a good morning or afternoon, evening, whenever you're watching this. Hey, what's up, garden friends? Jeff here. How's everybody doing? Hope you're doing well. I'm great. It's a very nice day for filming. Some cloud coverage. See a little bit of blue peeking out through the camera. Can't tell with my eyes. I just got back yesterday evening. Just got back from a couple of nurseries where I was picking some stuff up and I thought let's just do a little video where we just talk about some plants that I'm excited about putting in the ground or doing some different projects with. I have a few different not flats here, but got a cardboard here and a bucket full of things over there, a flat behind me and some nice big stuff to show. Also, the vlogs and things have been getting pretty long and I thought, well, why don't we just divide things up, right? And this will give me some more time to get some other things done. Normally, this is something that would happen in a vlog, one of those really long Saturday videos. I thought, you know what? There's too much going on. Just going to have to start making more videos and keep them a little bit shorter during the week. So, here we are. Here's one of those shorter videos. First off, Cosmos. I love the Cosmos. This one's just the Sonorita mix or is that what they're calling? No, Sonata mix. H I prefer the seashell mix. That's one of my favorites. And the cupcakes, those are good. Apricotta, great. Uh those aren't things you usually see at the nurseries. At least I never do. Sometimes you see the shell mix, but this is what was at the farmers market. I was at the farmers market in Kirkwood, which is part of St. Louis. They have a big, beautiful garden section down there. They call it the summit, I believe, during the spring and summertime. And they have a nice selection of things to pick out. I picked out some various colors here. Hopefully, there's no reds in here. I tend to like Cosmos to be more on the pastelish, lighter color side. There's something about cosmos, I've talked about this before, that they're they're kind of I don't know, they have a cooling effect. I think it's because they're have that is it an open habit sort of. They can get pretty big and bushy. I like the way they move in the wind. I like the open flowers, the distance between the flower and the foliage down below. I don't ever plant a lot of them cuz I don't have the sun for them come mid to late summer for the cosmos. So, it's something I pretty much only get to enjoy in the earlier part of the year. Uh, that's why I have I'm just going to poke around some pots just to have some extra color out here. And a lot of the other things are pretty. Oh, there's plenty of other annuals. Never mind that. There's annuals. This one right here, you can already see what that is. It's got the tag. That makes it easy. Hereum. This is the Brigadeon St. John's wart. This one right here says vibrant golden foliage, nonflowering, deer resistant, grows 18 in tall. Okay, so my favorite thing about the hyperacum or the berries, so should have read the tag. It's nonflowering, but hey, nice foliage. I love the foliage, too. It looks very soft, doesn't it? And it has that nice golden glow to it. I thought that this would be something that might help lighten up an area. I think it only What did it say? 18 in tall. Yeah. 18 in tall. I just read that. Should have had that memorized. Great reading comprehension there. It's just a nice small shrub perennial type plant. Pretty tough. Good to have in the garden. I like a St. John's wart. I don't really know what else to say about that. Uh this is a primrose, one of the natives over here. It's a the evening primnosa sis syskiu. Never been able to say that. I planted a couple of these last year and they did absolutely nothing but they were just puny pathetic little things and I went through the trays and I wasn't abusing them or anything but I was checking them out giving them a squeeze trying to see what was the most sturdy and this one seemed pretty sturdy. So I grabbed it thinking that it will establish better in the ground. Some plants can be like that like eslepius they're one of those. The eslepius they mo I should say the tubrosa type those esipius esclius they if they just don't like being in a pot or they don't like being moved from a pot into the ground right that's their main issue. The primrose can be like that too sometimes. So it's good if you can find them where they're nice and established. The growth feels really sturdy so when you're removing them from the container they aren't going to be falling apart on you. When they start to fall apart on you, you're going to have a much harder time getting them going and established. Oh, look at this. I love the foliage on here. Ain't that so pretty? I like the way it stands up. Windflower, right? An enemy. This is the September charm anemy. It's at 6 to9 3 ft tall, 18 to 24 in apart. They bloom late summer into autumn. Scores of silvery pink blooms with yellow centers appear from late summer through fall with its deep green grape leaf type foliage. September charm is one of the best performing most popular varieties of an enemy. Most most not well drained soil is best for this one flower but it may require afternoon shade in hot summer climates. Deadheading will provide extra bloom time. Yeah, all that it's just easier to read the tag to you to go into all the details. The last anemy I grew was just fantastic and I haven't been able to find it for sale. I think it was discontinued. It was from Monrovia and it had really tall flowers. It stood way above the foliage and they moved in the wind. They were so pretty. And I had them in a pretty shaded spot. They got morning sun and shade throughout I want to say from probably 11 or noon and on throughout the day. And it's deep shade, right? Not just shade from a tree. It was shade from the sun being blocked by a house for a big chunk of the day. And they did wonderfully. And I don't I don't remember what happened to them, but I miss them. And I wanted to grab another one. I've been trying to pick out the right type. And I was reading the tag on this. I thought this sounds good. Sounds like a good one. I don't know if it's going to take over or not. I think it says it's not supposed to, but hey, we will see about that. Just excited about them. Really sturdy perennials. this one. Uh, maybe I shouldn't have gotten this one. But look at the leaf. How could I resist? And I've been thinking about getting one of these for a while. So, I think it's going to be fine. Snow on the mountain. Veratum. It's a egopotum, right? Put it up here. I'm going to show you the tag so that I don't have to type it out on the screen for you. There you go. Oh, and it says right there, it is one of the fastest growing ground covers. That is true. They can spread. It says 12 in. I've seen these things fill in a big area very quickly. And they will go a foot a little bit taller. Kind of depends on sunlight. They'll go part sun to shade. I generally like to keep these out of afternoon sun. I just really like the color on this one particularly. There's an area where I have a Japanese maple that I thought this would look really nice underneath. and maybe it could go into a container if it's something where I were decide eh this might be a little bit too aggressive as far as the area it will fill out. That's not usually a problem. They lift pretty easily. They also come back pretty easily too. So you can lift them, pull them, they just kind of keep coming. So once you plant it, you don't have to worry about it. They'll just keep growing. Uh they're adaptable to most soil types for the most part. I don't like to put these in areas that are sping wet or bone bone bone dry all of the time. It's kind of a typical woodland plant really, but they can go into the dry shade, but it's good to keep them well watered while they're getting established. It's pretty good rule of thumb for the majority of plants, right? Look at it. Look at it. The leaves, the variegation, it's just nice. That one's my favorite. Do you ever do that with variegated plants and you look through the leaves and go, "Oh, oh, that one stands out. That one's the best." Yeah, just a good ground cover. Been trying to work in a lot more perennials this year, and that's something I like to I don't know when this video is going to come out, but I like to do before it's time to start working with all the tropicals, which I'm kind of in an in between area. It's April 25th. Video surely won't be out until sometime in May, I wouldn't think. Uh, but I'm not doing as much with the tropicals just yet. Starting to get going with some summer annuals, but this is just prime time for getting all those fun things done. the fun perennial type things will be rewarding from here and out as long as they do well. So that's those very pretty. I like them. I need to speed things up. There's a lot of stuff sitting behind me. Oh, good. The sun's out. I can no longer see my screen, but that's okay. I know what's over here. More ground covers and trailers. I didn't really Apparently there was there was something going through my head when I was doing the shopping yesterday. Huh. Silver Falls Dondra. a classic. Last year I had some hanging baskets out here that I picked up from the Home Depot. They were on sale. I think they were like maybe $14 a piece. They just had some Vinka in the middle. They were one of the tattoo series and some gorgeous, very large developed dicondra hanging down. It was really simple, but I absolutely loved it. And I don't normally like to buy the hanging baskets pre-made. But at the cost, I was like, well, it would cost a fortune to put that together myself just cuz, you know, dicondra usually between four and $7 a piece when you find them. They're already four in each container. So, that alone, it was worth the cost. They were like 2 or 3 ft long. They did wonderfully. Uh, but I that was I think July when I got those. So, I don't want to wait until July and hope that maybe they'll get those in again. So, I thought I'd just get enough to make one of those baskets. So, I'll have four in the basket and I have tons of Vinka around here. Thought I'd put in the middle. I have some really nice the Blockbuster blue vinka. They're really nice. I think I'm going to have some of those up there. That's what those are for. Some nice dicondra. It's a classic. Can't go wrong with it. Sometimes with me, it takes me a while to get them going. I don't know why, but I will plant them up and they will just seemingly do nothing at all for like a month and then also just boom, get lots and lots of growth out of them. I always have to protect them from myself because I tend to overwater them when I first get them planted up. So, it's one of those things. So, just make sure the soil's moist and leave it alone. Have to remind myself to this. Leave it alone. There's the dicondra. This is Look at those leaves. Look at them. More beautiful foliage. It's a lamium. It's called golden anniversary. A very common one, I believe. And these were being sold with the annual ground covers and trailers. There's a section at the nursery I was at where they have all the things for the baskets and ground covers. Typically, it was all annuals though. But the lambium were worked in there. So, these were only $3 a piece. And I said, "Yeah, yeah, $3 a piece for perennials." I'm all about that. These are going to look so nice in this shade. They had the silver, which is just a classic characteristic to have on the lamium with the golden outlines on the end. Oh, I found my favorite. This one right here. You see it? Look at that. That's my favorite. It's hard to pick out a favorite. Way more great ground covers though. Pretty sturdy. Evergreen and more mild climates here in St. Louis, which is 6B, 7A, or nearly 7A. So now we'll say 7A, 6B, whatever. Not typically evergreen here, but sometimes we do have some winters where they will keep a lot of their foliage for a good chunk of the winter, but they don't usually make it all the way through, which is nice. So you get extra time out of them. That's just a good perennial. The lambium they will spread. I don't there's not really any information on yours. Says 6 to 8 in tall and 18 to 24 in wide. Yeah. I mean they'll go wider than 18 to 24 in, but it takes them a pretty long time. Uh light on the watering. Sure. They can be somewhat drought tolerant as long as they're getting enough shade. Part sun to shade. It doesn't say shade on there, but these do very well in the shade. Okay. Down here some more color. some triscant paletta. This is the purple heart plant. And I think the Are these all the variegated ones? That's all they had. I'm not crazy about the variegated ones, but like I said, it's what they had and the price was good. They just they're more unpredictable. So, I did something that we don't usually do when buying variegated plants and I tried to pick out the ones that had the least amount of variegation on them with the exception of this one. I didn't I don't know why I didn't mean to get that one. So, there are six of them total here. Really great to plant in the front of the garden. I'll have some sunpacions and helakonas planted up behind these. And they usually, not always the variegated ones. I've had years where they did well, but usually just the regular ones do a great job at filling the area out. And sometimes they're perennial here. Just depends on the type of winter that we have, but sometimes they come back and they'll come back for usually 2 or 3 years and then we have a really bad winter and that kills them off completely. They spread very well. They have a shimmer on the leaf which maybe will show up in the natural sunlight out here. Don't know. Can't see my screen. Maybe you can see it. Just an excellent foreground plant, right? They fill in very nice and put them in baskets. All kinds of things. With baskets, I don't always have the best of luck with them unless it's a basket that's placed someplace that doesn't get much traffic, right? Cuz they they're kind of snappy kind of like, you know, the tuberous types beonas. So, but even as a ground cover, that can be a problem too, right? So, I don't like to put them in hightra areas or areas where the dogs are going to be running through or dog will be running through or his toys might be getting thrown in because, you know, a heavy dog toy hits this and goes crunch and then snap and you've lost all that growth. Luckily, you can just take the piece that breaks off the stick down into the soil and that's fine. So, I that's enough about them. It's a purple heart plant. Pretty basic stuff, but just nice color. There's a good assortment of colors here. I'm liking the color palette that's going on. And I also have, looks like I got two of these. I say it's got them as backups. I already had a few of them. These are the tiara pink super tunias from Proven Winners. They have an okay amount of growth on them. It's not going to say much about them on here because it's just, you know, it's a super tuna. What do you need to know other than they're very vigorous and this is what the flowers look like. the tiara pink. They can mound up when you get them planted into the ground, but they will mound and move forward. There is also a tiara blue, which is not blue, it's purple. We need to stop doing that. There are blue flowers, so why call the purple ones blue? That's weird. This isn't blue. That's purple. Start calling it the blue heart plant. That'd be dumb. Okay, I digress. The purple, to my understanding, and really just from what I've seen at the nurseries this year who have them, they just don't really look as good. I would like to try them, but I figured the pink seems to be just a little bit more robust with its growth. So, that's what I went with. I have six of these. I picked up two yesterday. I already had four of them. And then I grabbed a very nice little baby tuty right here. So, if you watch the video where I put this thing together, the no dig pond, I made a planter for it and I put a papyrus in the back and it's a prince tut. And I had mentioned that I don't really want a prince tutt in there because they can get pretty big. Now, as far as the papyrus go, they aren't the biggest. They're more controlled than just your regular, even your king tut, but I think it's going to be too big for this pond. I couldn't find any baby tuts. And this is all I don't know 3 weeks ago. Nurseries didn't have as much out. So, they had the baby tutt here, which says 14 to 20 in or no, 18 to 24. 14 to 20 in is what they're calling the spread on that one, this one. So, I thought, well, this would probably be a smart thing to go ahead and grab and I can pop the prince tut out of there, put the king tut in its place. I like to have in the ponds, especially some nice tall, straight stems for things, whether it's going to be a cattail or a papyrus, uh, lizard's tail, uh, the different arums. There are lots of plants that just have some nice long straight growth on them. More of the stiff types of acaris, grasses, and things like that because they're really great for bringing in the dragon flies. the dragon flies and lots of other insects that like the water. They like to hang out on the nice long straight stems above the water. So, it's important to me. I want to make sure I had that in there. That and maybe a mini cattail. Not maybe, there will be a mini cattail in there. I already ordered it. It's not going to go in that same planter, though. I don't think that's going to fit. And uh getting off subject here, but that's I'm excited about this. I like the baby tut. These are great in planters, too. I They're just They're so stinking cute, right? It's a simple bit of texture that stays nice and high above everything but not so high. Looks like have a piece snap off here. Transportation that happens sometimes. It'll be okay. And they're sturdy, right? So, even though these are plants that really do like the water, that's their jam, right? They love the water. You I wouldn't grow them in a drought situation, but you can stick them in the ground, too. They don't have to go in a pond. You can put them in all different types of planters and arrangements. Main thing is that they get at least 6 hours of sun a day. That's going to be another thing that this is going to be moved here in a few weeks. May have already been moved by the time this video comes out. I'm not sure. But where it's going to go, it's going to get mostly morning sun and then afternoon shade. And I'm looking over there right now and it's getting a lot of shade in that area. Although it is afternoon. So now hopefully it will do well. I just know that with the prince t that's in there that that is going to be a lot taller. So, when it starts to lean towards the sun, it's going to be much more dramatic and drive me crazy. Whereas with this one, if it's not working out, it'll be easier to pull it out. And if it starts to lean and move out this way towards the light, it's not going to bug me as much. Won't be as noticeable. The thing is that they're tough. So, as I'm not getting quite enough light, it'll still grow and it'll probably look fine for the most part with just some more pruning and things help keeping help keeping to help keep fresh growth coming up. Okay, what else is over here? Oh yeah, fuchsia. I just like these. I should not have gotten this. I have so many fuchsia that just came in from Select Seeds I need to get potted up. I think, hey, why not grab another one? It's the firecracker fuchsia. These are the more tropical type fuchsias. More like the what? Garden Meister type. They can take more sun. They're much more heat and humidity tolerant. The foliage just has some nice color to it. And then they have the awesome fuchsia flowers which don't stand out as much when you get the variegated type, but the hummingbirds tend to like them. like to plant a lot of stuff. I mean, ideally perennial, but it's always fun to work some annuals into the ground as well or into containers that the hummingbirds and the butterflies enjoy. And it bonus to have the nice foliage, too, right? Just an overall nice looking plant. I think they're colorful. They're fine. Just nice. What's next? Oh, okay. What's next? Are going to be things that are much larger. So, I need to clear out some space here. Get the plants put back into their metal tin here that I better remember to take them out of at some point because there's no holes in there and it's supposed to rain in a couple days. That's not going to work out very well. Do you guys like the Hilo Beauty Collocacium Collocacia? I've done a whole video about all that. I'm not going to go into that right now. The Hilo Beauties have been popular for a long time. Typically, up until recently, I was only seeing them for bail for bail for sale as a bulb, a little tuber piece of corn. And when I've been buying them, the middle's have been pitted out. So, all I've been getting from them have been just little bits of growth. You know, they get maybe 6 in to a foot tall because the centers were pitted out. That's something you do when you want to increase production, divide them up, and grow them out. I don't know what that's been about, but it's happened to me two years in a row. So, the only way I've been able to get nice big hilo beauties is then if I've been lucky enough to find them, and I usually only find them in a 6-in pot. Uh, if I've been lucky enough to find them already grown out is what I meant to say. Usually, they're only in about a 6-in pot, gallon, something like that. But, uh, I was really surprised when I was at the farmers market and I saw this one. Look at that. I got to get back. Nice and mature. Beautiful plant. And I think that these were pretty fresh off the truck. I'm so happy with it. It's absolutely beautiful. The Hilo Beauty reminds me of one of my favorite caladiums, which is the frog in a blender. Terrible name, but a beautiful colladium. The variegation on this isn't quite as muddy as some of the others, like the mojito. That's not one of my favorites. I don't like the variegation on it. With this, you just you get these nice big blotches, and you can still see the veining in it. Newer stuff's coming out cuped. Looks like that one's got some sunscorch on it. These were sitting out in a lot of sun at the farmers market. I'll show you the plants that come up next. You can see they've been getting too much sun. That's nothing that can't be fixed. Overall, it's just an absolutely beautiful plant. Let me show you guys the tag if I actually I don't know if the tag says anything about it. It doesn't. It's just saying some general stuff here cuz it's from some company called Patio Bloom. So, filter light. Yeah. protect from frost and freeze feed monthly and it's pretty pretty basic stuff. It's not actually talking about the Hilo Beauty specifically, but I just did that. I just talked about it. They're not ones you usually find, at least I don't I should say usually find in a larger size, not around here. So, I'm excited about this cuz remember it's only April. So, this thing is still going to do not a ton of growing. These don't usually get that tall, but it'll still put on some size. I kind of wishing I had gotten two of them. They're $35. So, I think one is good. I may go in and pull a few of the offsets off to do some other things with or might just put this into a really nice like aqua colored pot and let it stand on its own. That might look nice, too. So many options when you have something this colorful and this beautiful. Next, okay, I figure I had to I piled them up behind me. Excited to finally talk about them cuz one of poking me in the head. It's making me kind of itchy. Look at them. Aren't they beautiful? They'd be even more beautiful if they hadn't been getting so much afternoon sun. But these are cordalin cordalin. Cordellini. Don't care how you say it. Fredicas tea plants. Fun plants. Easy to grow. There's no variety name on these. These are looking to me like an extra-large kiwi. And it's my understanding that the kiwis don't usually get very big, but I feel like I've been seeing them pretty big at the nurseries the last few years. So, I don't know. Whatever it is, it looks similar to the kiwi. Kind of similar to a Harley Quinn, but not as bulky. And the Harley Quins usually have some white. You can see them from up top cuz they look they look way different when you get up top. Maybe not way different, but you can see they're starting to have more of a muted color. And that happens when they're getting a lot of light. Some photo oxidation going on there. That could be a Harley Quinn. I could see that. Regardless, it's one of the colored variegated types where you get the pink and a couple different shades of green or sometimes one of those shades of green is more of a yellow. They have some cleaning up that needs to be done inside of them. Need to tidy them, but that's okay. The price was nice cuz these are nice big mature plants. You see how much stem they have on them. So, these will be great to either put into planters or to put into more of a midground to background of certain planting areas. I'm not going to have to worry about them waiting to grow up. I have some other cord ones I got on clearance that are just they're fine. They're just really short and the wind or actually probably the dog knocked these over. Yeah. So, these were cheap and they're great. It's the red sisters. But I can't really put these behind very much. Even the sun patients. I probably will have talked about this before. Uh I don't know if I can plant these behind the sun patients. So, I'm going to do a row of down here because I think that the some patients will quickly grow up above these. So, I could be wrong. I don't think I am though. Usually the cordalins, at least where I live, they tend to sit around and not do much and then around midsummer they'll have a booming growth. So, yeah. I don't know. But with these, they're already nice and tall. It's a great color palette. Like that one's got some trimming that was done on it. Overall, just really nice, really pretty, full plants. I even I like the ones that are waiting because it just looks more natural to me. This is how you usually see the tea plants growing in their natural native environments and just in areas where maybe they're not even native, just around the resorts and places like that. This is the growth you start to get out of them once they get up past that really pretty stage where all you really are seeing the containers about from right here and up. Oh, that's really nice. Now, this is typically what they start to look like. They open up down below, which I like. I've always liked that. I like when things get nice and open down low. All right, last plant. It's very large, and it's a repeat of something that is already in a different video, but uh well, I needed another one cuz they're just so pretty. They did a good job this year. By they, I mean the growers. This is the original one that I got. Usually when Chinese fan palms come up here for sale in a 15gon pot, they're pretty puny. They're not usually this big. At least not the last, I'd say five or so years. The plants, you know, shrank after 2020 as having to keep up with demand. But these, they have nice big girthy crowns. They're not really trunking at this point. This isn't really a crowd, but you know what I'm talking about. They have some size down below. That's not why you grow a Chinese fan pom. if you're growing them outside of their area where they can grow outside because you're not likely to get a trunk on them. At least not for many many many many years. It's all about the foliage. The cost palmate type fronds that's between a fan and between it's like a pinched fan leaf. See that? It has that nice curve to it. And I love the way they hang down at the end. They the one I already have was the biggest. They had this one. I went back a few days later. This is before I went to the farmers market. This is the biggest one they had left. They had sold through like nine of them in 3 days of these big ones. So, I was glad that I grabbed this one because you got these are just so pretty that they need to be together. They need to be spread around. They naturalize well and they aren't a palm where they can make things feel contrived if that makes any sense. Like I feel like when you stick majesty palms everywhere to try and get that more tropical effect, it starts I don't know just something that it looks more artificial. And not that anything looks normal here where you have the dianths and all these more northern type spring flowering plants right next to the palm, but that won't be the case for the majority of the year that these are out here. Another reason I really like the Chinese fan palms is because they can take some cold. I usually have my Chinese fan palms outside. I just get little guys and I like poke them around the steps over here. They will stay outside for me one year until mid January is how long it took until it started to defoliate. and that was in the ground so it had some extra warmth and protection around it. But they can take some frost. I don't have to panic and move them inside right away. The main thing is that they're really root hearty. Doesn't really matter when you're growing them at this size, right? Because all this nice growth is because they've established this much above ground growth. So yeah, I wouldn't expect them to die back to the ground and then come back and look like this. That probably wouldn't happen. Doesn't seem likely, but I don't have to rush to take them inside like you do with some other palms. And they aren't going to grow up and as crazy quickly as a Washington does, which I love a Washingtonia, but you only have a few years with them. Kind of like a queen palm and eventually they're just too big to move around. Whereas these, uh, they're pretty slow to go, especially in a container. In a container, they don't grow all that quickly, at least from down below. They'll keep flushed up, putting out lots and lots and lots of fronds, but heightwise, they don't gain a lot of height quickly. Does that make sense? Yeah. They're fun. They're long lived. I think they're kind of a pain in the butt indoors during the winter. Need some humidity. A lot of different bugs like them. So, I'll probably be regretting these. I would think probably come January or February of next year. But for right now, I'm just thrilled. I'm thrilled. These are awesome. And I love everything else that I got here. Lots of good color, fun things to play with. Can start doing some stuff with some containers and I can get my impatience planted. I haven't planted those yet. I'm sure they will hopefully plant it by the time this video comes out cuz I'd like to do that today when I'm done with this and done because I wanted to get the rose done. So I have the heliconers will go in back and patience in front and then the triscantia the purple heart plant set creas whatever purple heart plant's going to go in front I didn't have yet so now I can do that and have some stuff to do some hanging baskets with and get some more perennials in the ground. It's just nice. I'm loving the selection I'm seeing everywhere this year. Yeah. Hey, thanks for hanging out. Hope everybody's doing well. having a great great life and everything just going absolutely beautifully for you. Comment down below and say hi. What are some fun things you've been picking up from the nurseries this year or things that you're hoping to be able to find? Maybe some fun new exciting plants or your experiences with some of the stuff that I've talked about in this video. Let us all know. All right, as always and most importantly everybody, keep on growing. Bye bye. [Music]