A couple of weeks ago I visited the local plant places – today I want to show you a couple of photos I took while there. Above you see Hydrangea – Strawberries and Cream. These were a little up money at $22 but I did like the look of them. I have never grown Hydrangea – if I were going to this is the one I would try. :)
This is Abutilons – also known as Chinese lanterns – I actually have three of these here. I do not have an orange one, though. This is gorgeous but also $22. So it was a no.
This is what I ended up buying – Portulaca Tropicana. The tag says that the flowers will be the tropical fruit colours of coconut, guava, watermelon and strawberry. This was $4.99, for 6 plants. Much more down money! Of course they are seedlings but my experience says they won’t be for long..
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Weekly Wrap Up –
A couple of weeks ago, finally after a long wait, Hungry Jacks opened up within 15km of where we live. Previously, we would have to drive an hour to get to one. The place is being absolutely hammered by locals and tourists at the moment, every single day it is packed at both lunch and dinner time. We went for dinner the second day they opened and I have to say the food was really great for fast food. It was super fresh.
Locally here, there are not a lot of fast food options – most of the things that are here eg chicken shops, fish and chips, hamburgers, they all usually close by 6:30 or 7pm. After that it is pretty much Mcdonalds, KFC or Oporto. There is something in Oporto which I do not react well to, so we removed that from our list of options a while ago. KFC have provided uncooked chicken on more than one occasion, so that is also a huge NO.
We do have a Dominos and an Eagle Boys, neither of which we like, we gave up on them a long time ago. There are a couple of decent wood fired pizza places.
We did have a great sushi place but the owners have become very unreliable. Often it will be closed when the opening hours say it will be open, sometimes with a sign on the door, sometimes with no explanation at all.
Last weekend we drove to Warrawong to buy chicken in bulk. I thought the new Hungry Jacks would have organised to put a sign up on the way into town by now but we did not see one.
Super fresh Hungry Jack’s food, because the restaurant is new and all supplies are super fresh. I’m betting by two years, it will be the same as every other Hungry Jack’s.
I really like the portulaca variety you bought. I might just get dressed and head off to Bunnings here and see if the have them. Or any other variety.
Hydrangeas are a great plant for shady afternoon places with morning sun.
I think it depends on who is the owner – there is one Hungry Jacks we’ve always had great experiences with which is slightly further away than the nearest one, and that is the one we usually go to. When the new one opened, some of the staff from that one were here, so I am hoping it might be the same owner. :)
I have never seen that hydrangea. It is gorgeous. If I was to try them again (they are water hungry) that would be the one I chose.
Love your portaluca.
I’ve never grown them – I do have a few spots which might be deeply loved by a water hungry plant. :)
Love Lace cap hydrangeas and that colour is beautiful
May be the first time I’ve hear the words ‘Super fresh’ in association with a junk food place – I reckon they all buy in nice fresh food but it’s the process that usually turns it into that smelly slightly wilted mess. I’ll give it 3 months!
Fingers crossed they can keep it up long term. I have some hope, anyway! ;)
I love any visit to the garden center. We had hydrangeas at our house in Connecticut. They were beautiful and they thrived but they were never as exotic looking as the one pictured. I hate when you can’t count on places to be open when they say they’re open. So frustrating. It would stop me going, as well.
The worst thing is, they make a fantastic spicy tuna sushi that I often crave. I’ve tried making it myself but sadly have not got the skills or talent.
One of my hydrangeas died of a strange disease so I’ve been looking at buying another to replace it. It was already here when we moved in 13 years ago. Here in the UK they are a terrible price too so at the moment they have all been left in the shops!
$22 is a high price to pay for a plant. On the other hand, these were quite well established.. sometimes I do find plant bargains on the clearance rack but these are likely too pretty to ever end up there. ;)