then yesterday I received the latest e-newsletter from a local nursery that included a coupon for 30% off one item on 2-20-12 only....celebrating President's Day so I went shopping. You know how when you have one of these coupons, it's only good for one item and there are so many goodies that catch your eye...plants, large planters, trellises, cute doodads for decorating the garden and you don't want to choose unwisely therefore wasting a really good coupon. I wandered through Calloway's for what seemed like an hour, maybe not an hour but long enough I was beginning to feel the employees watching me to make sure I wasn't doing something nefarious. Looking at all the goodies and getting tired of trying to make up my mind, I almost got discouraged and left without using the coupon, then I remembered my general rule of thumb...go with your first instinct, it works everytime. And the first item I had thought about when I saw the coupon in that email yesterday was ...maybe they have a Mahonia bealei available already. They had 5 but I couldn't afford all of them so I chose the one that spoke to me...another rule of thumb that works everytime. Leatherleaf Mahonia ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) It's already bloomed for this spring, the last remnant of blooms. Mahonia blooms ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) And has a lot of berries that will become bluer as they ripen and finally be blue-black then. The birds love them and they make a good jelly. Some of the berries ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden ) And since they will not produce the berries without being pollinated by another Mahonia, I now have a good excuse to make sure I have another one in the ground before winter.
Hi Toni, a good choice that Mahonia bealei,..interesting either with flowers of berries,..you could take a cutting in order to have the second.
Toni....I have a problem with my first instincts when I shop...I always like the most expensive things in the store...I need to take you with me shopping. When can you be here, I have quite a few coupons? Great pictures, I wish I had more room in my flower beds.
Cheryl, we wait until late next winter for the blossom performance but only until this fall for the blue of the berries to appear. That ought to be a beauty too, if I can get a photo of them before the birds strip the shrub clean. Philip, I see all the bottles of cuttings I have rooting on the windowsill and I have some rose cuttings that have rooted and I never even once thought about rooting a Mahonia cutting....duh!! Thanks for the reminder. Sherry, that's why the Mahonia came to mind when I printed out the coupon. At 30% off it brought the price down to a managable amount...just couldn't see a reason to use it on a $10 plant Can you imagine how much damage to budgets two GardenStew members shopping together could do? We would be eating beans and rice for weeks. I don't have flower beds, I have two yards with no grass. I think I might be running out of space but that depends on how many plants don't come back after last year's summer, then I will have to replace those won't I?
