My Texas plant haul

I'm sorry for not posting anything last week, but I was in Austin, TX for the 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling. This was the 10-year anniversary of this annual gathering of garden enthusiasts from the US, Canada and beyond. The first Fling was held in Austin in 2008, so returning to the capital of Texas after Chicago, Buffalo, Seattle, Asheville, San Francisco, Portland, Toronto, Minneapolis, and the DC Area made perfect sense.

I took close to 2,000 photos of the 15 gardens we toured, and I hope to start posting about them next week. In the meantime, let me know show you my plant haul. It came home with me in my suitcase:

I'd come to Austin well prepared, bringing bubble wrap and two small cardboard boxes as well as packing tape. All my supplies got put to good use.

The key to traveling with plants is to pack everything as tightly as possible to minimize movement. Dirty clothes are great for that.

Here are the two larger plants I bought: Texas beargrass (Nolina texana) on the left and a new Hesperaloe parviflora cultivar called 'Sandia Glow' on the right (also shown in the photo above).

'Sandia Glow' is a new introduction by Mountain States Wholesale Nursery. The flowers are the same true-red color as the popular 'Brakelight', but the plant is significantly larger than 'Brakelight'.

Hesperaloe parviflora 'Sandia Glow' at East Austin Succulents

Here are my remaining plants:

• Aristolochia fimbriata: white-veined Dutchman's pipe, a vining groundcover from South America
• Lavandula angustifolia 'Platinum Blonde': a variegated form of English lavender
• Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegata': a variegated form of star jasmine
• Unnamed Begonia rex-cultorum cultivar with small mottled leaves
• Kalanchoe rhombopilosa: a small kalanchoe species with mottled silver leaves

All my plants survived the 1,800-mile flight intact. The same can't be said for one of three pots I bought at Articulture, a cool boutique and event space where we had our closing barbecue.

The pot that broke (into a surprising number of pieces, I might add) was very similar to the one on the left in the photo below:

The two pots that made it in one piece

I'll try to glue the broken pot together. The result might actually look interesting.

To give you a small teaser of things to come, here's a photo of writer Lucinda Hutson's house. Her garden celebrates the culture (and colors!) of Mexico. It was one of my favorite gardens, although (or because) I will never be able to pull off something like that myself. Lucinda has written two books about tequila, and the Fling's closing reception featured two of her tequila-based cocktails. They were tasty indeed; I know because I performed thorough testing!

Lucinda Hutson in the doorway of her purple house

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